METAMORA — At their monthly meeting last week, Historic Metamora made a monumental decision.
Because the financial return on their considerable efforts is too low, the not-for-profit organization elected to stop sponsoring Canal Days.
Canal Days has been traditionally one of the biggest moneymakers for the town, but the original thrust of the effort has gone askew and instead of old time, handmade craft items on display and for sale, you are now more likely to find discounted items made in faraway places like China and Taiwan.
Al Rogers, who has been Historic Metamora’s frontman on all things Canal Days, says after 47 years he has had enough. He remembers Canal Days was the reason he came to Metamora in the first place.
He was in Brookville talking with local real estate broker Jim Hyde, who owned some buildings in Metamora, and Hyde mentioned the canal town’s plan to hold something called Traders Rendezvous. As he recalls, it was put together by Paul Baudendistel, Jim Wendel and several other people and was intended to highlight craft-making and quality antiques and collectibles. Since Al and his wife Pat were antique dealers at the time, he decided to give it a try.
The trouble is he came way too early and while his promptness did reward him with a great spot to set up, he also got hooked into the strange charm Metamora exudes.
“As I recall, that was 1969 and I’ve been doing it ever since,” he said.
He and his wife eventually moved to Metamora and presently live in the finest house in town. But both of them are getting on in age and health problems have caused Al to finally say enough is enough.
“I wanted to go for 50 years,” he said. “But when Historic Metamora talked about stopping their involvement in Canal Days, I figured it was a good time for me to stop, too.”
While Historic Metamora provided the backbone for what became known as Canal Days, their bowing out will not stop the annual three-day festival, held the first complete weekend each October. Historic Metamora was responsible for the vendors along Main Street from roughly the mill to the old hotel. They would also rent Tow Path Park each year from first the Department of Natural Resources, and more recently, Indiana State Museums.
At the meeting a committee was formed to determine how best to extricate the group from the event. Connie Wendel, originator Jim Wendel’s wife, is heading up the committee, which will report back to Historic Metamora at their next meeting in April.
While Canal Days attendance has been down, certain groups like the Whitewater Canal Byway Association depend on the revenue from Canal Days to keep their annual operations afloat. Several years ago, when WCBA was deciding whether or not to purchase what was then the MacLynn Campground on U.S. 52 across from Metamora proper, the projected revenue from Canal Days alone was a major factor in choosing to go ahead with the purchase of what is now called Gateway Park.
Not all Metamora residents see Canal Days as a boon. Some see it more as a blight.
One new resident, who experienced his first Canal Days actually living in town last year, feels it cheapens the town. Certainly residents who have no financial interest in Canal Days have to suffer from streets being blocked and strangers wandering over and around their property and their privacy.
Canal Days brings in around 100,000 people on a good weekend and the influx of so many people caused the Metamora Sewer District to build a sewage treatment plant and system that would accommodate those large numbers. The problem is, for most of the year, a plant of less than half its size and capacity would have sufficed.
Whether Canal Days will continue to diminish as an annual event in Metamora is uncertain, but one thing is sure, after 2015 Historic Metamora will no longer be part of it.
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