The homes tour is a central attraction of Heritage Weekend. Tickets to the homes tour are available at all three headquarters locations. Tickets for the entire tour are $12.00. Tour of a single home is $5.00. Get information, directions, and house tour tickets at the following Welcome Centers:

Hardy County Public Library, Main Street, Moorefield (304) 538-6560
Lost River Craft Cooperative, WV#259, Lost River (304) 897-7242
Antiques Etc., 295 N Main St., Wardensville, (304) 874-3300

For a detailed description of each historic building on the tour, please visit the "House Tours" page.

The Mathis Ruritan Club will be ready Saturday at 8am to serve pancakes to hungry crowds coming to the old Mathias School cafeteria. Service will continue until Noon. Pancakes will be topped with maple syrup tapped and refined just up the road. The school house is located on Upper Cove off WV 259. There will be a charge for the meal which will benefit the services the Club provides to the community.

Annually, the folks at Arkansaw put on a celebration that brings families home for reunions and brings visitors back again and again. You can expect bake-off quality pies, pit bar-b-que and chicken, handmade crafts and live music peformances on Saturday and Sunday. If you're going for the first time, arrive early on Saturday if you want one of the freshly baked pies. The activities take place in the Arkansaw Community Center located on Arkansaw Road. Turn left off Route 29 North.

With roots that run deep, the folks of Mathias honor their heritage and history during Heritage Weekend at the Mathias Community Center where you'll find good food and handmade crafts, including quilts, comforters, crochet items, candy and bread, wooden benches and bird feeders, cookware, baby clothes, jam and jelly, soap, outdoor plant stands, paintings and more. The Community Center will be open from 10-5 on Saturday and Noon-5 on Sunday.

The Wardensville Community is hosting the first Annual Chili Cook-Off which will be held from 11 am - 3 pm on Saturday only at the War Memorial Building. Many area businesses, service groups, churches, restaurants, and individuals are promising to enter their best recipes. The public will get a chance to rate the chili, and ribbons will be awarded. The event is being organized by the Wardensville Youth Group meeting at the Lutheran Church. An admission fee includes as many samples as one can handle. The event will benefit the group's activities. Bowls of chili, cornbread and soft drinks will also be available for purchase.

Saturday, September 29, 7:00 am - 4:00 pm - Community Yard Sale, Moorefield Town Park $10.00 per space.

No pre-registration required.

9:00 am - 12 Noon, Saturday, September 29 - Special Activities. Hardy County Health & Wellness Center, Spring Ave. Moorefield. FREE Admission.

The ever-popular Potomac Eagle Excursion from Moorefield through the Trough will run Saturday afternoon. Passengers board the Eagle at noon and travel along the South Branch of the Potomac River, enjoying early fall foliage, the bald eagles that nest in stately trees and cruise the river for fish, and the educational narrative that is popular with children and adults.

The train boards at Jefferson Street Crossing in Moorefield beginning at 11:30 am and departs at 12:00 noon. It will return to Jefferson Street at 3:00 pm. Ticket prices for the Trough excursion are $20 for adults and $10 for youths ages 6 - 16. Children under 6 ride free. Tickets are available at the Hardy County Library and the Lost River Craft Cooperative.

While people are enjoying the roundtrip through the Trough, passengers arriving earlier on the Eagle from Romney to Heritage Weekend will tour historic homes in the South Branch Valley. Tickets prices for the Romney to Moorefield include a free house tour ticket. Tickets can be purchased at the Eagle's Romney ticket office or by calling (304) 822-7464 or (304) 424-0736.

Kelly Chapel COB Youth,Town Park, Wardensville
September 29 - Serving: Hot Dogs, Chili Dogs, Sloppy Joes, Sodas

Mathias Community Center, Mathias
September 29 - Serving: BBQ Chicken, Cheeseburgers, Hamburgers, Hot Dogs, Sloppy Joes, French Fries, Vegetable Soup, Drinks, Desserts

Mathias Community Center, Mathias
September 30 - Serving: Cheeseburgers, Hamburgers, Hot Dogs, Sloppy Joes, French Fries, Vegetable Soup, Drinks, Desserts

American Legion Auxiliary #64, Moorefield
September 29 - Serving: Cornbread, Soup Beans, Baked Goods, Drinks

