Three anniversaries will be wrapped into one when the 21st annual Kinzua Bridge State Park Fall Festival is held from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at 296 Viaduct Road in Mount Jewett.
The event, which has free admission, will provide a “full slate of family fun,” said spokeswoman Mary Ann Burggraf, executive director and vice president of the Kinzua Bridge Foundation.
Burggraf said people visiting the historic park will enjoy a variety of activities both outside as well as in the new Kinzua Bridge State Park Visitor Center. She said the huge festival will feature approximately 101 vendors, live music by local and area musicians and a variety of festival foods.
The event will also commemorate the 125 anniversary, or quasquicentennial, of state parks in the commonwealth, the 25th anniversary of the Kinzua Bridge Foundation and the 15-year anniversary of the collapse of the bridge from a tornado. She said the foundation will mark its anniversary with the unveiling of a new stone marker located at the Keystone brick display during opening ceremonies. In addition, a presentation sponsored by the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and titled “Celebrating 125 years of PA State Parks” will be provided at 1 p.m. Saturday at the main stage by Van Wagner.
For the local community, the Viaduct’s partial collapse from tornadic winds in 2003 was a horrible event for all who loved the historic viaduct, but in the end turned the facility around for the better, Burggraf noted.
“I’ve always said there is good in all bad (things),” she remarked. “We don’t see (the good) until it happens.”
The good Burggraf was referring to was the construction of the Kinzua Bridge State Park Visitors Center and Sky Walk, which were built in the years following the Viaduct collapse.
The Viaduct, constructed in 1882, was once the longest and tallest railroad structure at 2,053 feet long and 301 feet high before its partial collapse. The bridge was “reinvented” and opened as a pedestrian walkway in 2011 and now gives visitors an opportunity to walk 624 feet out on the remaining support towers. While on the Sky Walk visitors can look miles out into the Kinzua Gorge, or gaze down through the partial glass platform at the end of the walkway.
The Visitor Center and Park Office, which opened in 2016, not only features great views of the bridge and gorge area, but also has a gift shop and self-guided exhibits that include the Viaduct, the logging industry and animals found in the area.
Burggraf said the park attracts a number of local, regional, national and international tourists throughout the year.
She said a new attraction this year will be the two-day Hamlin Township Volunteer Fire Department’s “Famous Chicken Bar-B-Q” which can be enjoyed on-site in the volunteer firemen’s tent or taken out. Also on-hand will be reenactors with the famous Civil War Bucktail Regiment from McKean County, who will be camped at the festival site and will welcome visitors and their questions.
Another feature will be Amy Blue, who was named the Dedicated Researcher of the Year from the International Bigfoot Conference. Bue will provide a presentation as well as educational information on Sachquats. In addition, this year’s Bigfoot calling contest was moved up a day to 4 p.m Saturday and will be accompanied by “Stony & Company,” who will perform Bigfoot’s favorite song, “Kinzua Bigfoots.”
The DCNR State Park staff will also provide activities that include apple cider pressing, leaf waxing and candle dipping. Other activities will include a display of live birds of prey by the Eagle Dream Rehabilitation Center and horse rides in the parking lot by the McKean County Wranglers 4-H Club. Handicap parking will be available at the Visitor Center, and the Area Transportation Authority will provide trolleys to shuttle visitors to and from the parking areas. Tents and seating will also be available throughout the park; however, visitors are invited to bring their own chairs.
Other added attractions will include the purchase of tickets for hundreds of gifts that will be given away. Information forms will also be available to purchase a commemorative brick that can be engraved and is titled “Be A Part of History.”
Burggraf said it should be noted that entertainment at the event will be provided free by the musicians.
“It is local and area entertainment and nobody gets paid,” she stated. “They’re not easy to get because most people want to be paid” for their talents.
She said this benefits the Kinzua Bridge Foundation, which sponsors the event every year.
“We make very, very little — if we clear $500 it’s amazing,” she shared. “Because we pay out a lot to the fire police, the fire department and ambulance, you have to compensate the other nonprofits.”
Fundraising efforts and donations will be used to purchase playground equipment at the park as well as enclose the pavilion and amphitheater.
Linda Devlin, executive director of the Allegheny National Forest Visitors Bureau, noted the festival is “an especially beautiful time to visit the Allegheny National Forest and our number one most visited site, the Kinzua Sky Walk.
“Special events, like the Kinzua Bridge State Park Fall Festival, have wide appeal and will attract thousands of visitors to the park right when the leaves are just beginning to show their fall colors,” Devlin observed. “This year, the park has seen visitors from all 50 states of the United States, and international visitors have included travelers from Canada, England, Netherlands, Germany, Hungary and Singapore.”
Devlin said another new feature this year is the greatly expanded Pennsylvania Wilds Conservation Gift Shop on the first floor of the Visitor Center.
“It includes many handcrafted items from PA Wilds artisans,” Devlin concluded.
