Serving Boone, Blowing Rock, Banner Elk, and other towns of the North Carolina High Country | Founded 05-05-05

This Week on the Parkway

Compiled by Kathleen McFadden

The Blue Ridge Music Center welcomes The Fine Group, regularly featured on Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion, for this Saturday’s concert. Before the show, enjoy the monthly clogging showcase at the center.

Summer Music

The Blue Ridge Music Center, located at Milepost 213, is open daily, rain or shine, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. through October. Concessions are available onsite, but picnic fare is permitted. Alcohol, however, is not.

Inside the exhibit hall, memorabilia and interpretive exhibits tell the story of almost 400 years of string-band music history in Virginia.

Outside, on a sloping lawn—bring chairs or blankets—visitors can hear local and regional musicians play during the weekend summer concert series. In addition to the special weekend concerts, music is happening at the center every day between 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. and visitors with musicians can join the jam.

Here’s the weekly schedule:

Mondays: The Buck Mountain Band and Friends
Tuesdays: Bobby Patterson and Willard Gayheart
Wednesdays: Bill and Maggie Anderson
Thursday: Scott Freeman and Friends
Fridays: Spencer Strickland, Stevie Barr, Josh Pickett
Saturdays: Blue Ridge Music Maker’s Guild and Junior Appalachian Music (JAM) Students
Sunday: Stu Shenk and Friends

To purchase advance tickets for the shows that require an admission fee, call 276-236-5309 or click to www.blueridgemusiccenter.net. Here’s what’s coming up this weekend:

Saturday, July 26 – Flatt and Scruggs TV Show video, museum auditorium, 4:00 p.m.
Saturday, July 26 – Fourth Saturday Clogging Showcase, museum breezeway, 4:40 to 5:30 p.m.
Saturday, July 26 – The Fine Group ($10/7:00 p.m.)

Robin and Linda Williams, heard regularly on Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion, bring their show to the Blue Ridge on Saturday, July 26. They call their band The Fine Group, and the Blue Ridge Music Center has an equally fine local group to open for them: The Ballard’s Branch Bogtrotters.

They Call Me Aunt Orlene

On two remaining Sundays this summer, actress Phyllis Stump will present this one-woman show about the life of southwest Virginia midwife Orlene Puckett at the site of the midwife`s cabin— Puckett Cabin (Milepost 190). Living to more than 100 years old, Puckett is known for delivering more than 1,000 babies in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Bring your own chair for this special presentation.

Dates are August 24 and September 21. Showtime is 2:00 p.m.

Talks and Tours

All programs are free and open to the public.

Brinegar Workshop August 9 – The Blue Ridge Parkway will sponsor a workshop on Saturday, August 9, at the Brinegar Cabin. Participants will learn to use a drop spindle for spinning wool into yarn and how to warp and weave a tabby weave using a small frame loom. Registration is required. The $35 fee covers materials and supports the work of the FRIENDS of the Blue Ridge Parkway. For more info, call 336-372-8568. The Brinegar Cabin is located at Milepost 238.5 on the Blue Ridge Parkway in Doughton Park.

Patio Talks – The public is invited to attend ranger talks on the patio at Bluffs Lodge in Doughton Park (Milepost 241) on Friday and Saturday evenings at 7:30.

Campfire Talks – The public is invited to attend evening campfire talks at Doughton Park Campground (Milepost 241) at 7:30 on Fridays and Saturdays through August. For more information, call the Visitor Center at 276-236-5309.

Brinegar Cabin History – In the tradition of original resident Caroline Brinegar, visitors to the Brinegar Cabin can see flax growing in the garden and participate in the process of taking the fiber and spinning it into linen thread. The threads are then woven into linsey-woolsey fabric on the loom. The Brinegar Cabin is located at Milepost 238.5, and visitors are welcome Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. throughout the summer. For more information, call 828-236-5309.

Cone Upstairs Tours – Join park rangers for guided tours of the second floor of the home of Moses and Bertha Cone located on the Blue Ridge Parkway at Milepost 294. Tour times are Saturday and Sunday at 10:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m., 2:00 p.m., 3:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. Reservations are required and are accepted beginning at 9:00 a.m. on the weekend of requested tour only. To schedule a tour, call 828-295-3782 or sign up at the Park Service information desk at the Cone Manor House.

Cone Cemetery Hike – Every Sunday through October 26, join rangers at 7:00 p.m. for an evening hike to the final resting place of Moses and Bertha Cone. Meet at the Manor House (Milepost 294) for this two-mile hike. Call 828-295-6308 for more details

Informational Programs

All programs are free and open to the public.

Friday, July 25 – Healthy Family Day: Lost Proofing. Would you and your family know what to do if you were lost in the woods? Meet a ranger at the Price Park Picnic Area (Milepost 296) footbridge at 10:00 a.m. to learn some techniques that can help you make it back home during this 40-minute program.

Friday, July 25 – The Incredible Journey of the Monarch. Every year, monarch butterflies make a fantastically complicated journey of more than 2,000 miles. Join a ranger at the Price Park Amphitheatre (Milepost 297) at 8:30 p.m. to learn some of the difficulties they must overcome as they travel southward. Discover ways that we can help keep these beautiful creatures from becoming an endangered species in this 40-minute program.

Saturday, July 26 – Medicinal Plants are Everywhere. Forty percent of drug compounds come from medicinal plants, and 75 percent of U.S. medicinal plants come from the Southern Appalachians. Join a ranger on the front porch of the Cone Manor (Milepost 294) at 11:00 a.m. for a short walk to identify local medicinal plants and discover some of their uses on this one-hour program.

Saturday, July 26 – Stories Written in Our Night Sky. Ancient people spent a great deal of time studying the night sky, and many tales have been told to describe the stars and their patterns. Join a ranger at the Price Park Amphitheatre (Milepost 297) at 8:00 p.m. to hear the stories of the hero, the scorpion, the goddess and many more during this 40-minute program.