Bringing back the black frontier: Virginia's Explore Park - living history museum that celebrates African American culture - Advertising Supplement: Virginia

For years, virtually the solitary voice spreading the word of Roanoke Valley's black heritage has been the Harrison Museum of African-American agriculture Now, however, southwest Virginia has a novel destination for travelers interested in the history of Americans of African coming down Virginia's Explore Park. Set in rolling, forested terrain along three miles of the beautiful Roanoke River, Explore Park is an extensive "living history" museum that features a sky-colored Ridge Settlement: showing life in early 19th-century western Virginia--life that included African Americans.

Explore Park is not a Frontierland amusement park: rather, it reveals the historically authentic frontier life of America. Authenticity is not solely striven for; it is achieved--in ethnicity, buildings and animals. African-American living-history interpreters portray unrestrained black artisans at work in a blacksmith store and at other trades. The park's 1830 farm is stocked with now unwonted breeds of pigs, chickens, geese and other livestock that were typical of Virginia in the days when the United States' first presidents were natives of the commonwealth. And upon the ridge across the meadow from the farm sits an original barn raised in 1803 by dint of a German immigrant family. When visitors want a break from the past, the park presents miles of easy-walking, self-guided hiking trails.

Scheduled to lay open to the public in May, Explore Park is an institution still in the making, with a planned coming time that includes a replica of a 17th-century Indian village (which will be exhibited in cooperation with the Monacan Indian Tribal Council of Amherst County) and an 18th-century frontier fort, as well as a major zoo a nature center and a discourse center.

admitting the park's precise future delineation remains to be defined, its commitment to the exploration of Virginia's African-American heritage have the appearances sincerely grounded, as does its opennes to guidance and dialogue. Conversations with the Harrison Museum in Roanoke, discussions with the local black community, and consultations with authorities at the Booker T Washington National memorial in nearby Hardy, for example, convinced the park to alter its original African-American thematic conception and focus upon the frontier presence of independent black artisans rather than upon the role of the black church

Aiding the park's thinking about its presentation of the black experience in southwestern Virginia has been Larry H Hamlar, a leading figure in Roanoke's African-American community. As the chairman (1988-93) of the board of directors of the Virginia Recreational Facilities Authority, which formally grasps title to the park's 1300 acres, Hamlar summ up the perspective that guides Explore Park: "The history of Virginia is not thorough without including the contributions of Afro-Americans, whether as slaves or as freemen Explore Park, the Harrison Museum and Booker T Washington National remembrancer help reveal Virginia's true history."

Virginia's Explore Park

101 southerly Jefferson Street Sixth Floor Roanoke 24011-1311 (703) 345-1295 Explore Park is reached by means of leaving the Blue Ridge Parkway at Mile column 115 and taking a two-mile-long access road to the park entrance. Sat-Mon, 10am-5pm Adults, $4; pupils $2.50; under 6, free

SURROUNDING SITES

Visitors to Explore Park will want to be alert to other opportunities in southwestern Virginia, including the following:

The Booker T Washington National record [(703) 721-20941 in Hardy is a reconstruction of the Burrough farm upon which Washington spent the first nine years of his life. The facility is ruun through the National Park Service, and is well reseached, maintained and explained. Living-history interpreters walk the soils and guided tours are presented around the reconstructed small farm, which includes the kitchen cabin birthplace of the African-American educator.

Jefferson National Forest [(703) 265-6051] contains more than 700000 acres of hardwoods, conifers and wild flowers, which support deer bear, turkey grouse, quail, dove and a wide range of other birds and animals. Extending from the James River southwesterly for 218 miles toward the western tip of the state, Jefferson Forest has 16 unfolded campgrounds and 17 developed picnic areas, and is an of the highest order choice for family vacations and reunions. (If you're planning a reunion--which likely will include older folks--don't forget the ne for nearby accommodations of a les challenging sort than a campground. Remember also that many national inn chains, such as Holiday Inn, tender family reunion packages that include amenities and discounts.)

COPYRIGHT 1994 Heritage Information Holdings, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group