Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, August 14, 1994                   TAG: 9408160011
SECTION: DISCOVER                    PAGE: 104   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

STEP BACK INTO HISTORY AT VIRGINIA'S EXPLORE PARK

At Explore, visitors can see what life was like when the Blue Ridge Mountains were the nation's western frontier.

Visit a trapper's primitive shelter and learn the art of hatchet-throwing.

Watch costumed living-history ``interpreters'' carry on their chores of a frontier farm-with authentic old breeds of livestock now on the verge of disappearing.

Sit in while a native American demonstrates how the continent's indigenous people lived.

Or hike the trails and learn about the mighty chestnuts that once towered over the Appalachian forests, how the trees were wiped out by a blight, and how scientists are now trying to bring them back.

The Explore that opened to the public on July 1 is just a hint of the living-history park its planners would like the place to become.

For now, the park consists of 1,300 acres along the Roanoke River just east of Roanoke, along with a farmhouse, two barns and a schoolhouse.

In the coming years, Explore hopes to double the number of buildings - and grow into a whole village. Most of those buildings - a church, a tavern, various farmhouses and outbuildings - are in storage, awaiting reconstruction.

All Explore needs is money; it's got fund-raising campaigns under way on many of the buildings, and hopes to get some under roof by the end of the year.

However, Explore planners have always cautioned that theirs is a long-term project that will grow and evolve over time.

At some point in the next few years, Explore would like to build an ``environmental education center'' that would quadruple as visitor's center, exhibit space, classroom and research labs.

By the late 1990s, says Explore director Rupert Cutler, the park would like to move on to the most expensive part of the project - the zoo of North American animals.

After all, it was discussion about expanding Mill Mountain Zoo that first led to Explore in the mid-1980s.

WHEN IT'S OPEN:Explore is open Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., through the end of October. It's also open by appointment for other activities, such as company picnics or school groups.

For visitor information, call 427-3107. For the park's administrative offices, call 345-1295.

HOW TO GET THERE:Get on the Blue Ridge Parkway and follow the signs. From the Mill Mountain Spur and U.S. 220, head north. From U.S. 460 and Virginia 24, head south. The exit from the parkway is well-marked.