Taken from Rockville’s Sesquicentennial Review, 1974
Back in 1957, Rockville was like just about every other town of 2,500 population in the United States, and then came the Covered Bridge festival.
Let’s start at the beginning. On July 12,1956, Mrs. Charles W. Cole of Oxford, Ind., wrote a letter to W. B. Hargrave, off The Rockville Republican. She grew up in Rockville and remembered our covered bridges, so she brought two friends with her and they spent two days trying to find them. She could locate only 20 of the 41 bridges and was so disappointed that she wrote that letter of complaint. She could not undersand "why we weren't doing something to let people know we had all these covered bridges in such beautiful scenery."
The editor published her letter and wrote an editorial to the effect that Parke County was missing a grand opportunity to attract tourists to stimulate the economy. It should be noted that at this time Parke County was in one of its deepest depressions. The Wabash Ordinance Works had been shut down, many people moved away and many who did not move were out of work. A flood in June of 1957 had washed out over 50 of the county's bridges, including two covered bridges. That threatened a bond issue.
On the bright side, however, a swimming pool was being built in Beechwood Park by volunteer labor and a golf course planned to be built the same way. This had demonstrated that with proper incentive, Parke County citizens would corporate in a manner unmatched anywhere in the U.S.
Mr. Hargrave took his plan to the Long Time Planning Committee and they approved it and asked him to form a committee and get going. It was almost a year before Judy Snowden, a member of the committee, and her husband, Jack came up with the idea of holding a festival in October when the hardwood trees were in full color. Right here it should be noted that practically every feature of the Festival which has made it so popular was conceived by Mrs. Snowden. She has an inborn instinct to know what people like to see and do.
In just six weeks the committee whipped their plans together and the Festival was held on three days of a beautiful weekend in October. The Festival would be different —not just a home-coming with parades, bands, queens, and gambling concessions—and it would be free of commercialism. This policy has never changed, which is one of the major factors in its success.
The committee set up a budget of $600 for expenses to put on the show. Harris Borden was chairman of the finance committee and they collected $930. That cleared the first hurdle with plenty to spare.
A tent was borrowed from an auctioneer and put up in the north-east corner of the courthouse yard. In it guests would get programs and maps of the covered bridge routes. Parke County Products, Inc., had their stand in the tent, along with a puny display of Parke County industry. Austin Noblitt was in charge of the tent and cooperation with the Chamber of Commerce and Rockville Town Board. Rufus Hartman was chairman of the three covered bridge routes, selecting the roads and covered bridges and marking them with cardboard signs. Aarol Jacks arranged to have organizations man refreshment stands on each of the routes. Jim Barnes and Tommy Mills were in charge of the special features - barbecue chicken dinner, pancake breakfast and entertainment. Judy Snowden was historian and wrote the script for the guides on the tour busses. Louise Chapman was in charge of getting citizens to rent rooms for guests. Randall Thompson was in charge of the chicken barbecue. Russell Garrigus and Lawrence Bradburn were in charge of the bus guides. John Hays was treasurer.
A free covered bridge slide lecture was given by Glen Harvey, naturalist at Turkey Run, on Friday and Saturday nights. The pancake breakfast was served in the school cafeteria by the DAR ladies and cooked by members of the Rockville Rotary Club. An art display was in the courthouse corridors in charge of Mrs. Sam Davis. The weather was perfect those three days and if it had rained as it did at later times during the Festival, it just might have died aborning. Those who are familiar with the Festival, and who isn't, can see from this description that it has never changed—just new features have been added year by year. When the results were totaled up, the treasury still had that $900 to stage the next one. And there would be another one, because about 2,500 guests came and they liked that they saw and did.
Having established a basic pattern for the Festival which had proved successful, the only feature that would change from year to year would be the Saturday night entertainment. Even this was changed as the crowds grew and the Festival grew from just two weekends to 10 full days—the Parke Players took over the entertainment and give six performances.
The entertainment features by years follow: 1957—Square dance; 1958—Belles of the bridges; 1959—Parke County Family Album; 1960—Quarter horse demonstration at Adams Farm; 1961—Birthday for Jackson covered bridge's 100th birthday; 1962—Barbershop Quartet contest; 1963— Vehicles on the Move; 1964—Historical Fashion Revue; 1965—Historical Review of Popular Entertainment; 1966—Parke County, Indiana—150 years (repeat of Review with Herb Shriner at Chautauqua Sesquicentennial); 1967—Silent movies at the Ritz Theatre; 1968—Old Fashioned Horse Show; 1969—Band Wagon Tour of Parke County; 1970—Band Wagon Tour; 1971—"Ten Nights in a Bar Room;" 1972—"Deadwood Dick;" 1973—"Dirty Work at the Crossroads."
