Raw States

Highland County Maple Festival

Monterey, VA · Food & Drink

When

March 6–14, 2027

Where

Downtown Monterey · Monterey · VA

Cost

Not confirmed

Status

Approximate: based on past editions, not announced yet

Held across the first two weekends of March in Virginia's only maple syrup producing county, this festival centers on sugar camps, pancake breakfasts, and craft vendors in downtown Monterey. It has run since the late 1950s and is one of the region's most established food festivals.

The history within reach

• Highland County Maple Festivalsame spot

  Held across the first two weekends of March in Virginia's only maple syrup producing county, this festival centers on sugar camps, pancake breakfasts, and craft vendors in downtown Monterey.

• Highland County's maple seasonsame spot

  The southernmost commercial maple syrup in the eastern United States comes off these ridges, because the elevation gives the freeze-and-thaw swing the sap needs at a latitude that otherwise would not.

• The Green Bank Telescope and the Quiet Zone14 mi

  The largest fully steerable radio telescope on earth sits inside a 13,000-square-mile zone where transmissions are restricted by law, no mobile phones, no wi-fi, petrol engines discouraged.

• The Bath County pumped storage18 mi

  Two reservoirs a quarter mile apart in elevation trade the same water back and forth: pumps push it uphill when power is cheap at night, and it falls back through six turbines when the grid needs three gigawatts in a hurry, which it can deliver in minutes.

• Cass and the logging railroads18 mi

  A company town built to strip the red spruce off Cheat Mountain, using geared Shay locomotives that could climb grades no ordinary engine could.