Playing on the porch of historic Prater’s Mill during the Prater’s Mill Country Fair are, from left, Simon Utz and his grandmother Pat Bryant on auto harp, accompanied by Rich Dwyer on harmonica.
photo by Dr. Elizabeth Lambert
The Prater’s Mill Country Fair, slated for Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 11 and 12, is a North Georgia tradition. Founded by volunteers in 1971 to fund restoration of the 1855 mill and surrounding buildings, this rural festival offers fine art, handmade crafts, and Southern folklore. The fair is recognized as a Local Legacy of American Tradition by the Library of Congress.
To celebrate 40 years of quilting at the fair, the Busy Bee Club made an heirloom cardinal quilt. “Since my childhood, I have seen a decline of hand quilting,” said Jeanette Coker, a third generation member of the club. “The Busy Bees have stood the test of time to preserve their traditional craft.”
The Prater’s Mill Country Fair offers mountain music, Southern foods, living history exhibits, and handmade crafts and original art by 200 artisans. Handmade Appalachian craft demonstrations include blacksmithing, chair caning, weaving, quilting, wood carving, and hand tufting, a cottage industry that evolved into the tufted carpet industry centered in Dalton.
Visitors enjoy self-guided tours of the working grist mill, country store, Shugart Cotton Gin and Westbrook Barn, complete with farm animals, a petting zoo, pony rides and the 1898 Prater’s Store.
In a cabin near the store, Dalton Pike Church of God members serve Southern meals cooked over a wood stove, including chicken and dumplings, collard greens and cornbread. Other featured specialties include pit-cooked barbecue, apple cider, fried pies, homemade ice cream and fried green tomatoes.
Families canoe on Coahulla Creek and take a stroll down the nature trails, and children can enjoy pony rides. Educational exhibits are working antique tractors, antique cars and “Peacock Alley,” a clothesline display of handtufted bedspreads. Continuous entertainment features square dancers, country bands and gospel singers. Wandering musicians, dulcimer players and storytellers perform throughout the festival.
The Prater’s Mill Country Fair is sponsored by the Prater’s Mill Foundation, a nonprofit, all-volunteer organization dedicated to historic preservation and education. Thirty-seven civic clubs, churches and schools participate in this community event.
Hours are 9 a.m.-6 p.m. on Saturday and 9 a.m.-5 p.m. on Sunday. Admission is $7, children 12 and under free. Visitors are urged to dress casually and wear comfortable shoes. Parking is free.
Prater’s Mill is located on Georgia Hwy. 2, 10 miles northeast of Dalton, about 30 miles south of Chattanooga. Interstate travelers should take I-75 to the Tunnel Hill-Varnell Exit 341; drive north 4.5 miles to the intersection with Hwy. 2 at Varnell; turn right and continue 2.6 miles to the mill, a total distance of seven miles from I-75.
For more information, call 706.694-MILL (6455), e-mail pratersmill@pratersmill.org or visit www.PratersMill.org.