Fall brings festivals
Little Ponderosa event planned for Oct. 5
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This file photo from last year’s Little Ponderosa Fall Festival shows the camel Baby Cash that the zoo acquired as a rescue in 2022, and which has become popular with visitors to the zoo and rescue in the Dutch Valley community of Anderson County. - G. Chambers Williams III
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Pony rides will be available during the coming Little Ponderosa Fall Festival. These children took advantage of that activity during last year’s festival. - G. Chambers Williams III
This year’s Fall Festival at Anderson County’s Little Ponderosa Zoo and Wildlife Rescue in Dutch Valley will be Saturday, Oct. 5, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The festival is an important fund-raising event every fall for the Little Ponderosa, helping the zoo to buy the necessary feed and supplies to keep its animals warm and happy over the coming winter.
Besides the many animals on display both inside and outside the zoo’s buildings, there will be vendor booths set up throughout the property, and several food options to keep visitors fed, including a Kona Ice truck.
Also slated is the third-annual Chili Cook-Off, which allows contestants to enter a crock pot of their favorite chili recipe to vie for prizes. Entry fee is $25, and the money goes to help feed the zoo’s many animals.
Prizes include an annual family pass to Little Ponderosa, a zoo hoodie, and a zoo T-shirt or hat. Contestants must register in advance.
“We will have live music, vendors, face painting, games, pony rides, inflatables, great food, buckets of food to feed the animals, and a gift shop,” zoo officials said.
A bounce house and inflatable slide will be set up to keep kids entertained, and pony rides will be available for children, as well.
The zoo’s animals will be the real stars of the show, including plenty of baby goats, many of whom will be roaming the grounds and making friends with the visitors; and Baby Cash, a curious, friendly young camel that the zoo acquired two years ago as a rescue.
There is a marmoset monkey exhibit, opened last year, that visitors can see, built by zoo directors Cade and Corbin Cox.
Little Ponderosa’s Cookshack will also be open, offering food and ice cream treats.
School buses will be on hand to ferry visitors to the zoo from remote parking areas, and the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office will direct traffic and help keep visitors safe.
Tickets for the event may be preordered for $8 each, instead of the regular price of $15 for adults (18-65); and $10 for juniors or seniors (3-17, or 65-and-up). Call 865-457-5536 and order tickets over the phone.
Vendor spots are still available for $50 a spot.
Little Ponderosa is at 629 Granite Road, in the Dutch Valley community of northwestern Anderson County between Clinton and Rocky Top Clinton.
Regular operating days and hours are Monday-Saturday from 10 a.m.-5 p.m., and Sunday from noon-5 p.m.