Leaves late for party

¢The 45th Annual Maple Leaf FestivalA special section of the Lawrence Journal-World and the Baldwin City Signal.

The trees might be a little late this year for the celebration in honor of their color change, but Baldwin’s Maple Leaf Festival promises a weekend of activities marking the season nonetheless.

Set for this weekend, the festival in its 45th year is expected to draw as many as 15,000 people to the southern Douglas County hamlet, said Sharole Prahl, festival committee chairwoman.

And she’s “praying and hoping” the trees will be ready for the onslaught of admirers.

“Some of them are just now starting to turn,” she said.

A devastatingly dry summer has been hard on the trees in northeast Kansas and may delay their peak color time until next week, said Craig Martin, chair of the department of ecology and evolutionary biology at Kansas University.

Still, he said, cool nights and warm, sunny days have made ideal conditions for color changes, and he predicted “the fall colors will be rather dramatic.”

Scott Nicholson, from the United Kingdom, walks beneath one lone tree that has changed color in a row where many remain green along the 1200 block of Tennessee Street. Nicholson was in Lawrence visiting a former school friend Tuesday. The trees might be late for the celebration in honor of their color change, but Baldwin's Maple Leaf Festival promises a weekend of activities marking the season nonetheless.

The festival in Baldwin is set to kick off Friday with the performance of a melodrama, carnival and haunted train rides.

Live music, city tours and a parade are scheduled for Saturday and Sunday.

What began as an arts and crafts show set up on card tables in yards has evolved into one of the biggest fall festivals in the area, Prahl said, with visitors coming to Baldwin from all over the state.