Earl Roye displays the art of blacksmithing to visitors at the Brinegar Days Festival last Saturday morning.

Brinegar Days celebration held

More than 1,000 visitors turned out for the 18th annual Brinegar Days Festival last Saturday and Sunday near the Brinegar Cabin on the Blue Ridge Parkway, according to Erin Brasfield, a park ranger in Doughton Park who coordinated the event.

"Last year it rained and was really cold…I'm not sure what the crowd was," said Brasfield. This year's crowd "was a good number for us."

The festival, which began as a family reunion for Martin and Caroline Brinegar and their children, evolved into a craft and demonstration festival to celebrate their lives here, said Brasfield.

Activities last weekend included demonstration of old time bluegrass, gospel and sacred music, history of the Brinegar family and Basin Cove community history, blacksmithing, crocheting, woodworking, woodcarving, corn-mill grinding, open-hearth cooking, spinning, weaving, flax processing and a draft horse.

Brasfield called a special activity for children "junior ranger patchwork squares."

She explained that, "the kids draw something they've seen, done or like about the Blue Ridge Parkway. I'm keeping them and making a quilt that will be hung at the Cumberland Knob Visitor Center."

At left, Park Ranger Margie Pulliam explains how flax was processed in the old days.

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