CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Despite critics of the project, former West Virginia Governor Gaston Caperton went through on an idea of a statewide artisan center along the West Virginia Turnpike 25 years ago. With that idea came the Tamarack Marketplace along Interstate-77 in Beckley, which celebrates 25 years on Saturday.
David Dickirson, former member of the Parkways Authority’s Board of Director and chair of the Economic, Development & Tourism committee under Caperton, told MetroNews when he looks back at the past 25 years and the facility today, it was all worth it.
“We eventually came up with the idea of a large artisan center situated along the Parkway that we hoped could capture a number of people, most of which would be out of state. It turned out we did. As many as half a million a year go through Tamarack now,” Dickirson said.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Caperton and his staff began to upgrade rest areas along the turnpike with a small percentage of a $143 million bond which was issued by the Parkways Authority. During the grand opening of the Princeton Center, which included food, music and crafts, Caperton told Dickirson that it was then the idea for the Tamarack was born.
“Gov. Caperton came in for that opening and he made the comment to me and Ms. (Cela) Burge that the atmosphere with the sights, sounds, smells. He said ‘Wouldn’t it be great if we had something like this every day in West Virginia, not just one day or three-day festival.”
According to the Tamarack’s website, Burge, the then director of Economic Development and Tourism, and officials began to meet with craftspeople from around the state to develop a marketing strategy and how this could be accomplished. Dickirson said the governor’s staff even traveled to other states who had similar craft centers.
In May 1993, the project was awarded to Clint Bryan and his associates, Doug Bastian and John Harris. A Beckley firm, Radford and Radford, won the construction contract, according to Tamarack.
Along came the official groundbreaking on August 8, 1994, where visitors sampled food from The Greenbrier, including the fried green tomatoes that have become a signature of Tamarack.
The Tamarack, which currently features thousands of West Virginia-made products and a fine arts gallery, opened in May 1996. COVID-19 forced a delay of the anniversary celebration in the spring.
Dickirson said after the first weekend it was open, he knew it was a success.
“I called the governor about 9:30 in the morning on a Monday morning because we opened on the weekend, and gave him the sales total for the weekend, Saturday and Sunday. Both of us were a little bit stunned,” he remembered.
LESS THAN A WEEK AWAY! ? Tamarack Marketplace is celebrating 25 years. We will have demonstrating artists, local food & brews, & live music. The line-up is incredible. Don’t miss this day full of fun for all. There will be activities for kids too. pic.twitter.com/KGQfTtKYQx
— Tamarack Marketplace (@tamarackwv) September 21, 2021
Dickirson said the controversy came from the Parkways Authority being a quasi-government agency. He said the authority created its own income, own revenue and own expenses, not under the umbrella of West Virginia’s budget. Dickirson said that upset the state legislature to know that the authority was doing a project of that scale without its oversight.
Dickirson said another misconception was that tax and toll dollars were spent on building the Tamarack, which he said is untrue.
The Tamarack website states in October 1989 the Parkways Authority issued that $143 million bond with a small percentage set aside to upgrade rest areas along the turnpike, and concession revenues from these – not toll revenues or tax dollars – were to fund tourism and economic development projects.
“I think people didn’t understand what the output, the result could be. It was a lot of money,” Dickirson said.
Dickirson said Caperton knew the perception was the Tamarack was not working based on the measurements of the cash registers inside but looked at a larger scale. Dickirson pointed to an early economic study of the facility to the large impact it has had on the state.
Caperton had a legislative audit done and found it has more than $18 million in the state in its first handful of years in business.
“We felt very justified in the investment and what it was doing for West Virginians,” Dickirson said.
According to the Tamarack, by the end of its first year in 1996, more than 1,300 West Virginia artisans were selling their wares at Tamarack, over 450,000 people had visited, and sales had topped $3.3 million. In December of that year, the one-millionth visitor walked through the doors.
In June 2003, a conference center on the grounds opened which was sparked by the partnership with The Greenbrier.
According to the Tamarack, gross revenues have topped $78 million and purchases for goods and services have exceeded $65 million. More than 2,800 artisans from all fifty-five counties have become part of the Tamarack family.