CANE HILL -- Visitors can step back in time at Cane Hill Harvest Festival this weekend as they observe a tradition of making lye soap, sorghum molasses, hominy, quilting and enjoy living history stories about the community during the 19th century.
The 28th annual festival is being kicked off with a parade at 10 a.m. on Saturday and visitors are encouraged to bring a lawn chair and enjoy a day of history, fun and music.
All entrants are welcome in the parade and must begin line-up at 9 a.m., according to Daylene Reed, festival chairperson.
Linda Doede will be performing a Living History Presentation with her Grandma stories. Doede is a seventh-generation descendant of several of the Cumberland Presbyterian settlers who came to Cane Hill in 1827. The stories are reflective of her ancestor and grandmother Martha Blair Billingsley, who lived in the area during the 1800s.
Reed said she wants everybody to enjoy the lifestyle of yesteryear.
"There will be music, food, arts and crafts, quilt show, children games and a petting zoo," Reed said. " Come and watch as history unfolds at the festival."
A country breakfast will be available Saturday and Sunday from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. at the Cane Hill College, according to Reed. A lunch of beans, cornbread and cobbler will be available at noon.
Reed said bluegrass and country music on Saturday will include the groups Flint Ridge Ramblers, Flying Buzzards and East of Zion.
"On Sunday we'll have gospel music," Reed said.
A country store on the lower floor of the college will have homemade items such as books on the college and town of Cane Hill, t-shirts, old fashioned hats or bonnets and more. The upper floor of the college will house a museum collection of items from an earlier time in the area.
Reed said local artists will have their artwork for sale at the festival this year. There will be arts and crafts booths for visitors to explore and perhaps buy one-of-a-kind items.
Something new this year -- visitors can tour the recently restored A.R. Carroll Drugstore, which was built in 1900, said Reed. "It's fully renovated now."
One of the highlights of the festival is the making of sorghum molasses. Leaves are stripped from cane grown by the Reed family, one of the earliest settlers in Cane Hill. Juice is squeezed from the cane and then transferred in buckets to copper vats where it is cooked for hours on a hot bed of coals. When it is ready, it is poured into jars and sold to visitors attending the festival. Apple butter also is available each year at the event.
A quilt show will be presented along with spinning wheel demonstrations and a lace guild will be showing visitors how to do tatting and making lace, according to Reed.
The quilt show begins at 8 a.m. daily. A raffle donation will give someone a chance to win a homemade quilt.
Cane Hill is located on scenic Arkansas 45 and three miles from U.S. 62. All proceeds from the festival fund the maintenance and restoration of the buildings and grounds.
Parking and admission is free for visitors.
Community on 09/17/2014