Apr 16, 2016 3 min read

As spring blooms begin, volunteers with the Mason-Dixon Historical Park want to show off some of the wildflowers and wildlife.

The volunteers will hold a Wildflower Discovery Walk at 1:30 p.m. April 24 in the park that straddles Greene and Monongalia counties at 79 Buckeye Road in Core, W.Va.

Pete Zapadka, one of the volunteers, said they organized the walk to “try to get more people to the park and maybe get some donations.”

The donations will go to Mason-Dixon 250, a celebration the group is planning for October 2017 to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the end of the Mason and Dixon survey.

Zapadka said the Mason-Dixon line has been a lifelong interest of his, and the group is still planning events for the celebration next year.

“It just occurred to me that people in Greene County who are interested in history just ignore the Mason-Dixon line, and I don’t know why, because it was one of the most important events in our history,” he said. “The Mason-Dixon line shaped our country. If we don’t tell people about history, history will be lost.”

Zapadka said now is the perfect time for the 1 1/2-mile interactive walk, which will start in the parking lot next to the red barn, the park’s main building.

“There are lots of wildflowers back there,” he said. “It’s the perfect place for it because along the creek, it’s just beautiful, peaceful and historic.”

The walk will go through a field to Dunkard Creek and follow the trail along the creek. Hikers also will walk through a field called South Bottom, adjacent to a hillside covered in Virginia bluebells.

Walkers also will have the option of taking an unguided hike to the top of Brown’s Hill, where Mason and Dixon placed the last marker of their historic survey.

“It’s the sort of thing, too, that lifts your spirits at this time of year, when we’ve just gone through the long winter,” Zapadka said. “We thought it would be a great way to get out and enjoy this.”

Zapadka said people will not be allowed to pick flowers or other plants during the walk.

For more information about the walk, call the park office at 304-879-4101 or visit masondixonhistoricalpark.com.