Passport
HCT&CA is proud to once again offer the Heritage Weekend Passport. Pick up passports at any of the welcome centers.
This passport is designed to enhance and enrich your visit to Hardy County, becoming your personal travel record with the stamps and notes of your visit experience. Not only is the book fun, but it is a great educational tool to turn a day at the festival into a lesson about the History of Hardy County and more. Some teachers will be giving extra credit for participating in passport activities.
Look in the Official Heritage Weekend Booklet to find the clues on where to find the locations, times and activities to receive your stamps. Bring your passport back to a Welcome Center before 3pm on Sept. 30th with 10 or more stamps and receive a special prize. All completers will also be entered into a Grand Prize Drawing.
Corn Husk Dolls
Saturday 10am-11am
While most people are familiar with corn’s importance as a food source, the cornhusk, a byproduct, has been useful as well. With an abundance of corn grown on the region’s farms, Appalachian people developed a particular fondness for the material, especially for the making of dolls. While not unique to the Appalachian region, cornhusk (or corn shuck) dolls and crafts enjoyed a special popularity that reached its peak during the Craft Revival period in the early 20th century. Despite the lasting appeal of cornhusk dolls, hats, bags, and other cornhusk arts, comparatively little is known about the origins of the craft. The earliest examples of cornhusk dolls were made by Native Americans. While most tribes used the dolls as toys for children, the Iroquois and Oneida tribes incorporated cornhusk dolls into their religious practices. It is not known if Native Americans taught Colonial Americans the craft, or if the practice developed in parallel, but cornhusk dolls were made by European settlers and by African slaves. All three groups used the same basic technique to craft the dolls. The outer wrapping of the corn cob, the husk, was soaked until it could be shaped and then dried to create the desired form.
Coloring Contest.
The Moorefield Examiner Heritage Weekend Supplement will contain information of a coloring contest with a picture of a spinning wheel. Children are encouraged to enter the contest by coloring the spinning wheel and returning the picture to one of the welcome centers no later than September 30, at 3 pm. Age groups are 6 and under and 7 to 14. A winner will be selected from each group to win 2 tickets on the November 23rd, 7:30pm, ride of the Santa’s North Pole Express Train.
Rag Dolls
Rag dolls are a favorite old-time toy for children. They were easy to make from scrap material. Money was tight in pioneer days, so rag dolls were made from whatever was left over from sewing projects. We welcome you to come make your own rag doll at Moorefield High School on Saturday September 29th from 11am-12:30pm. Kits to make the dolls will be $4 and will include everything needed to make the craft.