Archive for the ‘Blowing Rock’ Category
Art in the Park was created in 1962 by a handful of area artists and craftspeople to showcase local talent. 46 years after its start, Art in the Park is host to 90 artisans at each show. Some of the best local and regional artists and craftspeople showcase their handcrafted jewelry, pottery, fiber, glass, photography, painting and more.
Art in the Park’s high standards and professional jury attract artisans from all over the Southeast to exhibit in a series of six shows, May through October. The quality of work exhibited draws thousands to the mountains each month.
Art in the Park is planned and administered by the Blowing Rock Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber emphasizes the arts focus of this event. The town and area businesses are enthusiastic and participate with Art in the Park, and the public eagerly anticipates each season.
For more information, visit: http://www.blowingrock.com/artinthepark
For more info on The High Country of North Carolina, call (800) 438-7500, or visit www.MountainsofNC.com.
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Tweetsie Railroad, North Carolina’s first family theme park, opens for the 2010 season on Friday, April 30th. Come join the fun!!
Source: Wikipedia
Opened in 1957, Tweetsie Railroad began as an excursion train ride aboard steam locomotive #12, the only surviving narrow-gauge engine of the East Tennessee and Western North Carolina Railroad (ET&WNC). Built in 1917 by the Baldwin Locomotive Works, #12 is a 3 ft (914 mm) (narrow gauge) 4-6-0 coal-fired locomotive that was used to haul passengers and freight over the ET&WNC’s 66-mile (106.2 km) line running from Johnson City over the Appalachian Mountains to Boone, North Carolina. After the narrow gauge portion of the ET&WNC ceased operations in 1950, the locomotive was purchased by a group of railroad enthusiasts and was taken to Rockingham County, Virginia to operate as the small “Shenandoah Central” tourist line in 1952.
Floodwaters from Hurricane Hazel washed out the Shenandoah Central in 1954, and Locomotive #12 was once again put up for sale. Hollywood actor Gene Autry considered purchasing the locomotive to move to California for use in motion pictures.
Instead, Grover Robbins, an entrepreneur from Blowing Rock, North Carolina, bought the locomotive in 1956 and moved the engine back to its native Blue Ridge Mountains as the centerpiece of a new “Tweetsie Railroad“ tourist attraction. A 3-mile (4.8 km) loop of track was constructed near Boone, North Carolina for the train to run on, and on July 4, 1957, the locomotive made its first public trip over the line.
Tweetsie Railroad became a popular tourist attraction, and evolved into one of the nation’s first theme parks. A western town and saloon were built around the depot area. A train robbery and Indian attack show were added to the train ride, playing off the Wild West theme that was very popular at the time on television and movies. The theme was enhanced by regular visits WBTV television personality/singing cowboy Fred Kirby, who hosted a popular children’s show. In 1962, a chairlift and amusement ride area was constructed at the top of the mountain inside the rail loop, and over the decades the park has been expanded with additional rides, attractions, shops, restaurants, and special events.
One of Tweetsie Railroad’s two steam locomotives, 2-8-2 #190, on May 20th, 2007.The Tweetsie Railroad theme park is open from early May through October of each year. One of its most popular annual events is the nighttime “Ghost Train Halloween Festival” in October. In addition to the Wild West train adventure and the amusement rides, Tweetsie Railroad has a variety of live entertainment shows featuring talented performers selected from the immediate area and from the Southeast.
Tweetsie acquired another steam locomotive, USATC S118 Class 2-8-2 #190, the “Yukon Queen” from Alaska’s White Pass and Yukon Route in 1960. Built by Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1943 for the US Army, the engine was part of an 11-locomotive fleet of “MacArthur” 2-8-2s originally purchased for use overseas. During World War II, the locomotives were sent to Alaska for use on the White Pass and Yukon.
In 1961, Grover Robbins built another train ride and tourist attraction called “Rebel Railroad” in the Smoky Mountains near Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Renamed “Goldrush Junction” in 1966, it was sold to the Cleveland Browns football team in 1970. In 1976, the attraction was sold again to Jack and Pete Herschend of Branson, Missouri, who redeveloped it as a theme park, “Silver Dollar City Tennessee”. In 1986, country music star Dolly Parton became a partowner with the Herschends, and the theme park was renamed Dollywood to reflect her involvement.
The name “Tweetsie” was given to the original East Tennessee and Western North Carolina Railroad by area residents who became accustomed to the shrill “tweet, tweet” of the train whistles that echoed through the mountains. The nickname stuck with the train and became more identifiable than the railroad’s actual name.
Visit http://www.tweetsie.com!
For more info on The High Country of North Carolina, call (800) 438-7500, or visit www.MountainsofNC.com.