As already noted, new features were added to the Festival. At the second Festival the Farmers Market was started; at the third, the barbecue chicken dinner was changed to the pit beef barbecue dinner. What eventually proved to be one of the most popular features of the Festival, the Pioneer Activities was started at the fourth Festival. The name was later changed to Early Activities. Organizations set up stands in the courthouse yard and made apple butter, cider, crullers, "beans on wash day," home made bread, smoked ham and bacon, etc. To begin with, in order to encourage participation, prizes of $100, $50 and $25 were awarded by vote of the Festival guests. The prizes were dropped when the project became so lucrative for the organizations. At the seventh Festival, the Scare Crow Contest was started. This is probably the only one in the U.S., at least it is the first. At the tenth Festival in 1966, the Festival became a full 10-day ; Festival, instead of just two weekends. At the eleventh, Mecca and Montezuma staged their own Festival for the first time.
The first four Festivals were in charge of just a committee of' volunteer leaders. There were no officers, no minutes were kept, no insurance against damages was taken out and for that reason it must be said they had more enthusiasm than sense—they all would have been liable personally. In 1961, Parke County, Inc., was organized as a non-profit corporation and the Covered Bridge Festival Committee was organized with officers and directors and operated under the non-profit corporation. In 1963, the committee was reorganized into the Parke County Covered Bridge Association. When Billie Creek Village was started in 1966, Festival, Maple Fair and the village merged into Parke County, Inc. In 1972, Billie Creek Village was formed into a separate non-profit corporation and Parke County, Inc., kept the Festival and Maple Fair.
During the years of the Festival, three of Parke County's 39 covered bridges became 100 years old and fitting ceremonies were observed: Jackson in 1961, Mansfield in 1967 and Mecca in 1973. It was in September of 1958 that Parke County found out it was the No. 1 county in the U.S. in number of covered bridges. This was confirmed by contacting a county in Oregon and a county in Ohio, which formerly had more when the festival was started.
In 1961, when Parke County, Inc., was organized, a tourist center was established by renting the Sam Chesser blacksmith shop in partnership with the Historical Society which used the room for its museum. In 1972, Parke County, Inc., purchased the 90-year-old Pennsylvania depot in Rockville and remodeled it into the Tourist Center. The Historical Society moved their museum to the old school house on West Ohio Street. Experts on tourism marvel at the publicity the covered bridge tourist promotion has had from the beginning and the first dollar has yet to be spent on advertising in newspapers, magazines, radio or TV. Foremost is the Chicago Tribune which before all the Festivals but one has featured it with stories and pictures, many of them in color. Many have asked the reason for this, so here is the story for the first time in print: Dan Tortorell, a reporter-photographer for the Tribune, came to Rockville in 1957 to interview Arthur A. Hargrave, who was to be 101 years old that year. Dan was told about the plans to hold a Covered Bridge Festival in October. He not only wrote stories for the Tribune and Chicago papers, he came down here for the Festival again the next year. In between he made several trips here to confer with the committee and gave many helpful suggestions. When he left the Tribune, Mike Schafer, a feature reporter for the Tribune, took over and following his death.
Another reason Parke County is so well known Chicago area is Leon Lawrence, an amateur photographs and covered bridge buff. He discovered the Festival while passing through Rockville and ever since has been taking literally thousands of photographs down here. He made up a program of color slides and lecture and for years have been presenting it to clubs and organizations in the Chicago area. For the past several years he has taken over the job of presenting his lecture several times at each of the Festivals.
After the third Festival, W. B. Hargrave, who had served as general chairman of the committee, resigned to take over the publicity chairmanship and as editor of the Courier. His place was taken by Jim Barnes and Austin Noblitt as co-chairmen.
From the first meeting of the Festival committee, Noblitt was in it up to his neck. In 1964, when the Festival had grown too big for the committee's pants, "Nobby" assumed the position of executive secretary on a part time basis. Later full time and was paid a modest salary. He ran the show efficiently and tirelessly that much of the credit for the success of the Festival, Maple Fair and Village is his. In 1972, "Nobby" resigned and Charles Felkner became the executive secretary of Parke County, Inc., and Billie Creek Village. Today Parke County, Inc. serves as the Tourist Information Center. A board of directors serves as a governing body.
What most amazes people who come to the Festival is the number of citizens who volunteer their time and work on the various phases of the Festival—either for the committee proper or as members of organizations that have projects. And there lies the secret of success of the Festival - dedicated leadership and cooperation of the citizens. Credit also goes to the County Commissioners, County Council and Rockville Town Board. Without doubt, there is no community in the United States that surpasses the cooperation of Parke County citizens in a project that benefits all of them.
Purdue University made a financial survey of Parke County after the 1972 Festival and came up with the figures of $1 million benefit to the county and the Festival is still growing. It's come a long way from that first $930 budget and 2,500 attendance. It is estimated that in the 10 days of the last Festival, the attendance was near 2 million people.
Parke County's program for preserving its covered bridges must be explained because that is why the county will always be the No. 1 County. Three of the bridges have been moved to new locations. When a bridge becomes unuseful for traffic, a new right of way is bought by the county commissioners and the covered bridge left standing.