CANE HILL -- Thousands attended the 28th annual Cane Hill Harvest Festival held Sept. 20-21 with many visitors impressed by how well local and area residents are preserving the historical significance of the small community.
Visitors were interested in renovations being done to older buildings and houses to the way sorghum molasses, hominy and lye soap was made. Many folks visited the restored A.R. Carroll Drugstore to watch women in period 19th century dress demonstrate rolling yarn on spinning wheels, knitting, crocheting and bobbin lace. Local artists also were on hand with their artwork adorning the walls of the facility.
David Fowler and Linda Ryan of Tahlequah, Okla., said they had heard about the festival and traveled to Cane Hill to see what it was about.
"It's pretty fun," Fowler said. "It's a good way to preserve the area's heritage."
"It's cool," Ryan said, agreeing with Fowler's assessment about the preservation of heritage.
Visitors shopped at the arts and crafts booths, many sat on lawn chairs and listened to local country and bluegrass bands and gospel groups. Children enjoyed a petting zoo provided by Rockwell Exotics of Stilwell, Okla. A highlight offered by Rockwell was riding a camel around a wide grassy area.
"This year's festival was a big success," said Chairman Daylene Reed. "We estimated there were more than 5,000 visitors over the two days. There was something for everyone, the young and the young-at-heart."
Jack McCormack of Fayetteville said the first money he made when he was 9 years-old was stripping leaves from sorghum cane.
"I have to come here most years and see them make sorghum syrup," McCormack said, as his wife, Ann, and daughter, Lisa, enjoyed the quilting show and watching demonstrations of knitting and crocheting.
A large area similar to a pole barn without sides drew many people inside where sorghum cane juice was being cooked in a long copper vat with firewood coals beneath it. The cane juice bubbled for hours until it was ready to cool and put in jars as sorghum syrup.
"Amazing," was heard as people listened to Leonard Reed, a descendant of one of Cane Hill's earliest families, told about the preparation of making sorghum syrup from growing sorghum cane to stripping the leaves to running the stalks through a mill which squeezes the juice from the cane.
"The juice is poured into the long copper vat and the hot firewood and coals beneath the long vat keeps the juice simmering," Reed said.
Ed Marshall, a resident of Cane Hill, also told visitors about the process of syrup making as he helped stir and skim the surface of the juice with a long-handled strainer.
Another tradition was being demonstrated by Sandy Cox -- making lye soap.
"I've been making lye soap at the Cane Hill Festival about eight years," Cox said, adding she used her grandmother's cast iron kettle to cook the ingredients of water, lard and a can of lye.
Cox said when the water and lard dissolved after being heated over firewood, it was poured in another container with cold water and one can of lye. Once the lye dissolved it was poured into the lard mixture and when it had the thickness of gravy, it was poured into molds and cut into soap boars.
Sharion Huck of Oregon was visiting relatives in the area and was a first-time visitor to the festival.
"I love it," Huck said. "My mom, Bernice Pense, was born in Arkansas and lived in Prairie Grove for a time. "The festival is very interesting."
Luis Murillo and John Lehnen of Fort Smith admired the many quilts at the quilt show held in a lower room at the Cane Hill College.
Lillian McConnell, one of the quilt makers, explained the history of one of the quilts to Murillo and Lehnen.
McConnell said the quilt they were viewing was made in 1900 in Canada.
"It was created from thousands of tiny strips taken from worn-out shirts and outgrown dresses," McConnell said. "A lady brought it to me for a quilt show and I recognized the pattern, a variation of log cabin called 'courthouse steps.' The woman who pieced this quilt didn't have the luxury of going into a quilting store to buy quilting fabrics, she had to make do with whatever was at hand. This quilt was made with loving hands to keep her children warm on a a cold Canadian night."
"I love this," Murillo said. "It reminds me of what we do in Columbia where I'm from. We have so much in common."
"I think it's all great," Lehnen said about the quilts being shown by McConnell and the festival. "I would like to come back again. I liked learning about quilts."
"The quilt show is about preserving our heritage," McConnell told the two men.
Quilts, music, arts, crafts and living history demonstrations were not the only thing visitors to the festival enjoyed. There was also the food.
Reed said 450 people were served a country breakfast on Saturday morning, which consisted of biscuits and gravy, pancakes, eggs, sausage and bacon.
"We went through 18 gallons of country gravy," Reed said. " I thank all who joined us and a big thanks to all the volunteers, it wouldn't have happened without them."
The Cane Hill College with a museum on the top floor was a big draw for visitors too. Reed said it would be closed after the festival for renovations.
David Ellis and Doris Van Wolf were going through photo albums and deciding what to move from the college to a renovated facility next to the drugstore during the renovation.
Jeannie Kisner McClelland, who was helping at the museum during the festival, said she hoped a renovation to the college would get it back the way it was.
"I'm glad we can preserve it so it will be a while longer," said McClelland, adding she went the first through third grade in the building and a short time in the fourth grade until the Cane Hill school district was consolidated with the Lincoln School District.
"Living here was like living in the past, " McClelland said, which was a reflection into the many sights, sounds and living history demonstrations that greeted festival visitors as they took a trip down Cane Hill's memory lane.
Community on 10/01/2014