Qualla: Explore Park

Explore Park: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit J. Albert Bowden II from Virginia Beach, USA, CC BY 2.0. When Disney's America was announced in September 1993 — a planned theme park in Northern Virginia that would dramatize the American frontier — some staff at a much smaller park down on the Blue Ridge Parkway started comparing notes. Explore Park had been pitching a similar concept for years: a recreated 18th-century Virginia frontier, a working tavern, a grist mill, a Native American village, a Lewis and Clark expedition narrative. The Disney project never opened. Explore Park did. It just took a while to figure out what it wanted to be.

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Image: J. Albert Bowden II from Virginia Beach, USA | CC BY 2.0

Explore Park: A Park Built From Other Places

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Roanoke County, VA, CC BY-SA 4.0. Explore Park sits at milepost 115 on the Blue Ridge Parkway, 1,100 acres straddling the line between Roanoke and Bedford Counties. The Virginia Recreational Facilities Authority acquired the land in 1988 with a state appropriation, and over the next decade a remarkable collection...

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Image: Roanoke County, VA | CC BY-SA 4.0

Explore Park: The Florida Developer Who Almost Saved It

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Roanoke County, VA, CC BY-SA 4.0. By 2001, the state had cut Explore Park's annual appropriation, and Roanoke County stepped in with a five-year commitment that papered over the gap. The longer-term answer was supposed to come from Florida. In June 2005, Virginia Living Histories — a development venture led by La...

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Image: Roanoke County, VA | CC BY-SA 4.0

Explore Park: Reopening As Something Else

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Roanoke County, VA, CC BY-SA 4.0. In October 2013, the park reopened under a different arrangement: a 99-year operating lease to Roanoke County, with the Virginia Recreational Facilities Authority retaining ownership. The County's Parks, Recreation and Tourism department took over and reframed the place as a pass...

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Image: Roanoke County, VA | CC BY-SA 4.0

Explore Park: Totero Village and a Tragedy on Film

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Roanoke County, VA, CC BY-SA 4.0. One corner of Explore Park speaks to a deeper history. Totero Village, opened in 2002, reconstructs a Native American settlement from the late 17th century — four houses originally, expanded to seven in 2005, with work shelters, a hide-tanning area, and a garden. The Tutelo peopl...

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Image: Roanoke County, VA | CC BY-SA 4.0