Heritage Festival presses on at McConnells Mill despite rain
SLIPPERY ROCK TWP, Lawrence County — Two straight days of rain weren’t enough to stop the 31st annual Heritage Festival at McConnells Mill State Park, held over Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 28 and 29.
Organized by the Rotary Club of Portersville-Prospect, the Heritage Festival celebrates the history of McConnells Mill — both the park and its centerpiece, the namesake grist mill which produced flour for decades.
“It's a way of showcasing the beauty of McConnells Mill State Park,” said Jim Butler, president of the Rotary Club of Portersville-Prospect.
Thirty-five food and craft vendors set up in the parking lot of the Kildoo picnic area, including a Portersville staple, The Snowman. The festival also features a petting zoo, complete with alpacas, llamas, tortoises, and pigs, among other animals.
Pennsylvania’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources put on an “introduction to archery” exhibition, which drew over 100 visitors on Saturday.
One popular feature of the festival was the hayride shuttle, which took festival-goers from the Kildoo picnic area to the grist mill. The hayrides were suspended briefly on Sunday due to heavy rain which started shortly after the festival opened for the day.
The calm of the festival was interrupted occasionally by the thunderous roar of a cannon, which was brought to the festival by the 19th Ohio Light Infantry from Salem, Oh., a reenactment group. The cannon fired blank rounds four times each on Saturday and Sunday.
According to Light Infantry member Jeff Johnson, the group is made up of 20 full-time members and some more part-time members who tour the country regularly, demonstrating Civil War-era weaponry — although the cannon itself was a reproduction made within the last 20 years.
“We’re just burning powder right now,” Johnson said. “We’re not shooting a projectile. But we do go to a cannon shoot in Tennessee and shoot live rounds.”
A half-mile hike away from the rest of the festival was the historic grist mill which provides the namesake for the park. Shaw offered visitors tours of the mill, which was a major economic engine for over half a century while it was in operation from the late 1800s to its closure in 1928.
“ (Back then) it could handle the orders from several farmers in the same day,” said volunteer historian Polly Shaw. “And the farmers liked to come down here and visit in the waiting room downstairs, because it was the only time that some of them got to see their neighbors and just chat. They'd see each other at church, but that wasn't a time for gossiping or chatting.”
According to Shaw, one of the mill’s three original turbines is still connected and partially functioning, but in need of minor repairs.