The Soda Wagon
September 29 and 30 - Serving: Caffeine-free Sodas, Sarsaparilla, Cream Soda, Root Beer, Birch Beer and Black Cherry

Moorefield Volunteer Fire Company, Moorefield
September 29 - Serving: Hamburgers, Cheeseburgers, Hot Dogs, Chili Dogs, Soda

Get information, directions, and house tour tickets at the following Welcome Centers:

Hardy County Public Library, Main Street, Moorefield (304) 538-6560

Lost River Craft Cooperative, WV#259, Lost River (304) 897-7242

Antiques Etc., 295 N Main St., Wardensville, (304) 874-3300

Mill Island holds a cherished place in the history of the South Branch Valley, and again this year Mill Island hosts the Civil War Living History Encampment

to give visitors a taste of what camp life was like, along with educational demonstrations and exhibits.

The home is the union of a 1798 brick cottage at the rear and a grand Greek Revival mansion Felix Seymour added in 1840. The front porch has hand-carved Corinthian columns. Inside, the 15-foot ceilings top heavy cornices over every door and window. The bricks were made on the premises and laid in an American Bond. The Corinthian-style columns at the front were carved from single tree trunks. The first floor has 15-foot ceilings with windows 12-feet high.

An 18 x 40-foot ballroom trimmed with elaborate cornice and dentil work was the legendary setting of the South Branch Valley's most elegant social gatherings. Seymour, although wealthy with good land holdings, was not among the social elite until he married well, hitching up with Sidney McNeill of the valley's wealthiest family and owner of its most magnificent mansion, Willow Wall.

During the Civil War, McNeill's Rangers, the storied Confederate Calvary, sometimes used the house for a hospital, and fittingly the Sons of Confederate Veterans, Camp 582, McNeill Rangers, are staging the encampment. Comfort food will be provided for purchase.

Heritage Week began here in 1953 when then-owners Mr. and Mrs. Donald Pryce Jones opened their home to raise money for the Hardy County Public Library.

Mill Island is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Open courtesy of Royce Saville

Directions: From the Moorefield library, go east on Winchester Avenue to railroad tracts. Turn right on South Fork Road 1.3 miles. Turn right at green flag and go 0.7 miles across low bridge.

The history of its black citizens is an integral part of the history of Hardy County. Hardy County was involved in slavery, desegregation and the many transitions leading up to present day conditions.

Blacks have contributed to the growth and prosperity of this county; first as slaves and then as free men and women. They helped as field hands, carpenters, brick layers, blacksmith's cooks, teachers, lawyers and business professionals.

Come and enjoy the exhibit. A sampling of the items on display include photos of the early segregated schools, a handmade baseball and other toys from an earlier era, pictures of some of the slaves who lived in Moorefield, and a couple of pictures where the participants have not been identified. Stop by and see if you can help.

Directions: Presbyterian Church, Main Street, Moorefield.

A necessary skill to provide food and security for the frontier family, muzzle loading of flintlocks is today a sport enjoyed by gun enthusiasts in competition more challenging than shooting range contests. One of the unique aspects of the muzzle-loading shoot is the use of simple handmade targets of tin, coal and straw rather than paper bull-eye targets. The crude targets increase the level difficulty and more closely resemble the challenge the frontiersmen faced. The annual muzzle loading exhibition is held, as in the past, at the Rod and Gun Club on South Fork Road just outside Moorefield at 10am on Saturday.

Added this year will be a 22 Caliber Match also scheduled for 10am. Rules are open site only at 25 yards. No scopes or peep sites. Participants under 16 must be accompanied by an adult.

Jousting, which originated in medieval England as competition for honor and riches between two knights on horseback and armed with a lance, a sword and a circular shield, was popular through the 15th Century. It survives today as a non violent but no less challenging competition using rings instead of humans as targets. The Knights of the South Branch Valley, which was formed in 1957 to revive the competition as a test of horsemanship, keeps the skill alive to this day and annually performs at Moorefield Town Park during Heritage Weekend, this year at 11 am.

At 11:00 am Sunday morning, the Rev. Katherine C. Jackson is leading a special ecumenical Heritage Weekend worship service at Presbyterian Church of Moorefield. The order of worship, the music and the liturgy will be similar to a service from the Civil War. Union and Confederate re-enactors will take part.

