THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, July 2, 1994 TAG: 9407020601
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: ROANOKE LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines
Explore Park, a frontier living-history attraction off the Blue Ridge Parkway, opened Friday even though two-thirds of the reconstructed 18th- and 19th-century buildings remain unfinished.
``This is still a work in progress,'' said Explore director Rupert Cutler.
But Robert T. Skunda, secretary of commerce and trade, said Explore Park is a boost to Virginia's $9 million tourism industry.
The state needs another attraction, Skunda said, because the number of tourists coming to Virginia has stagnated recently.
``The reason visitation is flat is we have not added new attractions,'' Skunda told about 500 people attending the opening ceremony in Roanoke County.
The state has invested $12 million in the project, mostly to buy the 1,300 acres of rugged woodlands along the Roanoke River, and private donors have added $6 million. The federal government will spend about $17 million to build a permanent spur from the parkway to Explore, with construction beginning later this year.
Gary Everhardt, Blue Ridge Parkway superintendent, said the scenic road ``often is called a ride-awhile, stop-awhile family vacation. Now tourists have a new place to stop awhile.''
Visitors will be able to see a farm that includes a log cabin built in 1837 by a subsistence farmer, a reassembled barn, a cobbler's shop, a spring house and livestock.
Interpreters in period costumes will explain the history of the families who once lived in the structures, and naturalists will lead hikes along the Roanoke River and through the park's natural areas.
The park will be open Saturday through Monday, and Cutler expects 25,000 weekend visitors this year. But he estimates the park will draw a million visitors a year once the village and a permanent parkway spur are complete in 1996.
``This is just a plateau,'' Cutler said. ``We still have a long way to go.''
Cutler's plan loosely follows the frontier experience of the Lewis and Clark Expedition across the continent, starting with the Blue Ridge Settlement and about 8 miles of interpretive walking trails.
The next compound will re-create an Eastern Woodlands Indian village. Also planned is an educational center with laboratories, conference facilities and an outdoor amphitheater.
Ultimately, Cutler hopes Explore will become a zoo, with the world's largest collection of North American animals. by CNB