Museum of Appalachia shearing event set Friday
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Tom Pyne, of Rockbridge County, Virginia, finishes up the shearing of a sheep during last Friday’s Sheep Shearing Days event at the Museum of Appalachia. - Emma Jayne Williams
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Visitors to the Sheep Shearing Days watch a wool-processing demostration at the Museum of Appalachia on Friday, April 24. The event repeats this Friday, May 1 - Emma Jayne Williams
There’s one more chance to see sheep-shearing and related wool-processing activities up close this Friday, May 1, during the final Sheep Shearing Day of the year at the Museum of Appalachia in Norris.
The event runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., and follows last Friday’s first Sheep Shearing Day of the year, which museum officials described as a “great success.”
Curator Eric Ashton said the museum had about 1,200 visitors for last Friday’s first day of shearing, including about 800 schoolchildren.
But he said he expects a bigger crowd
– about 1,800 – for this Friday, which would include about 1,200 kids.
Many of the children are bused in for the event by their school systems, and some come from as far away as Cookeville in Tennessee, and from nearby areas of eastern
Kentucky and Southwestern Virginia. “We thought last
week went excellently,” Ashton said. “Visitors got to see demonstrations of sheep shearing, as well as the process of wool getting from the sheep to the clothes we wear every day.
“We had perfect weather, and the kids had a great time,” he said.
The shearer for this year is Tom Pyne, of Rockbridge County, Virginia, Ashton said. “He shears about 4,000 sheep a year.”
This Friday, about 15 sheep will get their summer haircuts, including the three sheep who make their home at the museum.
“We’re also expecting about 30 different historical demonstrations to take place for visitors to see,” Ashton said.
Held annually, this student-focused event explores how pioneers turned wool into clothing, and features hands-on activities and immersive learning experiences with Appalachian artisans, educators, and musi-
cians.
Along with
sheep-shearing demonstrations, the event will include springtime pioneer activities for students and families.
Tickets are $20 for adults (18 and up); $18 for people 65 or older, military or first-responders; and $10 for ages 6-17. A family pass is $50, which includes two adults and up to six children. Kids under 6 are free with a parent. Museum members are also admitted free.
Admission also includes tours of the museum farm and village,
which contain some three-dozen historic log structures, exhibit halls filled with thousands of Appalachian artifacts, working gardens, and farm animals, according to the museum website.
Also available will be live music, sheep-herding demonstrations, interactive children’s programs, animal meet-and-greets, and food vendors.
Animals to see
and greet will include mini-donkeys, mini-horses and goats, and, of course, the museum’s ever-present peacocks.
