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Fall foliage festival in Wingett Run

NEW MATAMORAS- The colors of rustic orange, ruby red and bright yellow leaves fell to the ground as people, young and old, made their way to the 27th Annual Fall Foliage Tour in Wingett Run.

On Sunday, people from all over the county came to the last stop of the tour to enjoy homemade apple butter, tractor pulls, and the company of the community.

Hannah Holland started the tour 27 years ago when she noticed a particular need in the local area.

“We were losing our population and our schools needed help, so we did it so we could draw all of the Frontier School District in together,” said Holland. “So year after year we just kept building.”

Holland and her husband, Jack, donated the ground and shortly thereafter built the  Little Muskingum Watershed Association Building.

The tour is sponsored by the association each year and is their main fundraising activity, which they have been planning since March.

According to Holland, the tour is the main source of revenue that facilitates their activities and expenses throughout the year.

Marlene Williamson, 59, of Marietta, has been attending the tour for several years and said it’s something she looks forward to during each fall season.

“I come for the people and visiting with them,” said Williamson. “I love being able to come out and hang out with everybody.”

Holland said this is an event where everyone knows everyone.

“Everybody comes and visits with everybody and there’s no strangers here,” she said. “It brings everybody together and the kids are always safe.”

The tour provides a variety of activities for children such as corn hole, a tire swing and a hay slide.

“This is my favorite part of the whole thing,” said Kaitlynn Antill, 5, of Moss Run. “I’ve gone down the slide like 30 times.”

With good times comes great food, and there was plenty of delicious food served to the tour attendees, including homemade apple butter, apple cider and soup beans.

Karen Eddy, 64, of Wingett Run, and Dan Rinard, 60, of Williamstown, make the apple butter and soup beans from scratch at the tour.

“Everybody loves them,” said Eddy.

Eddy has been coming out to the fall tour for 22 years and said she enjoys every single part of it.

“It’s just seeing everybody come together and seeing everybody have a good time,” she said.

Not only does the tour allow the community to come together but it also teaches the younger generation about how things used to be done, Eddy said.

“It keeps the younger generation with the older generation. They can learn how things used to be done. It keeps the old times alive to teach the younger generations, and there’s a lot of people that are still interested in that,” she said.

This was the first time for Chris West, 62, of Wingett Run, to sell some of her rustic, antique wooden and glass pieces at the tour.

West has been attending the festival for as long as she can remember but this year she has enjoyed talking with the other vendors.

“It’s always really fun seeing the different vendors and talking to all the people,” said West.

West said she was very pleased with the weather and the crowd attendance this year.

“The crowd has been wonderful and the weather has been beautiful,” said West. “It’s too bad the leaves didn’t turn the way we wanted them to, but it’s been a beautiful day, it’s just a little chilly but that’s OK.”

Holland said she has noticed a lot of people from out of the area joining in on the tour festivities as well.

“We always get a good turnout and there’s people here from all over the place,” she said.

Williamson said she thinks the turnout for this year’s tour has done exceptionally well.

“This has been an excellent turnout out this year, which I think is due to the great weather we’ve been having,” said Williamson.

 

Up next

– The next Annual Fall Foliage Tour will be next year during the first weekend of October.

– If you are interested in volunteering for next year’s tour contact Hannah Holland at 740-374-0900

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