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

DATE: SUNDAY, August 13, 1995                   TAG: 9508160024
SECTION: DISCOVER ROANOKE VALLEY                    PAGE: 87   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MAURICE A. WILLIAMS III STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

WITH EXPLORE PARK, VALLEY A DESTINATION

Not so long ago, travelers on the Blue Ridge Parkway didn't have much to do other than sightseeing. While that may have been enough, there still weren't many attractions to cause them to stop.

Thanks to Virginia's Explore Park, that has changed. Now, travelers have both a reason to stop and to come back to the parkway and the Roanoke Valley.

Explore opened last year as a "living history museum," where one can step back in time to experience an 18th and 19th century Western Virginia settlement, complete with bluegrass music, farm livestock, native plants and wildlife and live historical interpretations.

"We have a combination of history and nature that's unique," said Rupert Cutler, the park's executive director. The park runs along the Roanoke River from the parkway to the head of Smith Mountain Lake extending about a mile wide on each side of the river. A 11/2-mile spur off the parkway, to be completed in 1997, will direct future traffic directly to Explore.

The first idea for the park, a long-term project, was raised 10 years ago. While Explore is already an established tourist attraction for the valley, officials have many plans for the future, and none is bigger than the American Wilderness Park Zoo.

Cutler said he expects construction of the 500-acre multimillion dollar zoo to begin in the next century. The accounts of explorers Lewis and Clark will be the basis of the zoo's North American wildlife species.

The major obstacle Explore has faced is funding for the construction and addition of facilities. However, the future for Explore looks promising, Cutler said. "I think we're over the hump. We provide a valuable service to the community."

Aggressive fund-raising campaigns and donations have provided the park with historic buildings it has refurbished and relocated to the park. Deteriorating homes, barns, churches and schools have been refurbished and now are used in recreating a scene Cutler said is enjoyable for young and old alike.

"Not only can kids let off steam," Cutler said, "[but] a lot of grandparents remember when they lived on farms like this."

For those not familiar with farm and frontier life, Explore's historic interpreters provide accounts of life in the 18th and 19th centuries.

"We demonstrate what life was like," said Daniel "Firehawk" Abbott, an American Indian historical interpreter for the park. Abbott and the other interpreters do extensive research when not working to improve their performances.

Abbott is currently working on an American Indian village, based on archeological discoveries on Explore's site. He said the village will add to the park's main attraction.

"The word is authenticity," Abbott said. "That's what people find most attractive. That's what makes the park come alive."

by CNB