You don’t always know when a place is going to matter to you until one day you realize it’s been there for every chapter. Long before the grandkids, before the wedding, before life got busy and full, Robin Swayze was a little girl from Kansas walking the hills of Silver Dollar City, not knowing it would follow her all her days.
She remembers being a “City kid” all the way back in 1965, when the park was just a handful of buildings tucked into the hills above Marvel Cave. It wasn’t much yet, but it was everything.
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“I could even tell as a little kid that the place had heart. that heart has never changed.”
She kept coming back with her family, and in 1978, teenage Robin brought a boy this time.
“Man, I was so nervous going on a date with her and being with her family,” chuckles Joe Fuentez. “It was my very first time to Silver Dollar City. I found out right away why she loved it so much.” Robin remembers that trip, too.
A crowd gathered as she was randomly pulled on stage to sing. Laughter echoed through the streets. And over at the newest attraction, Fire In The Hole, the line stretched two hours long. They waited anyway. Because when you’re young and in love, time doesn’t feel wasted. It just feels full. They returned two years later on April 19, 1980. Opening day that season. Their honeymoon.
They laughed inside the Saloon as performers handed out garters to guests. One of those ruffled keepsakes would hang for decades from the rearview mirror of Joe and Robin’s 1975 Camaro like a small, swaying reminder of where their life together began.
Robin smiles at the memory and says buying her family Season Passports each year has been an investment that has enriched their lives for decades. “In a lifetime, you live five or six lives,” she says. “And somehow, through every one of those lives, Silver Dollar City has been there.”
Eventually, children came. A son named Eli and a daughter named Robbie, who both became “City kids” from the very start. Joe was the proud dad carrying one of those big shoulder-mounted camcorders, capturing it all. Hours and hours of tape filled with laughter, rides and family time in a place that had already become part of who they were.
“We never waited for the perfect time to go,” Robin remembers. We just went!”
Through raising babies, through busy seasons, through watching those babies grow into parents themselves. And now, there are grandkids. And still, they come.
For the Fuentez family, this place has always meant more than rides. It’s peace of mind. A place where kids can just be kids. Where grandparents don’t have to worry about what little eyes and ears might encounter. Where the world feels steady and kind.
That kind of feeling can’t be manufactured. You either feel it or you don’t. And the Fuentez family feels it every time they walk through the gates. Ask them what keeps them coming back after all these years, and they won’t start with rides. They’ll tell you about the people.
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“The citizens never lose that love of guests. We can feel that.”
It’s in the way a craftsman pauses to talk. The way a worker stays in character just a little longer. The way someone makes sure your day is just right. It’s not a performance. It’s genuine care.Over the years, the Fuentez family has built traditions of their own: Saltwater taffy for the grandkids. Funnel cakes shared between generations. Tintype photos capturing changing faces year after year.
Robin still has the cups from their honeymoon. Still has the memories. Still has the feeling. Somewhere along the way, this park became part of their story like an important block in their strong foundation.
This year, Robin and Joe will celebrate 46 years of marriage. They’ve lived what they call three or four lives already. And through every season, every change, every milestone, one thing has remained the same: They’ve never once left Silver Dollar City without joy.
“Memories rush back every time we’re here,” Robin says. “It’s honestly crazy how fast the time flies. Maybe that’s the real magic of this place. It doesn’t just give you a day. It gives you a lifetime.”
Meet Brandei Clifton
As Public Relations Manager for the Silver Dollar City Company, she is eager to tap into her journalism background to hunt down “heart tugs” to write about—those stories that celebrate…