A youngster enjoys a Advance Rumely Steam Traction Engine, Cotton Ginning Days Festival, October 9, 1999. Photo: Kermit Hull

Cotton Ginning Days

The focal point of this annual fall festival is a restored working cotton gin on permanent exhibit in Gaston County Park in Dallas. Today more than 25,000 people are drawn here to see more than 300 exhibits of antique agricultural and textile machinery from all over the Southeast. The purpose of the festival remains the same as the small invitational show first held in 1988: to preserve the heritage of blue-collar workers in the South and provide festival-goers an experience of life as it was lived in the late 1800's and early 1900's. A 19th-century farm reconstruction is under development. Bluegrass and traditional music performances provide entertainment, and a number of children's activities include train and pony rides and a petting zoo. A videotape, text, newspaper articles, and photographs document Cotton Ginning Days.

Originally submitted by: Sue Myrick, Representative (9th District).

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