ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Tuesday, October 29, 1996              TAG: 9610290062
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: C-1  EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON

PARK GOES OUT WITH A `BANG'

Explore Park closed to the public on Monday and, after a few more school field trips, next month will shut for the winter.

The living history park in Roanoke County said it expects to register 30,500 visitors by closing, 10,500 short of a goal of 41,000.

But park leaders praised its re-creation of an Indian village, reconstruction work on historic buildings and the staging of more lifelike battle re-enactments and hands-on classes in crafts such as quilting.

A Roanoke County official said she took comfort in an 8,000-person jump in attendance from 1995. "We anticipate that [growth] will only continue in the future," said Joyce Waugh, county economic development specialist.

Of this summer's visitors, about one-third were from Western Virginia, another third seemed to be from outside the state or country, and the remainder were schoolchildren, said Rupert Cutler, the park's executive director.

He described October as a "bang" of a month in a news release, because Explore Park had nearly 10,000 visitors, three times the number during most months.

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