Serving Boone, Blowing Rock, Banner Elk, and other towns of the North Carolina High Country
Founded 05-05-05
May 1, 2008 issue
All Aboard for Tweetsie!
Wild West Theme Park Opens Friday
Story by Bernadette Cahill
The temperatures have picked up, the flowering trees are blooming and the stoplight on Highway 321 between Boone and Blowing Rock is in place. They all signal the start on Friday, May 2, of another season of North Carolina’s original theme park, Tweestie Railroad. Gates open at 9:00 a.m.
This is Tweetsie’s 51st season as the High Country’s premier family attraction. Returning again this year to entertain visitors are Thomas the Tank Engine, Grammy award-winning performers Riders In The Sky, the July 4th Fireworks Extravaganza and the annual Tweetsie Railroad Ghost Train and Halloween Festival.
Thomas will chug through the Blue Ridge Mountains on a Day Out with Thomas from Friday, May 30, to Sunday, June 8. During Thomas’ visit, children will have the chance to meet and take pictures with Sir Topham Hatt, the director of all the railways on Sodor, the island where Thomas comes from. They can also hear storytelling from Thomas and Friends and have fun in the Imagination Station. Advance tickets are required, as this event frequently sells out.
Before Thomas’ arrival, on select Fridays in May, Tweetsie staff will transform the park into the world of Letterland, the popular United Kingdom-based reading system that teaches young children the alphabet and phonics skills by bringing the letters to life. This fun phonics feature will showcase characters from Letterland ABC, the United Kingdom’s best-selling alphabet book, including the Quarrelsome Queen, who will greet visitors. Kids will also be able to ride on Talking Tess’ Train and the Golden Girl’s Go-carts.
Throughout the season, the Wild West theme park will feature live shows, amusement rides, the deer park, concerts and other events. Visitors can spend the day walking the streets of a western town and learning about the lives of cowboys and Indians, or take a scenic chair lift ride to the Miner’s Mountain and pan for gold. Live entertainment for all ages includes Diamond Lil’s Can-Can Revue, Hopper and Porter’s - a Musical Celebration, and the imaginative Professor Peppercorn’s Magical Extravaganza. Tweetsie’s Country Clogging Jamboree is also sure to please.
The main event of the park, as always, is the unforgettable three-mile train ride under the steam of Tweetsie Railroad’s historic locomotives on the preserved section of what started off as a commercial railway line.
The original Tweetsie Railroad was formally known as the East Tennessee and Western North Carolina/Linville River Railroad—a narrow-gauge railway that ran from Johnson City, Tenn. The railroad acquired the name Tweetsie, folklore says, from the sound of its engines’ whistles echoing through the mountains.
Newcomers to the park this season, on the weekend of June 21 and 22, are Dora the Explorer™ and her cousin Diego™, two popular characters from the hit Nickelodeon preschool series. On June 28 and 29, Bob the Builder™ will pay a visit for performances and photo opportunities.
As usual, for July 4—this year on a Friday—Tweetsie’s renowned Fireworks Extravaganza, bigger and better than ever, will light up the sky. That evening, the park, which usually closes at 6:00 p.m., will remain open until 9:00 p.m.
During the week of July 19 to 27, the K-9s in Flight Frisbee Dogs will delight spectators with their four-legged gravity-defying tricks.
Riders In The Sky, America’s Favorite Cowboys, will bring audiences a mix of comedy and western tunes on August 2 and 3. The weekend of September 6 and 7 will feature historic trains and an exclusive train shop tour for visitors to witness the lost art of steam locomotive restoration and repair in one of the few remaining locomotive shops in North America.
The Ghost Train and Halloween Festival, as usual, will take place Friday and Saturday nights from October 3 to November 1.
Because of the recent fire, the Tweetsie museum is not in operation. There are plans to rebuild, a Tweetsie representative said, but nothing definite has been determined yet and the company’s current focus is on the start of the new season.
Tweetsie Railroad will be open Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays starting May 2, and seven days a week from May 23 through August 24, when it will revert to the weekend schedule.
Admission to Tweetsie is $30 for adults and $22 children ages 3 through 12. For more information about the 2008 season at Tweetsie Railroad, call 828-264-9061 or click to www.tweetsie.com.
Want To Go?
Date: Friday, May 2, for Tweetsie opening day
Time: 9:00 a.m.
Location: Highway 321 between Boone and Blowing Rock
Cost: $30 adults/$22 children ages 3 through 12
Avery County Tweetsie Mural Gets a Facelift
The Tweetsie mural on the side wall of the Avery True Value Hardware is being spruced up just in time for this year’s opening of the Tweetsie Railroad theme park season, thanks to a community service project that two AmeriCorps staff members have initiated.
AmeriCorps is a domestic peace corps that Lauren Balcken, a psychology grad from Kent State in Ohio, and Mark McCurry, a philosophy grad from UNC Chapel Hill, joined last year.
AmeriCorps assigns such recent graduates to work with a nonprofit for just under a year. They receive a regular stipend and at the end of eleven months, they receive $4,500 that they can use to pay off student loans or to go to graduate school. Balcken and McCurry have been working for Avery County Habitat for Humanity as their AmeriCorps assignment.
“I’m really excited about it,” said Balcken of the mural project. “We were going to do something brand new, but Mickey Banner of Avery Hardware—he’s a teacher as well—[suggested] we touch up the mural.”
Members of the Avery County Arts Council and several volunteers first painted the mural 15 to 20 years ago.
“We had to have an educational component [in the project],” Balcken said, “and Banner’s class could help. So we are bussing 17 students from high school each day for 1-½ hours to paint it.”
Last week, the group painted the sky and some of the mountains. Balcken assigned different parts of the mural, such as cars, buildings and people to different students.
“I don’t know what possessed me to do this project. I have no background in art and no formal training. I just draw stick figures. I am organizing it and getting people with talent to do it for me,” she said.
“We’re keeping it pretty much the same, but there’s a blank space and the kids will decide what to put there—so they’re going to put a farm house, livestock and flowers,” Balcken said.
Avery True Value Hardware supplied the paints and Habitat for Humanity donated the equipment. Local businesses have also contributed meals for the participants.
Barbara Timberman, who taught at Mayland Community College, and artist Gayle Culbreacht are also helping Balcken and McCurry. The group will complete work on the mural this week.
The two organizers will remain with Habitat until the end of July.