Big crowds show up for museum’s annual sheep-shearing event
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Caia Sanford, 6, left, and her friend Nori Melton, 5, make friends with 5-week-old lamb Franklin at the Museum of Appalachia on Friday (April 22) during the museum’s first sheep-shearing day for 2023. Franklin is a bottle-fed lamb who loves attention, his owner said. - G Chambers Williams III
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Lindsey Gallaher, grand- daughter of Museum of Appalachia founder John Rice Irwin, has taken over the position of president of the museum as of Jan. 1. - G Chambers Williams III
Sunny, mild weather and the prospect of communing with sheep and other farm animals brought a steady stream of more than 1,500 schoolkids and other visitors to the Museum of Appalachia in Norris last Friday for the first sheep-shearing event this year.
Rain or shine, the event will be repeated on two more Fridays, May 5 and May 12, said new museum President Lindsey Gallaher.
It was the first sheep-shearing day for the museum under Gallaher’s watch. She took over as head of the museum on Jan. 1, replacing her mother, Elaine Irwin Meyer. Gallaher is the granddaughter of the late museum founders John Rice Irwin and Elizabeth Irwin.
“This is our first ‘new-normal year’ for the sheep-shearing” since the pandemic hit in 2020, Gallaher said. “This year, we didn’t have to limit the number of people coming.”
On hand for last Friday’s activities was shearer Bristol Brown of B&B Livestock in Clinton, which brought eight sheep for the shearing to join some that are already in the museum’s own flock.
It takes about 15 minutes to shear a sheep, and how well they tolerate it depends on the individual animal, said Brown’s mother, Breeanna Standford.
“It’s like kids and haircuts,” she said. “Some like it, and some don’t.”
The process does not hurt the sheep, and they actually end up enjoying the result – which leaves them with much-shorter coats for the hot summer months ahead.
The museum has been holding the annual event for more than 11 years, said Will Meyer, who is Gallaher’s brother and the museum’s marketing director.
“We have a few events that are big boosters for us and help us show some of the Appalachian traditions,” he said.
Hours for the remaining two sheep-shearing days are 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tickets are $10 for adults (18 and up) and $8 for ages 5-17. Museum members are admitted free.
Brown will do the shearing again May 5, and Tom Pyne will be on hand for May 12.
Tickets are available through a link on the Museum of Appalachia Facebook page or at museumofappalachia.org. For more information or to book a group, call the museum at 865-494-7680.
Admission also includes tours of the museum farm and village, which contains some three-dozen historic log structures, exhibit halls filled with thousands of Appalachian artifacts, working gardens, and farm animals, according to the museum website.
There also will be spinners and weavers on hand so visitors can see how wool is made into finished products, Meyer said.
Also available will be live music the entire time, sheep-herding demonstrations, interactive children’s programs, animal meet-and-greets, historic demonstrations, 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.