ROCKVILLE, Ind. — Most years, the trees in Parke County, Ind., have turned a sparkling yellow, fiery orange and deep red by mid-October, just in time to make up one of the highlights of the area’s annual Covered Bridge Festival.

But this year, visitors were greeted by mostly-green foliage on the festival’s opening day.

“The colors are usually really vibrant but, unfortunately, right now we’re not seeing that. The weather has been a major factor for the leaves,” explained Cathy Harkrider, executive secretary of Parke County, Inc., referring to Indiana’s unusually warm fall temperatures.

With or without fall foliage, the 51st Parke County Covered Bridge Festival is underway, this year attracting nearly 2,000 vendors to the rural county that boasts 31 bridges and a population of just over 17,000. Centered about the courthouse square in Rockville, the festival offers close-up views of the bridges through five different bus routes.

The appeal of the wooden structures of yore has made the festival one of the largest in the country.

“Our oldest bridge was built in 1856 and it’s still in use. It’s a piece of history that people can drive through,” said Harkrider. “For a moment, you can take a step back in time and imagine what it would’ve been like to ride across one of these bridges in a horse and buggy.

“We all live such hectic lives now, but this festival gives people an opportunity to just kick back and relax.”

When the festival first started, most of the crafts for sale were handmade by local artisans, and those are still given preference by the festival’s organizers. But as the event keeps growing, vendors from as far away as Alaska and California have found their way to the Covered Bridge Festival.

Many crafts still hold high quality, but not all have the local flavor they used to, said Parke County resident Brigitte Carver, who has sold her gourd art and dried flowers for nearly 30 years. “Everything here is handmade – no China imports,” she said, and gestured toward her best-selling gourd Christmas ornaments and hand-painted refrigerator magnets. “But I’m probably one of the few left.”

Newcomer Donna Hartman of Springfield, Ill., was hoping to drum up interest for her dyed and scented salt crystals. “I don’t really know what to expect, but I’ve been really busy this morning,” she said, in between answering questions about her unique crafts from curious visitors.

Hartman started manufacturing the colorful potpourri from raw sea salt in her garage after she lost her job as a cable television manager three years ago, and now sells it over the Internet and at festivals in seven states.

“Since the start, we’ve sold 40,000 to 60,000 pounds of salt,” she said.

Other vendors, like Gary Smith of Rockville, work regular jobs and only offer their products during the festival.

“I just do it for the 10 days, because it’s a nice way to meet people,” he said, while stirring a giant copper kettle of sweet-smelling pumpkin butter, a festival classic that can be used as spread on toast and bagels or heated up and poured over ice cream and waffles.

Tomorrow, the festival’s theme is Agriculture Day.

“Agriculture is the number one source of income in Parke County and it’s something we wanted to pay tribute to,” said Harkrider of the new theme.

The history of agriculture is also intertwined with the fate of the bridges, since the reason why some of them were eventually bypassed was that farmers weren’t able to get through them with their combines.

Antique farming equipment will be on display, giving visitors a chance to see how farmers harvested crops then and now, and USDA representatives will make an appearance at the festival. “Some farmers have even taken time off harvest to come visit us,” Harkrider said.

The Parke County Covered Bridge Festival runs through this Sunday.