Parke County Covered Bridge Festival

The Parke County Covered Bridge Festival, of Parke County, Indiana, is a fall festival which is attended by more than 2 million people a year. [ [http://www.southernin.com/Pages/archives/october_00/covered_bridge.html SouthernIN.com - Parke County Covered Bridge Festival ] ] It begins on the 2nd Friday in October and lasts 10 days.

The countywide festival celebrates the county's 31 covered bridges and involves nine communities. Tourists may view the historic bridges using five color coded driving routes, which are marked with roadside signs. Local communities organize vendors to offer food and a variety of arts and crafts. Rockville, Indiana, is the headquarters of the festival, which began in 1957 when some of the locals wanted to show people from other areas what went on in the county and make some extra money by selling some of the things they made.

Each small town's part of the Covered Bridge Festival has its own flavor. Rockville's town square is a wonderful place to experience local color. Bridgeton is especially known for a more artistic collection of wares. And Mansfield, which has the most merchants by far, has everything from handcrafts to hardware. Each town is a must-see in itself, too. Rockville's courthouse is a wonder. Both Mansfield and Bridgeton have beautiful bridges, as well as working mills. The Bridgeton bridge was burned by an arsonist only a few years ago, but the community rallied to raise funds for local craftsmen to build a new bridge based on the original blueprints.

References

* [http://www.coveredbridges.com Official website]