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Accommodations and
Meals
Lodging is available
in two forms, cabins holding parties of 4 to 6 people, and
rooms in the Lodge - not unlike any respectable hotel. Both
provide all amenities that you would expect in a hotel. The
cabins are rented as intact units, based on "group"
occupancies of 4 to 6 persons. Different from the Lodge, the
cabins offer kitchen facilites and a fire place. Pets are
allowed only for certain situations and in certain areas of
the Park - call ahead before you bring a pet. Parents are
responsible for the supervision and safety of their children
during the weekend. The Lodge provides regular "Southern
Style" meals in addition to the Saturday Wild Food Bufet
Social and other wild food sampling opportunities. Come
prepared to eat way more than your stomach can hold.
Camping
Options: If you
have a camper or you want to tent camp, do the following:
Fill out the Nature Wonder Weekend Regisration form,
indicating the Wild Food Activities and meal options you
want. Note somewhere on the page that you intend to camp and
will arrange that with the park. Call the park at one of the
numbers above and make arrangements. They will tell you your
options and the cost. You will pay the park directly. Once
you've made camping arrangements, mail in your registration
with your check. camping sites are assigned on a first come
first serve basis, so make reservations early.
History of Nature
Wonder Wild Food Weekend
In the mid 1960s
Edelene Wood was learning and teaching about wild foods in
West Virginia. She was conducting seminars and hosting wild
food dinners. At the time, Edelene was an officer in the
"Little Kanawha Regional Council". The Council's purpose was
to foster nature appreciation and recreational activities
through regional improvement projects in West Virginia.
Edelene told one of her friends of her interest in writing a
book on wild foods. Her friend told her that Euell Gibbons
had beaten her to it. Edelene bought his books and began
using many of his recipes in her wild food dinners. Whenever
her participants expressed caution about eating some of the
wild foods, Edelene would comfort them by saying that all
the recipes could be found in Euell Gibbons books. Edelene
wrote Gibbons, telling him of her interest in wild foods and
of some of the seminars and dinners she hosted. They began
corresponding and became fast friends. In 1968, the people
at North Bend State Park in Cairo West Virginia and Maxine
Scarlburo of the West Virginia Department of Natural
Resources, asked Edelene, as a member of the Little Kanawha
Regional Council, if she knew of a speaker who could attract
enough participants to fill the Park for a nature
appreciation-style weekend. She called Euell, who accepted
for a $100 speakers fee. At the time Euell's agent was
getting him a $5,000 fee for his speaking engagements. When
people found out that Euell was going to be there, the Park,
it's cabins, and campground filled completely for that first
Nature Wonder Weekend. Euell fondly began referring to
Edelene as his "public relations representative" for West
Virginia. The weekend was filled with nature walks, talks on
wild foods, making friends, and creating wild food dishes
for everyone to try. Euell was the feature speaker at the
Weekend for the first 8 years until his death in 1975. Euell
wrote lovingly about the weekend in his book "Stalking the
Faraway Places" in the chapter "Gathering of the Wild
Gourmets". Edelene and the West Virginia State Department of
Natural Resources developed the charter and began the
National Wild Foods Association after Euell's death in 1976
to foster communication and to unite all the people around
North America who hold the common interest of wild foods.
The Nature Wonder Wildfoods Weekend has been running much
the same since the beginning, longer than any other wild
food event in North America.
A "Typical" Nature
Wonder Weekend Agenda
Friday
 2:00 pm: Registration Begins
3:00 pm: Park Tour
6:30 pm: Dinner
8:00 pm: Welcome, Weekend Preview
8:15 pm: Keynote Speaker Presentation
9:15 pm: Contest Winners Announced,
Tasting Party and Social Hour
Saturday
7:00 am: Breakfast
8:30 am: Short, 2 mile Wild Food
Interpretive Hike
9:15 am: Long 4 mile Wild Food
Interpretive Hike
12:00 pm: Lunch
1:00 pm: Preparation of Foods for the
Wild Food Potluck Feast
4:00 pm: Wild Feast and Social Hour
6:30 pm: Dinner (You might want to skip
dinner, instead, use your meal ticket for an evening snack
before 10pm)
8:00 pm: Keynote Speaker Presentation
Sunday
7:30 am: Breakfast
9:00 am: Worship Service
10:00 am: Wild Food Roundtable - Question and
Answer Period
11:00 am: Closing Remarks
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