2012 Bridgeport Spring Festival and 
150th Anniversary of the Covered Bridge
Herb Lindberg
Friday, Saturday, Sunday, April 27- 30, 2012
Part 4 of 4

 

"It takes all of you to make the Spring Festival a huge success! I am very grateful for your participation and enthusiasm. Please let me know if you have any ideas or ways to improve for next year. Looking forward to your feedback and seeing you at the Fall Festival."
Janine Martin  --  Festival Coordinator

This was a very special weekend, so the Park Association, volunteers, and the California Park staff made it into a three-day event.  On the first day, 300 local elementary school children were given special tours of the river, spring flowers, the bridge, the barn, and panning for gold. This large group was broken into 150 lower-grade children followed later in the day by 150 children in the upper grades.  Each group sang a song of appreciation and love of the river before boarding buses back to their schools.  Activities on the second and third days are summarized briefly below.

     Page 1 Day 1, Friday, April 27, 2012.  Elementary school children tour the park and sing a song of praise to the river. 
     Page 2 Day 2, Saturday, April 28, 2012. This was a day of thanks to the many who worked so hard to take SYRSP off the State Parks Department closure list, and celebration of families who lived in what is now Bridgeport, from the Nisenan through the gold rush and on to farming and the Kneebone gas station. A one-act play dramatizing Bridgeport family history was staged this day and repeated twice more on Spring Festival Sunday.
     Page 3 Day 3, Sunday, April 29, 2012, the public is invited for all activities at Spring Festival and two showings of the play, Voices From Bridgeport Past.
Page 4 Day 3, continued. Play audience, John Hart, Mark Lyon, Janine Martin sound effects, table 1919 Ford pickup truck, dam flow-back, plant a flower, paper flowers, picnic in shade, eat a brownie (this page)

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Rapt audience watches Charles Atthill and Marion Jeffery in Voices From Bridgeport Past.


The Union photographer John Hart, ready to take a photo


Mary Ann Thompson (Marion Jeffery) with baby Fannie


Another angle


Mark Lyon watches the play he helped develop.


Producer Janine Martin follows the script at her sound effects table


Ready to signal Grover Cleveland to sound the a-ooga horn on his 1919 Ford


Janine shakes a tamborine.


Grover Cleveland in his 1919 Ford pickup truck


Up closer


Englebright Dam Corp of Engineers model demonstrates dangerous flow that pulls boats into the spill at the foot of the dam.


Ready to help children plant a real flower in real soil


Ready to help children make paper flowers


Picnickers enjoy shade from a tree near the gold panning trough opposite from the barn.


Yummy brownie for desert


Action with a great crown all day  (Photo by Steve Pauly)


Hot dogs sold by Chamber of Commerce.  Clown and youngsters.  (Photo by Steve Pauly)


Many tents with nature themes  (Photo by Steve Pauly)


Ranger Don Schmidt gets ready for the raffle draw.  (Photo by Steve Pauly)


     Page 1 Day 1, Friday, April 27, 2012.  Elementary school children tour the park and sing a song of praise to the river. 
     Page 2 Day 2, Saturday, April 28, 2012. This was a day of thanks to the many who worked so hard to take SYRSP off the State Parks Department closure list, and celebration of families who lived in what is now Bridgeport, from the Nisenan through the gold rush and on to farming and the Kneebone gas station. A one-act play dramatizing Bridgeport family history was staged this day and repeated twice more on Spring Festival Sunday. 
     Page 3 Day 3, Sunday, April 29, 2012, the public is invited for all activities at Spring Festival and two showings of the play, Voices From Bridgeport Past.
Page 4 Day 3, continued. Play audience, John Hart, Mark Lyon, Janine Martin sound effects, table 1919 Ford pickup truck, dam flow-back, plant a flower, paper flowers, picnic in shade, eat a brownie (this page)

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