A few miles outside of Berryville and nestled along the shores of the tranquil Shenandoah River, lies Watermelon Park. My friend and photographer Chester Simpson, who is a frequent visitor to Watermelon Park to camp out, go kayaking, or spend a lazy day tubing down the river, accompanied me. The park lies along the banks of the Shenandoah River and has electric and water hookups for RV campers as well as spacious fields for tent camping. Like many other parks and camps of this sort this one has a camp store for supplies as well as tubes, kayaks and canoes for rent.

However, here is where the personality comes in to play! Watermelon Park hosts an annual Blue Grass Festival. According to owner John Miller, Jr. there are 1,603 Blue Grass Festivals today…it turns out that the very first festival was held here, at Watermelon Park in 1944. “My dad (John Miller, Sr.) had a gift for outdoor shows,” Miller tells me. “All he wanted to do was make people happy.”

“My dad was a hobo when he first passed through Berryville on his way to southern Virginia looking for work,” Miller begins. “He couldn’t get Berryville our of his mind, and after about 6 months, he had earned and saved some money and he returned.” He discovered this farm along the river and convinced the owner to sell it to him.” “I can’t pay you the whole amount right now, my dad told the farmer, but I will give you all I have now and pay the rest off in three years.” With this deal in place, Mr. Miller senior needed to make some money so he planted about 40 acres of watermelon. Soon he had mountains of watermelons piled up and folks would stop by on Sundays and buy two or three. One day Mr. Miller caught a fella walking through his watermelon field. Grabbing his shotgun, he walked down to the river and sought the man out. After a few words regarding trespassing on private party, Mr. Miller told the man to leave. Before the man departed, he introduced himself as the main produce buyer for the ACME food stores. A friendship was born.

 

About this time, Mr. Miller was also holding watermelon festivals and selling chances on watermelons. “With from 2,000 to 2,500 people showing up, my dad began to make a little money, and also decided to bring in some entertainment,” Mr. Miller says.

The first act he booked in 1947 was Mother Maybelle and the Carter Family for the one-day event. The price of admission was 50 cents. From there the event grew each year with more and more acts added. In 1960 it became a three day festival, the first one ever, anywhere, and the headliners read like a who’s who of traditional blue grass: Bill Monroe, Jim & Jesse, Jimmy Martin, Mac Weisman, Ralph Stanley and the Osmond Brothers, Don Reno and Red Smiley.

“The festival was doing pretty good and then my dad had an idea,” Miller tells me. “My dad called up Don Owens who was a booking agent and told him, I want you to hire every bluegrass entertainer out there for a festival,” “Mr. Owens told my dad that was going to cost a lot, and my dad said, “find out.”’ The cost to hire the entertainers was $3,500. The event sold 10,000 tickets at $1.00 each.

Music partnerships grew out of the festivals. Mr. Miller booked a new group from Waynesboro, Virginia called the Statler Brothers to open for Johnny Cash. When Cash heard the group he hired them on the spot. Porter Wagner and his singing partner, Norma Jean were to perform, however, due to domestic problems Norma Jean would not make the trip. Miller called promoter Carlton Harvey for a replacement…”Yeah, I think I have someone perfect for Porter’s style,” said Harvey. Dolly Parton showed up a day later.

One summer when Buck Owens was the headliner, Miller got a call from Bakersville, California. The authorities on the other end of the line informed Mr. Miller that they had a singer who was getting out of the penitentiary and sang a lot like Owens…could he come to the festival. “Sure, bring him on,” said Miller. A few days later the sheriff arrived with the ex-con in handcuffs, lead him to the stage, took off the cuffs, and Merle Haggard put on a show that thrilled the audience.

By 1979 the three-day event was drawing over 40,000 people. With this many people and food and artisan vendors trouble was bound to raise its ugly head, and it happened a year later. “When a fella bought a belt buckle,” Mr. Miller tells me, “there was a question whether the man gave the vendor a 10 dollar bill or a 20. The vendor showed that there wasn’t even a 20 in the cash box.” “Well, Mr. Miller continues, that man came back and shot the vendor and two others. My dad saw what went on and walked to the stage, took the microphone away from who ever was singing and told the crown, “’If I have to hire the army to protect people at this festival…well I won’t do it…the show is over, go home”’

“My dad missed the music, so he started a festival featuring gospel music, and that went on for 25 years,” Mr. Miller says, “those folks behaved themselves, but were really hard to please.” When John Miller, Sr. passed away John Miller, Jr. wanted bluegrass back at the park. In 2006 Mr. Miller brought blue grass back to Watermelon Park. This September traditional bluegrass has a three-day event where it all began 60 years ago.

This is a small part of the stories that John Miller told us on this hot July day. Much more than I can fit in here. But he did tell us that some folks have been working on a documentary of Watermelon Park for the past two years and should be out on PNBS in the future. The name of the film will be Music Across the Water. Look for it!

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