Fun and educational activities for kids in Knoxville
Over the past few years, downtown scavenger hunts, including Where’s Waldo and the Christmas Peppermint Trail, have proved to be highly popular with resident families and visitors alike.
While KHP’s programs and publications typically serve adult audiences, new activity pamphlets for children have been developed by Nicole Stahl, in part due to her love of history and outdoor activities with her daughter and Girl Scout, Zoey, and husband, Shaun.
KHP’s Nicole Stahl with her beloved pooch Hans. (Photo by Shawn Poynter.)
The first activity pamphlet that Nicole put together celebrated Knoxville’s 2022 celebration of the 40th anniversary of the 1982 World’s Fair. Back before 1982, many people wondered if the “Scruffy Little City” in Tennessee could pull off hosting a world’s fair. Despite the naysayers, Knoxville did pull it off in style, ultimately hosting six million visitors in its six-month run. You can visit where it all happened downtown at World’s Fair Park. Go to our Scruffy Explores Series page.
One of the activities featured is a fun Crossword that introduces the park’s Court of Flags, Tennessee Amphitheatre and, of course, the world-famous Sunsphere, all specially created for the 1982 extravaganza. Plus, the perpetually popular Petro can now be enjoyed on Market Square.
Nicole, who has worked for KHP since 2016, was also inspired by the city’s nickname from that era and coupled with ger own love for her faithful Dachshunds, Hans and Daisy, she created a fun and kid-friendly mascot: Scruffy!
As a self-confessed “history hound,” Scruffy sniffs out the stories of the past to help people of today to learn why things are the way they are. Through another themed activity pamphlet, Scruffy helps kids sniff out the history of downtown Knoxville.
As Scruffy likes to tell it, “Gay Street was developed in the 1790s and has served as the city’s ‘main street’ ever since. In 1854, it became the very first paved road here in Knoxville. Over the years, this street has seen the signing of the papers that resulted in Tennessee becoming a state; Wild West shoot-outs and prison breaks; presidential speeches; the city’s first skyscraper; famous singers; the formation of college athletic powerhouse, the Southeastern Conference; Civil Rights sit-ins and protests; the oldest Veterans Day parade in the nation; and numerous memorable stores, restaurants and theaters.”
In Scruffy’s Selfie Scavenger Hunt, kids (along with their parents) are encouraged to explore Knoxville’s iconic street starting at the Gay Street Bridge, which was built in 1898 and is the fourth bridge across the Tennessee River around that spot. Over the decades these bridges have carried thousands of pedestrians, cyclists, motorists, and of course many animals across the river.
Along Gay Street near the river are several important buildings, including the distinctive Knox County Courthouse, and the Andrew Johnson building, which was developed as a hotel to serve a new wave of tourists stopping in Knoxville in the late 1920s and ‘30s before heading on to a new national park in the Great Smoky Mountains. Heading north along Gay Street, other iconic buildings include two historic theaters: the Bijou and the Tennessee. The scavenger hunt also encourages kids to find fun things like orange clothes (Go Vols!), ice cream, and scooters.
Plus, Scruffy introduces a cast of famous and historically important characters who have walked down Gay Street, including Cal Johnson, the African American saloonkeeper and horse trainer who was born into slavery, but became a wealthy and highly respected businessman during his lifetime. The English-born writer Frances Hodgson-Burnett, author of one of the most beloved children’s books of all time, The Secret Garden (1911), walked these streets when she lived here in the 1860s and ‘70s. And of course, our very own regional member of royalty Dolly Parton came here in the late 1950s where, as she wrote in her autobiography, “fell in love with her audience” at the former WVIK Radio station on N. Gay Street. All these names and more can be found in the People of Gay Street Wordsearch puzzle in the activity pamphlet.
Scruffy also helps younger audiences discover some of the city’s respected artists from the past by spotting KHP’s Downtown Art Wraps along Gay Street: the colorful traffic light signal boxes adorned with reproductions of paintings found in Knoxville’s art museums, including Lloyd Branson’s famous Tennessee marble-inspired, Hauling Marble; Catherine Wiley’s classic Untitled (Mother and Child in a Meadow); Buck Ewing’s striking Sports Final; and Charles C. Krutch’s Smoky Mountains landscape.
All in all, we hope that you and your little ones will choose Scruffy to lead you around Knoxville and learn something new about the history of this fascinating city!
Find the activity sheets HERE.
By Nicole Stahl and Paul James
This story first appeared in West Knoxville Lifestyle magazine in August 2024.
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