NOVEMBER 19, 2009 ISSUE
Celebrations Begin To Take Shape for 75th Birthday of Blue Ridge Parkway
Boone, Blowing Rock To Host Events Throughout 2010
In September 2010, the Blue Ridge Parkway will turn 75 years old. Many events and celebrations will be held in honor of this occasion.On September 11, 1935, the Blue Ridge Parkway was born. Construction began on that day near Cumberland Knob in North Carolina. The next year, construction began in Virginia, and the government placed the Parkway under the control of the National Park Service.
Much of the work on the Parkway was completed by different public work groups under the New Deal, which was passed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to help the country’s economy during the Great Depression.
Today, the project that started out to create jobs for those put out of work by the Depression is a 469-mile-long road that connects Shenandoah National Park in Virginia to the Cherokee Indian Reservation and Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina.
This past weekend at Cherokee Reservation, Great Smoky Mountains National Park concluded the celebration of its 75th birthday, and passed the birthday torch on to the Blue Ridge Parkway, signaling the beginning to its 2010 birthday celebration. The event had an historical and Native American focus with a Cherokee tribe elder speaking about the history of the area and how he was actually born in a spot in the middle of the road on the Parkway, according to Landis Wofford, news director of Grandfather Mountain.
Next year, the same-type ceremony will happen when the Parkway passes the torch to Shenandoah National Park to celebrate its 100th birthday, according to Harris Prevost, vice president of Grandfather Mountain.
Communities all along the Parkway in North Carolina and Virginia will be hosting various events to celebrate the occasion and to raise awareness on various issues facing the Parkway.
According to Prevost, one of the goals of having such a large celebration is “to cultivate an appreciation of the Parkway for those who live around the Parkway and also people who like to visit the Parkway because the Parkway is a national treasure.” The Parkway is also under-funded, so it needs the support of community members for upkeep, said Prevost.
A view of the autumn colors at Rough Ridge, a popular hiking destination on the Blue Ridge Parkway for many local community members and tourists alike.
Locally, the towns of Boone and Blowing Rock are planning many different events beginning in 2010 to observe the occasion.
The Town of Blowing Rock has set aside the week of September 11 through 18 in honor of the Parkway’s actual birthday on September 11. Various events will be hosted, and they hope to conclude the week with a parade through Main Street and the Parkway with cars of the past 75 years, according to Tracy Brown, executive director of the Blowing Rock Tourism Development Authority.
Brown also said that all of Blowing Rock’s regularly-scheduled yearly events like Winterfest at the end of January will have a focus on the Parkway’s birthday, that they hope to have plenty of children-friendly events in 2010, that Blowing Rock would like to have a large birthday card signed by their residents to give to the superintendent of the Blue Ridge Parkway and that they are encouraging their merchants to include the theme of the 75th birthday in their window displays.
The Town of Boone will also have plenty of events going on in celebration of this occasion. There are various committees under the direction of Betty Bond working to accomplish various events for 2010. The kick-off occasion in Boone will be at Watauga High School on January 30, where MountainKeepers will sponsor a conference on resilience.
Boone is also working with the public schools, ASU, Daniel Boone Theater and many other organizations to make the remembrance of the Parkway a success.
A committee meeting will take place at the Jones House in Boone on Wednesday, December 16, at 4:00 p.m. to assign tasks and report on the progress of everything that has been done thus far.
Both towns are still in the planning process for the execution of the events, and are eager for volunteers and people with ideas. In Blowing Rock, contact Tracy Brown at 828-295-4636 and in Boone, contact Betty Bond at 828-264-4275.
“I’ll make sure that they get to the right place with the right people,” said Bond.
In addition, Boone is requesting that people with old pictures of the Parkway or any memorabilia related to the Parkway or the time period when the parkway was built to contact Bond. They are “looking for all kinds of treasures,” said Bond. The items and pictures will be scanned and put on display; community members will not be asked to give up their precious heirlooms.
For more information on the year-long celebration and different community celebrations all along the Parkway, click to www.blueridgeparkway75.org.
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