Woolly wonders
Sheep shearing, pioneer fun return to Museum of Appalachia
Visitors watch a sheep-shearing demonstration at the Museum of Appalachia in Norris during last year’s Sheep Shearing Days event. This year’s event will be held on two successive Fridays, May 2 and 9. (photo:G. Chambers Williams III )
Besides the sheep-shearing demonstrations, the event will include springtime pioneer activities for students and families.
More than two-dozen of the woolly beasts will be getting their spring trims for the visiting crowds, which will include school groups from all over East Tennessee.
The museum has been holding the annual event for more than 10 years, said Will Meyer, 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.
The event runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on both days.
Tickets are $20 for adults (18 and up); $18 for people 65 or older, military or first-responders; and $10 for ages 6-17. A family pass is $50, which includes two adults and up to six children. Kids under 6 are free with a parent. Museum members are also admitted free.
Admission also includes tours of the museum farm and village, which contain 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 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.
Because the museum doesn’t have a huge population of its own sheep, there will be some brought in for the event, Meyer said. “We have some here, but not that many.
“This is something the sheep actually welcome,” he said. “It does not hurt them, and it cools them off for the summer.”
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.
“We say [the event is]s to help welcome the warmth of spring,” Meyer said.
“And as for the sheep, just like us they need a haircut, too,” he said. “This also gives kids an up-close, first-hand look at where their clothes and blankets might come from.
“It’s an excuse for us to welcome tons of school kids, and bring artisans and craftspeople to the museum to demonstrate their work,” Meyer said.
“We’re expecting about 1,000 students each day. We even have some to come here from parts of Kentucky and Virginia.”
