Volunteers and work crews are sprucing up Prater’s Mill before this weekend’s annual country fair.
“They are painting the mill and doing some carpentry. It would be finished by Saturday,” said Judy Alderman, president of the Prater’s Mill Foundation. “We want it to be Prater’s Mill perfect.”
The foundation has hosted the fair since 1971, and the fair brings in some 200 vendors and 8,000 to 10,000 visitors each year.
“We have many new artists and craftsmen and musical acts each year. We also have many who have been coming to Prater’s Mill for years,” Alderman said.
Among the new vendors this year will be Valeria Silva, with locally grown chestnuts and chestnut meal; Leo Whaley, with jams and jellies, salsa and pepper relish; and Rita Waters, with baked sweet potatoes and fried green tomatoes.
Visitors can watch organic corn being stone ground into grits, meal and corn flour in the mill.
In addition to the mill itself, visitors can take self-guided tours of the nearby country store and the Shugart Cotton Gin and Westbrook Barn, complete with farm animals and a petting zoo. In a cabin near the store, Dalton Pike Church of God members will serve authentic Southern meals of chicken and dumplings, collard greens and cornbread cooked on a wood stove.
As always, canoe rides and pony rides for children will be available.
And both Saturday and Sunday will be filled with plenty of musical performances and dance groups. In addition to local favorites, visitors can watch and listen to up-and-coming artists. “American Idol” runner-up Lauren Alaina gave one of her earliest performances, before her TV fame, at the Prater’s Mill fair.
“We like to think that it gets better every year,” Alderman said.
John Pitner and his son-in-law Ben Prater built the mill in 1855 with what was then the most technologically advanced grain cleaning, grinding and sifting machinery. The mill, which is powered by Coahulla Creek, is now on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Boring family donated the Prater’s Mill site to Whitfield County in 2010, and the Board of Commissioners leases it to the foundation.
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Ann Clark of Chattanooga, left, shows some of her wind chimes to visitors at Prater's Mill Country Fair last year. (File photo by Matt Hamilton/The Daily Citizen)
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October 10, 2012
Prater's Mill 'perfect' for weekend fair
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College bound
Noel Salaices poses next to his picture on the Advanced Placement Scholar wall at Dalton High School. (Matt Hamilton/The Daily Citizen)
Noel Salaices said he has become inspired over the past year to look beyond his circumstances and realize the blessings in his life.
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