GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK (WVLT) -- The Great Smoky Mountains National Park celebrated its 75th birthday Wednesday.

It's been 75 years since President Franklin D. Roosevelt was here for the original dedication.

President Barack Obama didn't attend the redidcation ceremony, but one man who helped build the park and was at the original dedication said that was okay with him, because Dolly Parton did attend.

Several lawmakers also took part in the celebration.

North Carolina Senator Richard Burr said, "Make no mistake, you're as close to heaven here as you'll ever get while you're on Earth."

Wednesday was a day of tribute to those who made the park's existance a reality.

Governor Phil Bredesen said, "Today, we also remember the voices that came before, the voice of people who offered up their family homes and their land."

It was through their sacrifice that a nation can now come and enjoy the park.

Former Vol and current U.S. Representative from North Carolina, Heath Shuler said, "People come here because the great beauties that we have, but they stay here because of the people."

Many in the audience were at the original dedication

Bill Young is a former Civilian Conservation Crop worker. He said, "It was nothing like this. There was not that many people, compared to what's here now."

Young was also one of 4,000 men who worked for a dollar a day to build the park in the early 1930s.

"It was sleeting, it was cold weather, and you come in in a covered truck and these old boys that had been in the CCC camp for a long time was hauling fresh meat," he said.

Half of the 2,000 people attending were lucky enough to get tickets.

Becky Adams got four tickets and is one of four generations in her family who have enjoyed the park.

"My mother's been bringing me since I was a child to picnic and the chimneys," she said, "and I've been bringing my daughter and she's been bringing her daughter, so it's really special."

Dolly served as the celebration's ambassador Wednesday, but it's a role she'll carry for life.

"I know that it was these mountains that inspired us, put food on our table, gave us everything that we had," Dolly said.

US Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar also said millions of dollars will be poured into revitalizing the park through the stimulus bill.

Meanwhile, Senator Lamar Alexander said we also need to focus on clean air as a goal for the future.