Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, December 23, 1993 TAG: 9312230152
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CATHRYN McCUE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The money will be used to build "Wagon Road West," a walking and horse-drawn-wagon trail through the replica of a 19th century Blue Ridge settlement.
"Typically, we don't get involved in capital projects like this," Jay Poole, a corporate executive, said Tuesday at a news conference. "This was a highly unusual situation."
Poole said the grant was a large one for the tobacco company, which donates smaller amounts routinely to various cultural and educational programs.
Philip Morris sees Explore as an economic development endeavor, and that is positive for Virginia, Poole said. Further, the grant will give the company a presence outside its home city.
"Philip Morris is not just a Richmond corporation. It's a Virginia corporation," Poole said.
Rupert Cutler, Explore's executive director, said the money will help complete the trail work in time for the park's scheduled opening May 4.
Cutler gave much of the credit to Bob Archer, general manager of Blue Ridge Beverage, which distributes Miller beer, a Philip Morris product. Archer, he said, helped Explore officials gain access to the right people at Philip Morris.
"This is sort of a breakthrough for Explore," Cutler said, because the money can be used wherever needed.
Previous donations have been restricted to relocating and restoring specific buildings at the living-history frontier settlement, located in Roanoke County.
The family of the late Horace G. Fralin recently gave Explore a one-room country schoolhouse from Franklin County. The family also donated the $65,000 it will cost to move and rebuild the modest, wood-frame building with stone fireplace and chimney, and furnish it with old readers and slate chalkboards, Cutler said.
The school originally was in the Twin Chimneys area of Franklin County on Virginia 670.
Once known as the Kemp's Ford School, the school will be renamed the Ollie Elizabeth Pasley School, after Horace Fralin's mother, who taught at the school in the 1920s.
The Wagon Road West will be a level, user-friendly trail for people on foot, Cutler said. Those unable to walk can use horse-drawn wagons to travel the trail from the parking lots to the frontier settlement and the Native American park, he said.
In addition to the Philip Morris grant, $50,000 from Roanoke County and material and work donated by quarry and construction companies will complete the park's main entrance road and parking lots by opening day, Cutler said.
Poole, who hails from Wytheville and graduated from Virginia Tech, did not rule out the possibility Tuesday of future cash gifts from Philip Morris for the park.
Staff writer Adrienne Petty contributed information to this story.
by CNB