Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 10, 1990 TAG: 9003102610
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A3 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: KEVIN KITTREDGE SHENANDOAH BUREAU
DATELINE: MONTEREY LENGTH: Medium
It's the day the traffic in this county of high peaks and sweeping empty valleys stalls bumper to bumper outside Monterey; when driving the block from the Highland Inn to Ernie's Market can take many minutes. It's when the sidewalks get so crowded, people have to walk in the streets.
This is the first weekend of the 32nd annual Highland Maple Festival, which runs today and Sunday, and concludes next weekend.
And if it's anything like the maple festivals of the past, by its end some 50,000 to 60,000 people will have come and gone - a mobile city that would dwarf Highland County's own population of 2,500 or so.
It's an onslaught residents say will pack roads, stores and restaurants, and according to Chamber of Commerce President Don Hower, leave everyone in Highland County exhausted by the time it's over.
"It's the biggest thing that happens in Highland County, and I'll tell you, this place is buzzing," said Hower Friday afternoon. "These roads will be jammed with cars and people."
Not that Hower - or anyone else here - is complaining.
In a county with few manufacturing jobs, where most people survive off mountainside farms or logging, the two-weekend influx of outside money is a gift, Highland residents say.
"The maple festival and the hunting season are the two main boosts to the economy," said Lisa McCarty, secretary/treasurer of the Chamber of Commerce.
She said many local clubs will sponsor booths at the festival. "Every civic organization in the county is benefiting from this in one way or another."
Hower said the festival pays off later in the year, too, as people come back to Highland County on return visits and patronize area businesses. "It stimulates a great deal of commerce," he said - "more than most people have any idea."
Tours of the maple syrup camps are the soul of the Maple Festival. Actually the 12,000 gallons or so of syrup produced in Highland County in a good year is a minor part of the county's economy, said Hower, but the festival that has grown around it is not.
Farmers such as Ivan Puffenbarger, who must supplement his own syrup-making income by raising sheep and beef cattle, may see 40,000 visitors or more over both festival weekends.
Puffenbarger said he has had as many as 17 busloads of people come to his maple sugar camp near Blue Grass in a single day.
Though he doesn't charge admission, most will buy something from him, he said - maple sugar, doughnuts, barbecue, hot dogs, or his $30-a-gallon maple syrup.
They also will get a chance to see him tapping his sugar maple trees - though Puffenbarger said if not for the tourists, he might not have bothered this weekend. Last summer's rains stole the sunshine maples need to make good syrup sap, he said, making the yield barely profitable.
Those who buy syrup from him this weekend, Puffenbarger said, are likely to be buying syrup left over from last year's bumper crop.
Across Monterey Mountain, meanwhile, visitors from eight states or more will find booths and trailers selling handmade arts and crafts, as well as such festival staples as buckwheat pancakes and maple doughnuts. Vendors may also be found at the elementary and high schools and the firehouse in Monterey, as well as several places in McDowell.
Musicians, both local and from outside the county, will entertain in Monterey, McCarty said. And there will be dances at various places in Highland County on several festival nights.
Nearly all of the festival food is prepared in Highland County, organizers said, and prospective arts and crafts vendors have been screened to make certain their products are handmade.
Theories about why so many people flock to this out-of-the way county, inaccessible by airline or interstate, for the maple festival flow as freely as the syrup.
"It's the first activity after a long winter," said McCarty. "It's like spring break.
"I think people look forward to that first outing in the spring," echoed Hower. He also said people find the maple syrup-making in Highland County - the southernmost point for commercial maple syrup manufacturing in the United States, according to the Chamber of Commerce - interesting.
In 1983, the chamber built a museum of maple syrup-making history, which is open to visitors in Monterey.
Many who come for the festival also mention the physical beauty of Highland County, which chamber literature touts as having the highest mean elevation (more than 2,500 feet, Hower said) of any county east of the Mississippi River. Highland County frequently offers the traveler views of deep valleys, cloud-wrapped mountain peaks, rocky streams and wildlife. Hower and his wife said they have seen bobcats prowling the fence at their Christmas tree plantation at Gobblers Nob.
"It's beautiful here," said Mary Sweitzer, who is on the chamber's board of directors. "The people are friendly, and the food is delicious."
by CNB