Tens of thousands attend McConnells Mill event planned by a handful of people
SLIPPERY ROCK TWP, Lawrence County — There are just 15 people in the Rotary Club of Portersville-Prospect, but an estimated 13,000 people attend an annual event the group plans at McConnells Mill State Park each year.
Jim Butler, the chairman of the McConnells Mill Heritage Fest planning committee, said the Rotary Club, which he is a longtime member of, has always been involved in the 30-plus years of the festival, but its members took the lead on around planning in 2017. The festival was scheduled to take place Sept. 26 and 27 at the park, and Butler said late in the day Saturday that it already felt busier than the previous year.
“Last year was the largest attendance, about 13,500, but it feels more busy this year,” Butler said, while helping run the tractor rides being offered at the event. “It’s free to attend, free to park... I think people appreciate coming for that.”
McConnells Mill Heritage Festival is the third of the big three events planned at the park and its sister park, Moraine State Park, each year, the others being Winterfest and the Regatta. Natalie Simon, environmental educator at McConnells Mill, said the heritage festival is somewhat of a fall kickoff event, but also one that gives people a good reason to come to the 2,546-acre park that Slippery Rock Creek runs through.
Namely, the tours of the historic gristmill draw people in, as well as the numerous booths occupied by vendors selling items, many of which relating to outdoor activity and history.
“It’s a big day for the mill, a big day for people who haven’t been here in a while,” Simon said.
Simon also said the event brings educators from other parks to McConnells Mill, who help organize other activities alongside the park’s main staff of rangers and environmental educators. Rangers came from parks like Oil Creek State Park to help out at the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources booth Saturday and Sunday.
But the event also deploys numerous volunteers, who also help make sure the event runs without a hitch. One of the longtime volunteers is Polly Shaw, who on Saturday demonstrated how to use a weaver for tape, so children and people of all ages could learn about how bracelets and other supplies were made in the time of the mill. The weaving station was even popular with some of the visiting park rangers.
Shaw said the more people who visit a state park like McConnells Mill, the better.
“I’m hoping we have record attendance,” she said.
The top part of the park, the Kildoo Picnic Area, plays host to most of the sellers and activities at the festival, while the lower part, which houses the gristmill, offers the historic side of things. People could easily get to both sides by taking a free ride from a tractor, which Butler was manning.
Butler said the Rotary Club and the festival planning committee normally start rounding up vendors for the event in June, but the event has become so routine that “it feels like it plans itself.” Nevertheless, he and Simon agreed that there are always a few new booths each year, for instance, the Friends of the Bantam Jeep Association, which had a booth for the first time at the fest in 2026.
Butler said the weather was partially to thank for the large crowd Saturday, and he was hopeful the trend would continue Sunday. The committee has a meeting after the festival to count of attendance and debrief about the weekend’s events. Simon said that the parking lots were so full Saturday that she saw people hike to the Kildoo Picnic Area from a ways down the road.
Despite the crowded park, Butler said he always notices families attend the heritage festival together, because it has something for people of all ages.
“It’s the tried and true way of doing things,” he said. “I like to consider the festival very family-oriented.”
McConnells Mill Heritage Festival was scheduled to continue Sunday, Sept. 27, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
