By Bill Archer
HILLSVILLE, Va. — They’re back. After a slight dip in attendance/vendors in 2008, the 2009 installment of the Hillsville, Va., Gun Show and Flea Market — now in its 42nd year — seemed to stretch the limits of the tiny Carroll County, Va., capital from its usual 2,200 population, by the tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands.
“If someone can’t find what they’re looking for here, they haven’t been looking hard enough,” an East Tennessee man said as he and his 18-month-old son, Eli, rested in the shade of a tent on Friday afternoon — opening day for the gun show/flea market.
“I came out here at 6 a.m., to start parking them on the hill, and there was already a line,” a parking lot attendant said. Even with one lane of U.S. Route 58/221 closed due to construction, while road-builders work to install a new interchange on the west side of town, people kept coming.
While Friday’s opening-day numbers were significant, Saturday’s numbers were staggering. Sgt. Michael Conroy, spokesman for the Virginia State Police, Division IV, based in Wytheville, Va., said that First Sgt. Mike Musser, a veteran of several Hillsville Gun Show/Flea Market assignments reported that Saturday morning’s crowd was the largest crowd he had ever seen.
“First Sgt. Musser said the number of visitors on Saturday was well over 100,000, and perhaps as many as 200,000 people,” Conroy said. “We won’t have any official figures until after the event ends on Labor Day, but the early reports indicate that that this is a good year for the gun show/flea market.”
The event opened at 8 a.m., on Friday morning, and within a short time, traffic was backed up to Exit 14, on I-77, according to Virginia State Police dispatcher, Martin Paulson. “We had a little back-up (Friday) morning, but it’s going pretty well right now,” Paulson said from the State Police mobile command center set up in the CVS Pharmacy parking lot in Hillsville.
The stagnant national economy didn’t appear to have a major impact on the price of items up for sale at the flea market where old fashioned wall-mounted telephones were selling for $150-$170, or in the Hillsville Veterans of Foreign Wars building were a presentation set of Ottoman Empire dueling pistols were marked, $4,200. Still, Hubley toy trucks were selling for $35 outside in the VFW lot, and assault rifles were available inside the building for around $699. A set of wooden rollers for an old time wringer-washer was selling for $55.
“We fenced in what belongs to us here, and we try to make sure people don’t get taken advantage of,” Ed Buchanan said. Buchanan is senior vice commander of the Grover King Post 1115, VFW in Hillsville. The Hillsville VFW post organized the gun show/flea market as a fundraiser after an ice and snow storm in 1967 caused the roof of the building to collapse.
The event soon outgrew the VFW grounds and spread into surrounding fields. Now, vendors offering everything from Native American crafts to homemade ice cream lined both sides of the main road through Hillsville.
“We watch everything pretty close here at the post,” Buchanan said. “Along with us, we have the watchful eyes of the Virginia State Police watching all of the vendors. I think we do a good job.”
One visitor bought an old Mail Pouch thermometer and told his friends that the temperature on Friday afternoon was over 90 degrees. “I’ve been too busy getting all of this set up to go out and look,” Steve Tibbs of Bluefield said as he relaxed on a folding chair at his booth.
The gun show/flea market opens this morning at 8 a.m., and continues from 8 a.m., until 4 p.m., on Labor Day.
– Contact Bill Archer at barcher@bdtonline.com
