Fort Ligonier Days attracts record-breaking crowds

The streets of Ligonier were quiet Monday, only the rustling sounds of the fallen leaves on the pavement could be heard. It was a well-deserved reprieve from the 55th Fort Ligonier Days festival that began three days earlier, bringing thousands into the Ligonier Valley for food, crafts, music and a taste of history.

“What a fabulous Fort Ligonier Days,” said Holly Mowrey a co-chairwoman of the event and the executive director of the Ligonier Valley Chamber of Commerce. “Three days of awesome entertainment, second to none.”

“There are so many people to thank for the many different ways they contribute to making Fort Ligonier Days a fall festival that we all can be very proud of,” Mowrey said.

Festival Co-chairman Jack McDowell was more than pleased with the festival attendance.

“I think we have the been small town festival in America,” McDowell said. “We have the best crew and committee in small town America too, which all goes hand-in-hand.”

McDowell estimated the crowd at close to 100,000. He hopes to, one day, get a thermal photo of crowd to get a better count.

“I've been to numerous festivals and can't find one to compete with ours,” McDowell said.

He said more surveys were conducted to get Zip codes to see where people are coming from good to know for advertising.

Co-chairman Bill Stablein said the attendance far exceeded what they were expecting based on the early weather forecasts. He said this year's crowds came late in the day, a factor he attributed to the weather.

“We had a record-breaking crowd. It looked to me that the parking areas were as full as they have ever been,” Stablein said.

Although he does not have a final count from the parking lots, he estimates the numbers to be close to those of 2008 and the Ligonier 250th celebration.

“We had a huge crowd Saturday. We ran out of parking. We have not done that since 2008,” he said.

Stablein credited the entire community for the success of the event.

“Fort Days works out because everybody makes it work out,” Stablein said. “We have great entertainment, a great parade and we are always improving our food booth offering. It is the combination of all that. That helps make it a success.”

This year's festival theme “Echoes of Our Past” got under way during the opening ceremony when Col. Henry Bouquet, portrayed by Bruce Egli of Swissville, informed visitors about the early history of the fort and the significance of the Forbes Expedition, which Bouquet led.

“It is an honor to have his majesty's second in command of the Forbes Campaign with us today in Ligonier,” said Charles Fagan III Trustee Emeritus of Fort Ligonier. “It makes our history come alive for our many guests in Ligonier.”

A full program of historical activities was conducted at the fort each day including gallery talks by Egli on Friday and an encampment and living history demonstrations and reenactment of the Battle of Fort Ligonier on Saturday and Sunday.

“On Friday, Col. Henry Bouquet made history come alive for the 150-plus students from two schools (Penns Manor and Dunbar Township) who were here for field trips,” said Annie Urban executive director at Fort Ligonier. “He was popular with the visitors who stopped in after the opening ceremonies on the Diamond.”

The fort welcomed more than 4,000 visitors during the three-day festival.

“It was a spectacular Fort Ligonier Days weekend at the Fort,” Urban said. “Visitation numbers showed a slight increase over last year; we also had an increase in the number of reenactors joining us — particularly with the French units.”

“We are so fortunate to have Fort Ligonier tie the history into the festival,” Mowrey said.

Ligonier native Tara Lynch-Stempfer of Verona sang the National Anthem at the opening ceremony.

“It was so nice to see so many people here for the opening ceremony,” she said. “My family all came out to support me. They are my biggest fans.”

One Friday visitor found his way to Ligonier from Nashville. While he spend his time visiting with others on the park benches around the Diamond, he said he will never forget his time in Ligonier.

“The first thing I thought when I got to Ligonier was it looked like I was stepping into a Norman Rockwell painting,” said Forrest Gump, portrayed by Paul Dengler of Nashville. “The second thing I thought was that I was in an episode of “Gilmore Girls.” I was looking around for Lorelai.”

Dengler said the town is beautiful and he enjoyed meeting a lot of friendly people.

“I am here to hand out chocolates and meet and greet. People like to take pictures of me to put on Facebook and Instagram and Twitter,” he said. “If I had Facebook and Twitter when I ran across the country, I could have kept in touch better with Jenny. I ran for three years, two months and 14 days and 16 hours. If I had those electronic devices I could have shared all of the beautiful photographs of the places I saw when I ran across the country.”

(Gump) spent the day performing some of his magic tricks while expressing the message he feels the “Forrest Gump” movie was all about.

“The impossible is possible, that is the message of Forrest Gump,” he said. “Impossible is not impossible. It says so in the very word I'm possible. The different between impossible and I'm possible is a little divine spacing and some punctuation from above.”

“It looked like Forrest Gump was entertaining the crowd. I know he passed out lots of Hershey Kisses and enjoyed dancing to the Vogues,” Mowrey said.

Mowrey said the rest of the weekend fell into place as planned, thanks to the efforts of the many volunteers who knew exactly what to do

“Once again our parade committee out did themselves and put together a magnificent parade,” Mowrey said. “We received favorable comments about the crafters really stepping up their game and the vendors expressed how much they enjoyed the Fort Ligonier Days crowd. As always, the food booths served a great variety of treats we look forward to each year”

Mowrey said the newest addition, a wine-tasting area, was very popular and they plan to bring it back next year.

Details about the wine-tasting event appears on page 3. Additional Fort Ligonier Days photographs appear on page 8 and 9.

Detailed information about the winning floats, food and craft booth winners and the 5-K race will be published in the Oct. 23 Echo.

Deborah A. Brehun is a staff editor for Trib Total Media. She can be reached at 724-238-2111 or dbrehun@tribweb.com.