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DOUGLASS FARM ONE OF FIRST ON WEST VIRGINIA QUILT TRAIL
Travelers on West Virginia’s rural back roads will have some additional scenery to enjoy thanks to the Mason County Tourism Center, a small group of dedicated volunteers, farmers – like West Virginia Commissioner of Agriculture Gus R. Douglass – and farmers’ wives, such as Anna Lee Douglass.
All were on hand at the Douglass farm August 27 to celebrate the hanging of an eight-foot-square wooden “quilt square” on one of the Douglass barns. The square is one of 25 planned for Mason County in the coming year. They will form quilt trails that organizers hope will move more tourist traffic to the state’s farming regions, providing agritourism opportunities for the state’s agricultural community.
The trail running in front of the Douglass Farm has been christened as the “First Lady’s Trail” in honor of Mrs. Douglass, the “First Lady of Agriculture” in West Virginia, according to Denny Bellamy, Director of the Mason County Tourism Center.
Commissioner Douglass thought the trail was appropriately named.
“With the duties and travel associated with being Commissioner of Agriculture, I really haven’t been around here a whole lot. It’s fallen to Anna Lee to take care of the farm to a large extent. I’m very grateful for the recognition she is getting here today, as well as the recognition for all the farm women throughout West Virginia,” he said.
He noted that he is the third generation of his family to live on the farm, a 500-acre cattle and hay operation.
“My grandfather bought the farm in the mid-1800s around the same time as the Civil War. There’s also an Indian burial mound up on the hill. People want to dig into it and I tell them no. I’m a little sentimental about the mound, and I don’t think it should be disturbed.”
Quilt trails can be found in numerous states, said Donna Sue Groves, who is the creative force behind the quilt square concept nationally.
Groves grew up along the Elk River and “West Virginia is always home, even though I live in Adams County, Ohio, on the Ohio River.” Her fascination with barns and quilts goes back to her childhood. She and her siblings used to play a car game where they counted different kinds of barns as they traveled.
“When I was about 10, I saw my first Pennsylvania Dutch hex sign in color on a barn and I was thrilled. My mother was a quilter; my grandmothers were both quilters, so I was imprinted early with quilting and barns.”
In 1989, she painted a quilt square on her mother’s barn, simply to spruce up the dilapidated structure. However, the quilt-square-as-marketing-tool concept didn’t come to fruition until October, 2001, when Adams County hung its first quilt square. Since then, about 20 states have instituted quilt trail programs, Groves said.
“For me, quilt squares and barns are the most easily recognizable icons of rural America and our heritage. By placing a quilt square on a barn… it brings attention” to the farm,” she said.
West Virginia organizer Mollie Yauger believes that connecting to an existing trail will help bring added attention to the Mason County trails.
“Here in Mason County we’re trying to connect the histories of the barns with the quilt squares. Every square has a story. We find a quilt square that’s relevant. Maybe it’s an old quilt that grandmother made, or one that’s very popular with the family and we try to incorporate that,” said Yauger.
For more information, call Denny Bellamy at 304-675-6788, or e-mail dsgroves@bright.net.
The West Virginia Department of Agriculture protects plant, animal and human health through a variety of scientific, regulatory and consumer protection programs, as mandated by state law. The Commissioner of Agriculture is one of six statewide elected officials in West Virginia. Currently, Commissioner Gus R. Douglass is the longest-serving agriculture commissioner in the nation. For more information, visit www.wvagriculture.org.
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