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Photo by Eric Brady | The Roanoke Times

Interpreter Eddie Goode shoots a cannon at the Frontier Fort on Sunday, the last day Explore Park was open to the public. 'We've got good programs. We've got interesting programs,' he said. 'We've got a beautiful facility.'

Keep exploring

At milepost 115 on the Blue Ridge Parkway in Roanoke County, you still can:

• Go bicycling, mountain biking and hiking on Explore Park property
• Visit the overlooks on the parkway spur
• Stop by the Blue Ridge Parkway interpretative center

Sunday at Explore Park, an American Indian interpreter made crafts, men in militia gear fired guns and smoke rose from a rustic cabin, but nobody on staff said, "Come back again" to the visitors.

The living history area and chief attraction at Explore Park closed Sunday because of financial problems after 13 years. Sunday was the regular seasonal closing date, but the typical April reopening has been canceled because no 2008 season is planned. The Brugh Tavern, the park's restaurant, is closed, while outdoor recreation continues this winter.

Some of the 160 visitors who strode the wooded grounds decried the shutdown. Among the park's dozen employees, the reality that a developer is poised to remake the park triggered sadness and doubt, but also some hope. Most everyone seemed to agree that change is coming, and that it can be good, but that it also means the historic area -- beloved as it was by followers from near and far -- is unlikely to ever be the same.

"We just hate to see that it's closing," said Shelia Meadows of Elliston, who has visited the park since 1999. "We've been here for birthdays. We've been here for our anniversary."

Touring with her husband, Ferlin, she snapped a group picture of the militiamen, shook some hands and gave thanks.

Another visitor, Mark Cathey of Roanoke, with children William and Emily, both 9, took what he judged will be his final spin through the park, too.

"This place is immensely valuable," he said. "The kids have gotten a lot out of this place."

The exhibits, including a rustic house and outbuildings surrounded by a tree-post wall -- modeled after the fortified home of Ephraim Vause as it was in 1757 -- will be mothballed in coming weeks. That prospect left some of its creators glum.

"We put four years into this," said Walt Barker, one of the frontier interpreters, gazing up at the settlement built from materials found on the park's 1,100 acres beside the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Much hand labor also went into a 17th-century Totero Indian village and 19th-century home, barns, schoolhouse and grist mill.

"We've got good programs. We've got interesting programs. We've got a beautiful facility," said interpreter Eddie Goode. But the park needs new attractions that make money or some other external private support to continue its rich historic programs for the public and schoolchildren, he said. Existing public funding is unreliable and comes with too many strings attached.

Asked for examples of possible attractions, Goode floated such ideas as a campground that accommodates RVs, a gas station, horseback riding and a short-line steam railroad. More marketing that packages the park and such area amenities as the new art museum in Roanoke would help, too, he said.

Government leaders have given Florida developer Larry Vander Maten until next summer to elect to lease the park property and act on his vision to create an overnight family vacation destination. Officials decided to not reopen the historic areas pending this next phase, details of which have not been made public.

Whatever it is, make it fun, said 9-year-old William Cathey.

"I hope that they are going to build something new that's pretty nice and I know it's never going to be as good as it is," the youngster said.