Open courtesy of the Presbyterian Church of Moorefield

Directions: Main Street just below Winchester Avenue, Moorefield.

Emmanuel Episcopal Church will conduct a worship using the 1789 Book of Common Prayer and Eucharistic bread that would have been used during the Civil War. Some members of the congregation will dress in period attire, and the original prayer books will be on display. Rev. Michael Simon will lead the service which is also scheduled for 11 a.m.

Open courtesy of Emmanuel Episcopal Church.

Directions: Corner of Winchester Avenue and South Fork Road

On Friday evening at 7:30 pm, the Grant County Arts Council is offering a unique musical experience for the area with a performance by The Missing Person Soup Kitchen Gospel Quartet, otherwise known as Soup Kitchen. (They are a quartet minus one.) The free concert takes place at the First Baptist Church, Virginia Ave., Petersburg.

With roots that run deep, the folks of Mathias honor their heritage and history during Heritage Weekend at the Mathias Community Center where you'll find good food and handmade crafts, including quilts, comforters, crochet items, candy and bread, wooden benches and bird feeders, cookware, baby clothes, jam and jelly, soap, outdoor plant stands, paintings and more. The Community Center will be open from 10-5 on Saturday and Noon-5 on Sunday.

The Moonlighter's CEO's will host an Open House and Heritage Day event at the recently opened Wardensville Visitor Center located on Rt 259 in the north end of town. Activities include free light refreshments, historic photo exhibit of Wardensville, table top displays by local groups showcasing their history and achievements, and craft, quilt and art displays. Music will be provided by Courtney Tusing and his dulcimer at 10:00 am and Eunice and Herbie Brown as they demonstrate their flat footing skills at 1:00 pm. At 11:00 am a panel discussion on local Civil War history will be led by Arthur Halterman and members of the Sons of the Confederacy, Hardy County # 877. The Visitor Center is located in an old schoolhouse/railroad station that has undergone major renovations including public restrooms and a conference room. The building will be open from 10-5 Saturday only.

The South Branch Fiddle and Banjo Contest will be held at McCoy's Grand Theatre in downtown Moorefield on Saturday starting at 6 pm. An acoustic gem, the McCoy is a restored 1920's theater. Competition is held for adults in fiddle and banjo in fiddle, banjo and mandolin for youths. The Keplinger Family Blue Grass Band provides opening and intermission entertainment. This year, Amanda Barger, a talented traditional West Virginia dancer from Petersburg, will be demonstrating Appalachian flat footing during the event. Tickets are $10 and available at the Heritage Weekend Welcome Center at the public library in Moorefield and at the door. Be aware that this event usually sells out in advance.

If you would like to enter the contest, contact Stan Merritt at 304-538-2859. This is an open call contest. Contestants should arrive at the theatre at 5PM to get registered for the show that begins at 6PM.

Thank you to the sponsors who make the contest a success: Adult division: A & A Express Mart, Anderson's Corner, Champ's Tire and Lube, Chad's Barber Shop, Eastern Building Supply - Romney and Moorefield, Fox's Pizza - Moorefield and Wardensville, Guest House at Lost River, Guesthouse Realty, Lost River Crossing, Lost River Real Estate, Riggleman's Towing, and Wolfe's Garage. Youth Division: American Woodmark Corp.

Annually, the folks at Arkansaw put on a celebration that brings families home for reunions and brings visitors back again and again. You can expect bake-off quality pies, pit bar-b-que and chicken, handmade crafts and live music peformances on Saturday and Sunday. If you're going for the first time, arrive early on Saturday if you want one of the freshly baked pies. The activities take place in the Arkansaw Community Center located on Arkansas Road. Turn left off Route 29 North.

Linda Shears, Lea Gregory and Leon Wolfe will join forces at the Presbyterian Church on Saturday from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm with a display of items from their personal collections. Linda has many pieces of cast iron cookware that were used by the family in the past, and Lea will display her collection of biscuit and cracker jars. Leon is a collector of old currency, bank notes and local newspapers, and he enjoys sharing tales of local hisotry with others. Mr. Wolfe plans to be there both days.