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Blowing Rock’s 12th annual Winterfest is Jan. 28-31. This four-day celebration of everything winter is packed with activities and events for day-trippers and overnight guests alike.
Winterfest begins Thursday evening with “WinterFeast,” hosted by The Manor House Restaurant at Chetola Resort. Culinary delights abound as the area’s fine restaurants come together for this once-a-year dining showcase. There are seatings at 5:30, 6:30 and 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $25 in advance and $30 at the door.
Friday and Saturday activities include “shop ’till you drop” at downtown shops and the Tanger Outlet Shoppes on the Parkway, a charity wine auction & tasting, afternoon hayrides and a bonfire at dusk. There’s also a silent auction with items ranging from weekend stays at local hotels to clothing, dinners and jewelry.
he highlight of Winterfest is the Polar Plunge on Saturday morning. It features a contest of brave souls who jump into the icy waters of Chetola Lake while dressed in wacky costumes. Contestants vie for the coveted Golden Plunger Award, while spectators marvel at their lack of good sense.www.blowingrockwinterfest.com or call (877) 750-4636.
Other Winterfest activities include: an ice carving competition, chili cookoff, live music, pancake breakfast and a pet show.
For more info on The High Country of North Carolina, call (800) 438-7500, or visit www.MountainsofNC.com.
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Tags: Blowing Rock, chetola, mountain festivals, nc high country, nc mountains, winterfest | 
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A holiday tradition in Blowing Rock, Chetola’s Festival of Lights features over 50,000 illuminations attracting thousands of visitors each year.
Drive around Chetola Lake and view glittering ice skaters, a nativity scene, Rudolph catching a “big fish” and much more. Over Friday and Saturday over Thanksgiving week-end , horse and carriage rides are offered around Chetola Lake from 5 pm to 9 pm.
The price is $15 per adult and $8 for children 12 and under. Cookie decorating will also be offered from 5 pm to 7 pm (free) and Santa will be visiting the Manor House Restaurant from 5 pm to 9 pm (free).
Festival of Lights runs through Blowing Rock Winterfest which ends on January 31, 2010.
For more information, contact 800-CHETOLA or visit www.chetola.com.
For more info on The High Country of North Carolina, call (800) 438-7500, or visit www.MountainsofNC.com.
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Posted in Blowing Rock, Festivals, Upcoming Events |
Tags: Blowing Rock, chetola, christmas events, high country, nc high country, watauga |
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Visit: http://www.blowingrock.com
Located just off the Blue Ridge Parkway, Blowing Rock offers an abundant array of adventure. From golf to horseback riding, whitewater rafting to canoeing, hiking, biking, rock climbing and fishing, there is something for every avid outdoor enthusiast.
Blowing Rock is also home to Appalachian Ski Mtn., a premiere ski resort in North Carolina, and to many popular spots on the Blue Ridge Parkway including Price Lake, Moses Cone Manor and more.
The History of Blowing Rock, NC
Before 1752, when Moravian Bishop August Gottlieb Spangenberg visited the Blowing Rock area, the windy cliffs of the area were home to the Cherokee and the Catawba Indian tribes, hostile to each other, and the basis for the story of “The “Blowing Rock”. Two star-crossed lovers, one from each tribe, were walking near The Rock when the reddening sky signaled to the brave that he must return to his tribal duty, and the maiden urged him to stay with her. His desperation in choosing between duty and love caused him to leap from the edge of the gorge toward the rocks below, while the maiden beseeched the Great Spirit to bring him back to her. The famous winds of the John’s River Gorge blew her lover back into her arms, and this legend about The Blowing Rock is still told today.
After the mid-eighteenth century, when the Scotch-Irish began to settle close to this area, the passes from southern Virginia into Kentucky attracted many colonists, farmers, hunters, and trappers who continued south to the mountains of North Carolina. The first family to settle in Blowing Rock were the Greenes who were established by the mid-1800’s on a site that would become the Green Park Hotel property. Other early settlers in Blowing Rock included the Hayes, Coffey, Bolick, Estes and Storie families. About this time, summer residents began to come up from Lenoir to enjoy the cool fresh air, magnificent mountain views and the wonders of nature.
As word traveled to other parts of the South about the merits of Blowing Rock, more visitors began to arrive, first camping out, and later taking rooms at boarding houses like the Hayes and Martin Houses on Main Street. When the space to accommodate guests proved too little, many homes turned into hotels, and the Watauga Hotel, built in 1884, added cottages in 1888; the Green Park Hotel opened in 1891 and was followed eight years later by the Blowing Rock Hotel. Walter Alexander touted the clean air and healthy environment of Blowing Rock, as he developed the Mayview area, opening the grand hotel, Mayview Manor in 1922.
