MISSISSIPPI VALLEY DRIVE APRIL 22-23

Nearly 300 Civil War re-enactors will participate in a spring festival at Black Forest Villages as part of the fifth annual Mississippi River Valley Scenic Drive April 22-23.

Southeast Missouri State University's Center for Regional History is coordinating the drive, which provides a chance to see spring foliage and learn about history.

The Civil War re-enactors will be at Black Forest where they will establish a camp, History Center Director Frank Nickell said. Working crafts, pony rides and a band will be featured.

Perryville will serve as the northern entrance to the scenic route. There will be a tent set up there just off Interstate 55, with maps and visitor information.

New to the event will be an open house and free tours at Capetown Safari exotic animal park and a visit to Pleasant Grove Church near Brazeau.

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

A cookie contest and quilt show are among happenings April 22 at Frohna.

Trail of Tears State Park and Museum, which commemorates the tragic relocation of the Cherokee Indians, is also on the route, as are Sedgewickville, Patton and Marble Hill.

Scenic-drive participants will be able to visit Bollinger Mill on the Whitewater River and the Little Ole Opry, where there will be a fiddle contest at 1 p.m. April 22.

Also featured will be the St. Louis Iron Mountain Railway steam train and historic houses in jackson as well as sites in downtown Cape Girardeau.

On a side trip to Penzel's Azalea Farm near Oak Ridge, travelers will see more than 8,000 blooming azaleas and rhododendrons. Members of floral societies from as far away as Indiana will be making bus trips to the farm.

Side trips to Old Appleton, Friedheim, Tower Rock, Rocky Holler and Marquand also are marked on the maps, which are available from the Center for Regional History. The center can be reached at 1-800-777-0068 or (314) 651-2555.