CIVIL WAR RE-ENACTMENT PART OF MISSISSIPPI VALLEY SCENIC DRIVE

Enlisting the services of 250 Civil War re-enactors is one thing; figuring out how to feed them is another.

So who picks up the tab for 500 pounds of meat, 400 pounds of potatoes, 200 pounds of beans, 25 pounds of coffee and 100 pounds of onions? And don't forget the 25 bales of straw for bedding.

Mary Miller, director of the Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau, and Greg Macke, organizer of the fifth annual Craftfest at Black Forest this weekend, will team up with a sponsors to pay the bill that should easily exceed $1,000.

The bureau will pay about $750. Macke will handle the rest with help from sponsors and the National Guard, which will bring in tanks to slake the thirst of some 60 horses.

The Black Forest Craftfest is part of the Mississippi River Valley Scenic Drive this weekend. However, the Mississippi River Valley Scenic Drive Committee was unable to come up with money for food rations.

Miller and Macke believe they will get a healthy return on the investment because the Union and Confederate soldiers setting up a Civil War battle encampment Saturday and Sunday know how to sing for their supper and attract audiences.

Admission to Black Forest Villages will be $2 for adults; children under 12 will be admitted free.

"The soldiers will set up camp between the villages and keep people entertained the entire weekend," Macke said. "They will try to recruit from the crowd, and should bring people who otherwise might not come just for the arts and crafts."

Macke said there will be 11 cannons and more than 250 soldiers on hand. "We've got 340 soldiers signed up, but I've been told that about two-thirds usually show up," Macke said.

This marks the first year that a Civil War encampment will become part of the Black Forest Craftfest. "Originally there was an attempt to bring the Civil War people to Marble Hill, but they couldn't get a site established, so we decided to have it here," said Macke, who leases the Black Forest from East Perry Lumber Co. of Frohna.

Macke's best crowd thus far has been 3,000. However, with help from the bureau and some good weather he hopes to exceed that number.

Some 70 arts and crafts booths will be set up at Black Forest Villages for this year's spring fest.

Miller said she plans to set up an information tent next to the Holiday Inn in Cape Girardeau to inform visitors about the scenic drive and Black Forest Craftfest.

In addition, the bureau has sent information about the weekend event to other convention bureaus and has taken out an ad in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

"We got 700 responses from that ad last year," Miller said. "We hoped for a good response, but we didn't think we'd get that many calls right away."

Another new phase of this year's scenic tour is an open house and free tours at the Capetown Safari exotic animal park and a visit to the Pleasant Grove Church near Brazeau.

The approximately 150-mile scenic drive will take visitors through the Saxon Hills to Brazeau, Altenburg, Frohna and Wittenburg, site of an 1839 German migration and settlement.

A historic cookie contest and quilt show are among events to be held Saturday at Frohna.

Trail of Tears State Park and Museum, which reflects on the tragic relocation of the Cherokee Indians, is also on the route. Other noteworthy stops include the scenic villages of Sedgewickvile, Patton and Marble Hill.

Scenic-drive participants will see Bollinger Mill, a working mill on the banks of the Whitewater River, and the nearby Little Ole Opry, where there will be a fiddle contest Saturday at 1 p.m.

Other attractions include the St. Louis Iron Mountain Railway working steam train and historic houses in Jackson and Cape Girardeau.

Members of floral societies from as far away as Indiana are traveling by bus to see the Penzel Azalea Farm near Oak Ridge.