Visitors descended on Edgar Evins State Park Saturday for the sold-out 12th Annual History Hayride for the two-and-one-half hour tour where actors portrayed individuals and scenes depicting the history of the park.
Each wagon also held a tour guide who had a running narrative along the 11 stops.
“We were sold out completely,” said Fount Bertram, president of Friends of Edgar Evins State Park which sponsors the hayride along with park employees. “It’s a signature event every year and everyone who goes seems to enjoy it.”
The idea for the event came from former Park Manager Carl Halfacre, a native son of the area who presented  it to the Friends of Edgar Evins State Park, a state-recognized non-profit organization formed in 2003 with the first History Hayride taking place in 2006. All proceeds from ticket sales go to help support the park.
Located on 6,000-plus acres in DeKalb County along the shores of Center Hill Lake, the park is named after Smithville businessman James Edgar Evins (1883-1954). Evins was instrumental in the development of the Center Hill Dam and Reservoir in the 1940s.
He was the father of former United States Representative Joe L. Evins, for whom the nearby Joe L. Evins Appalachian Center for Craft is named. The Evins family began pushing for the establishment of a state park along the DeKalb portion of Center Hill Lake as early as the 1950s.
So it’s no coincidence the first person riders are greeted by is Randy Hedgepath, Tennessee state naturalist, who portrays Evins and in character tells the story of the “early days” leading up to the park’s creation and the development of the area.
“I like to keep busy,” Hedgepath as James Edgar explained to the group. “In 1907 I married Myrtie (Goodson) of Smithville and we found common ground through compromise. I was a Democrat and she was a Republican. I was a Baptist and she went to the Church of Christ. So we compromised in politics and religion. She became a Democrat and I joined the Church of Christ and we got along just fine.”
Evins and his wife bought a home and opened a store but unhappy with the amount of money he was making, expanded his career, becoming one of the most successful traveling salesmen for the St. Louis Coffee Company.
He explained he bought an invention of Henry Ford’s called the Model T to get around but roads were rough at the time. Then in 1920 he founded a bus line, which served Smithville and DeKalb County. Later he organized the Consolidated Oil Company, first to fuel his buses, but then to fuel the ever-expanding need to fuel the new Fords being bought.
Not content to rest on his laurels, he built and operated the Evins Flour Mills. In 1935-1937 and 1945-1947, he served two terms in the Tennessee State Senate. At his death in 1954, he was recognized as one of Tennessee’s most progressive and influential citizens.
Other local characters encountered in the tour were The Emcee, Luke Denny; Moonshine Hauler, Minnie Walker Trapp; Elizabeth Dale “Black Widow of Hazel Green;” Amon Pack “Grave Digger;” Mrs. Alexander K Dunham; Milton the Moonshiner, William C. “Bill” O’Neal, Charles Bradford and James Johnson, Adam Dale, John Fite and a Paleo-Indian woman who lived in the area before it was even settled.
The actors included many local residents such as retired DCHS school teacher Carol Denson Williams, Carter Cantrell, Lori Christensen, William “Freddy” Curtis, Jane Denning, Danny Hale, Randy Hedgepath, Carl Halfacre, Miles Malone, Gerald Melton, Marcia Melton, Charles Robinson and Holly Taylor.
Edgar Evins Eagle Scout Troop 875, graduated Smithville Girl Scout Troop 875 and Smithvile Girl Scout Troop 3094 were on hand to help out.
Tour guides were Suzanne Halfacre, Sandy C. Brown, Tara Wohlgemuth, Tee Hunter, Lynette Hall Nenortas, Melanie Nistad, Tylee Nistad, Phillip Gibbons, Peggy Richardson and Douglas Combs.