READ MORE ABOUT THE HISTORY OF BLOWING ROCK
For more info on The High Country of North Carolina, call (800) 438-7500, or visit www.MountainsofNC.com.
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Posted in Blowing Rock, High Country Host, Things To Do |
Tags: appalachian ski mountain, Blowing Rock, Boone, cone manor, High Country Host, nc high country, nc mountains |
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Tourists interested in the North Carolina High Country have a dynamic new resource for visitor info thanks to a redesign and upgrade of High Country Host’s website, www.MountainsofNC.com.
The new site contains information on lodging, attractions, festivals, shopping, restaurants, heritage events and outdoors activities. There is also a blog, calendar of events, a section for specials & deals, High Country maps and a downloadable vacation planner.
“This new site pulls together all the key information visitors need to plan a trip to the High Country,” says Millie Barbee, executive director of High Country Host. “And, it is user-friendly. There are multiple ways to navigate the site to quickly find what you’re looking for.”
This new site was created by Big Boom Design of Asheville, using a Joomla platform. It incorporates the latest in website technology, including advanced search engine optimization.
“Our desire was to build a site that’s easy to navigate and brings as much information above the fold and to the surface as possible,” said Boomer Sassmann of Big Boom Design. “It’s a well organized second-generation website that also incorporates social media aspects such as YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Flickr.”
The look and feel of the website will change quarterly to match the four distinct seasons that draw visitors to the High Country.
“If this were a traditionally built website, we wouldn’t be able to do that,” Sassmann says, “but because of this Joomla content management system, it is easy to change the look without altering the content.”
To view the new site, go online to www.MountainsofNC.com.
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Named One Of The Top Ten Fall Festivals in North America by the Society of American Travel Writers!
The Wooly Worm Festival is October 17th, 2009! Back in the late 1970s, the editor of the now-defunct Mountain Living Magazine, Jim Morton, was preparing to include a Woolly Worm Forecast in the winter issue of the magazine.
He photographed the first Woolly Worm he saw to use in formulating the prediction and illustrating his story, but the next day he saw a second worm that looked completely different from the first. “That’s when it struck me that we needed some formal procedure to use to decide which was going to be the official worm for making the winter forecast,” said Morton.
So since 1978, the residents of the village nestled between the Carolina’s two largest ski resorts have celebrated the coming of the snow season with a Woolly Worm Festival. They set aside the third weekend in October to determine which one worm will have the honor of predicting the severity of the coming winter; and they make that worm earn the honor by winning heat after heat of hard-fought races – up a three-foot length of string.
For more information on the festival CLICK HERE!
For lodging and other travel information, contact North Carolina High Country Host at 800-438-7500 or visit: www.mountainsofnc.com.
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Posted in Banne Elk, Blowing Rock, Things To Do, Upcoming Events |
Tags: Banner Elk, high country events, Top Ten Fall Festivals, woolly worm festival |
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Join us in Blowing Rock for the 2009 Blue Ridge Wine and Food Festival!
The art of wine is celebrated in mountain style during the 2009 Blue Ridge Wine and Food Festival, April 16-19 in Blowing Rock, North Carolina. Featuring wineries from throughout NC, and fine cuisine created by Blowing Rock chefs, the Festival promises to please even the most discriminating palates. Be sure to make reservations for the Winemaker’s Dinners, and book your Lodging Package to complete your experience. Tickets are available online or at the Blowing Rock Chamber of Commerce.
For more info visit: BlueRidgeWineFestival.com where you can view a photo gallery, see a list of participating wineries, an event schedule, buy tickets, lodging information and much, much more!
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Posted in Blowing Rock, Festivals, Things To Do, Upcoming Events |
Tags: Blowing Rock, Blue Ridge Wine, Chamber of Commerce, Events, Festivals, Food Festival |
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Blowing Rock offers so many attractions, it’s hard to see them all in one trip. From popular attractions including The Blowing Rock, Tweetsie Railroad, Grandfather Mountain and Linville Caverns, there is something for all ages and tastes. Arts patrons will enjoy Hayes Performing Arts Center, featuring professional quality plays, musicals, concerts and more. In addition, Blowing Rock offers a variety of art and craft galleries, museums, festivals and events. The Blowing Rock area is also close to many apple orchards, Christmas tree farms and wineries.
Click on the links above for a list of attractions in the Blowing Rock area. For more information, call the Blowing Rock Visitor’s Center at 877-750-INFO or email us: info@visitblowingrock.com
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Posted in Blowing Rock |
Tags: Blowing Rock, Grandfather Mountain, Linville Caverns, Tweetsie Railroad, Visitor's Center |
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