Hidden in an inconspicuous archway near Dollywood’s DreamMore Resort is an unreleased song by Dolly Parton, written as her last.
In the lower level lobby, a maroon “Dream Box,” displayed in a glass case, contains a recording of “My Place In History,” a song Parton wrote for release on her 100th birthday in 2046.
“I don’t know if I want to live to be 100 or not. But you never know,” Parton wrote in her 2020 book, “Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics.” “Maybe, and if I do, I’ll be at that opening.”
Parton has passed away Tuesday at the age of 80.
An unreleased Dolly Parton song is on display at Dollywood. Talia Lakritz/Insider
Parton wrote “My Place In History” in 2015, the year she opened the DreamMore Resort Pigeon Forge, Tenn. She recorded the song on a CD and also put a CD player in the chestnut box.
“There’s no telling what music will be like by then,” Parton wrote in her book. “Hopefully it plays and the whole thing isn’t rotten.”
A wooden box containing the song. Talia Lakritz/Business Insider
The glass case also contains a piece of wood from the veranda Parton’s childhood home in Sevierville, Tennessee, where she grew up singing with her eleven siblings.
A piece of wood from Dolly Parton’s childhood home. Talia Lakritz/Business Insider
The exhibit is one of several tributes to Parton at the DreamMore Resort, including a hallway lined with images of her album covers and her mesmerizing instruments hanging in the lobby.
Parton’s music career spanning seven decades, releasing her first No. 1 country album in 1977 Guinness world record as the woman with the longest streak of No. 1 hits on the US Top Country Albums chart, at 46 years and 197 days. In September 2025, she announced the postponement of her Las Vegas residency, scheduled for December, due to “health concerns.”
Editor’s note: This story was originally published in July 2022 and updated in August 2026.
