Virginia’s Explore Park aptly quotes T.S. Eliot, “We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.”  This is indeed what happens when you visit this 1,300-acre frontier living history museum and wilderness park.  Many current area resident’s great-great-grandparents started in Blue Ridge mountain cabins like those you see at this historic park.  Settlers turned the Native American’s “Warriors Path” into a wagon road. 

Horse-drawn wagons carry visitors around this authentic 1790 to 1860 Blue Ridge settlement.  You can also walk the rutted paths and roads stopping at the Hofauger Farm complex of home, barn, shop, garden and orchard.  The German-style barn has a huge threshing area as well as horse stables.  Samuel Hofauger was of German descent, while his wife, Elizabeth Hays, was English.  This farm, where they raised four children, was near Cave Spring in Roanoke County.  Old-fashioned breeds of farm animals fill the pens, graze in the fields and roam the yard and include chickens, geese, pigs and sheep.  Not far from the farm is the one-room Kemp’s Ford Schoolhouse, built around 1860 on the Blackwater River in Franklin County.

Two other public buildings were almost always found in early settlements; they are represented by the 1880 Mountain Union Church, which served as a meeting house for Presbyterians and Lutherans, and the 1790s Brugh Tavern.  This German inn, offering lodging, food and drink, was situated on the Great Wagon Road just north of what is now the city of Roanoke.  Rounding out this recreated community are a blacksmith and wheelwright shop.  Current development plans call for the reconstruction of three additional houses: the 1780 Barnett House; 1840 McClure-Baker House and 1780 Holstine House. If you take a wagon ride you will get a real feeling for why the first shops established on the frontier were blacksmiths and wheelwrights.  The rutted, steep, rocky, muddy roads made travel hazardous.  Wagons frequently lost or damaged their wheels, necessitating repairs.  The expression, “I’ll be there with bells on,” derived from the custom of wagons giving their bells to any wagon that stopped and helped them back on the road.  Thus, if you arrived with bells on your wagon, that usually meant you arrived without misadventure.

Costumed interpreters are on hand at the Hofauger farm and bring frontier days to life. A Native American, on hand at a Tutelo lodge, and a hunter provide different perspectives on living off the land.  Other personalties frequently on hand include a horse-drawn wagon driver and a singing peddler.

Natural history is also part of the story that unfolds here.  Six miles of hiking trails encourage you to explore the dense hardwood forest with its abundant wildflowers and wildlife.  Trails wind through the scenic Roanoke River Gorge with its striking shale cliffs.

Virginia’s Explore Park is open April through October on Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays from 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M.   Before starting out into this woodsy setting, an application of bug spray or insect repellant is a wise precaution.   Admission is charged.  Ongoing special events include blacksmith workshops, wildflower hikes, quilting, Native American craft workshops, historical reenactments, an Appalachian music and craft festival and others; call (540) 427-1800 for details.  Currently under construction are a 1750s fort and an Eastern Woodland village.  Long term plans call for the addition of a North American Wilderness Park Zoo.

There is already a zoo off the Blue Ridge Parkway---the Mill Mountain Zoo just outside Roanoke.  Here you’ll see 45 species of exotic and native animals on a wooded three-acre park.  In addition to wild animals like the Siberian tiger, red pandas and reptiles, there is a children’s contact area where youngsters can interact with goats and small mammals. The zoo is open daily from 10:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. except Christmas Day.  Admission is charged.  You also find the Roanoke Star on top of Mill Mountain.  Shenandoah is an Indian word meaning “daughter of the stars” so it is fitting that this 100-foot-tall star illuminates Roanoke’s nighttime sky.

Directions: Take I-81 to Roanoke, Exit 143, and go 12 miles on I-581/ US Route 220 to the Blue Ridge Parkway.  Take the Parkway north for seven miles. Virginia’s Explore Park is at Milepost 115 between Route 220 and Route 24

RETURN TO:  HOME PAGE     GUIDEBOOK DIRECTORY

TRAVELERS TALKBACK

Win a  a free copy of the new Williamsburg One-Day Trip Book with your picture and byline on the cover!

If you've visited Virginia  recently, give us your honest evaluation of your visit. Click here for details and the TRAVELERS TALKBACK form.

TRAVEL WRITERS WANTED

FREE  trial lesson in  new "WRITING TO  PUBLISH WORKSHOP."

 Send us an email for details. Publication is guaranteed for those accepted in program. Instructor is former president of the Society of American Travel Writers.

Visit the FREEDOM GALLERY to see scenes of Williamsburg, Jamestown and Yorktown as magnificent works of photographic art.