The 2008 Elizabeth Celtic Festival

Blake's Bridge

Last year, the core of the Festival moved from the baseball fields, south into the trees...what Joel Johnson, Director of the Elizabeth Parks and Recreation District calls, "Sherwood Forest." There's a small streambed (gully) that the Festival committee envisioned having a bridge over...to create the sense of being in a magical place and crossing up into a Highland Glen or meadow (this works better with a little imagination).

Wendy Hiserote of the Elizabeth Festival Committee coordinated this effort, which was done by Explorer Scout (a rank beyond Eagle Scout) Blake Lowe. The result is a wonderful (and walkable) footbridge, solid as a rock (you can drive a golf cart on it), yet able to be taken apart in sections for storage.

After some debate about finding a fancy, magical name for the bridge...we decided that "Blake's Bridge" had a good ring to it. "Brigadoon" from "Brig (Bridge) of (the River) Doon," made famous by Robert Burns' most famous poem (Tam o'Shanter) and then the Lerner and Loewe* musical, Brigadoon...may have been just a bit too contrived, although we've really stretched the bounds of taste just about everywhere else!

*(No relation to Blake Lowe, even though their last names sound the same)


Here are some pictures of bringing the bridge to Casey Jones Park a week before last year's Elizabeth Celtic Festival.












Blake Lowe (bridge builder) and the "bringers of the bridge" (his friends)
(Left to Right: Lee & Mary Lowe, Wendy Hiserote (Festival Bridge Liaison), Blake Lowe (the builder),
Scotty Autin, Logan Keicher, Jason Reil, Ivan Santoyo, and David Reil.)


Blake's Bridge at the 2007 Elizabeth Celtic Festival.
Left: Sunday morning early arrivals.
Right: The Michael Collins A.O.H. Pipes & Drums end the Festival on Sunday, by marching down Brigadoon Lane and over Blake's Bridge to end at the Front Gate.

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