HUNTSVILLE | For one Saturday each September, the Museum of Scott County becomes more than a place where local history is preserved. It becomes a place where that history comes alive.
The annual Heritage Festival returns to the Museum of Scott County on Saturday, Sept. 26, offering a day filled with traditional Appalachian crafts, music, food and demonstrations. The festival will be held from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m. at the museum complex on the campus of Scott High School in Huntsville. Admission and parking are free.
The Heritage Festival has become one of Scott County’s signature fall events, drawing thousands of visitors to a museum that is itself unlike almost any other.
Throughout the day, visitors can watch craftsmen and demonstrators practice skills that were once part of everyday life in the mountains of East Tennessee. Past festivals have featured everything from blacksmithing and rifle making to flint knapping, weaving, frontier cooking, sorghum making and apple butter making. Bluegrass and other traditional music add to the atmosphere, while food and craft vendors give visitors plenty to browse as they make their way around the grounds.
It all takes place against a particularly fitting backdrop.
The Museum of Scott County isn’t simply a collection of artifacts inside a conventional museum building. Spread across approximately two acres, the complex includes more than a dozen log and stone structures and tells the story of Scott County and the Cumberland Plateau from prehistoric times through the modern era. Its exhibits include thousands of historical artifacts, a pioneer village, an interactive children’s learning center and a museum devoted to the USS Tennessee, the battleship that survived the attack on Pearl Harbor and later fought throughout the Pacific during World War II.
Perhaps most unusual is the museum’s connection to Scott High School. The complex has been built, operated and maintained by students under the guidance of faculty. Since its grand opening in 2003, it has grown from a single log structure into an extensive historical village and educational project.
That student involvement continues during the Heritage Festival, when Scott High students demonstrate skills they have learned through classes associated with the museum project.
The result is a festival that isn’t simply about looking at the past from behind glass. Visitors can hear the ring of traditional tools, smell food being prepared in old-fashioned ways, listen to the sounds of Appalachian music and watch skills being practiced much as they were generations ago.
The second annual Highlander Heritage Pageant is also scheduled for Sept. 26 at the Museum of Scott County, adding another activity to the day’s festivities.
For families looking for an inexpensive fall outing — or anyone interested in the history and culture of the Cumberland Plateau — the Heritage Festival offers an opportunity to spend a September Saturday stepping into Scott County’s past.
The Museum of Scott County is located at 400 Scott High Drive in Huntsville. The Heritage Festival runs from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 26. Admission and parking are free, and pets are not permitted.
