The Heartbeat of America: America 250 Through the Lens of Apple Festival 75

To commemorate the Murphysboro Apple Festival's 75th anniversary, I've spent the past week interviewing over fifteen members of the Murphysboro community about what the festival means to them.

They all, more or less, said the same thing.

The Apple Festival is the heartbeat of Murphysboro.

The most provocative question I asked came to me during my very first interview.

In 2008, I worked on a Burger King advertising campaign called "Whopper Freakout." The premise was simple: remove the Whopper from the menu and record people's reactions. Appreciation by deprivation.

So I borrowed the strategy.

I asked people to describe a world without the Apple Festival.

Many were taken aback by the question. Some laughed. Others paused for a moment before answering. One answer ended in tears.

They simply couldn't imagine it.

Murphysboro without the Apple Festival is a bit like Burger King without the Whopper.

The Apple Festival isn't just an event. For seventy-five years, it has become part of the identity of this community. We are the Apple City.

It is one of the tentpoles of our year, carrying the same weight in many families as Christmas, as more than one interviewee put it. People plan around it. They come home for it. They measure time by it.

Throughout this project, and in the book that inspired it, I have explored why traditions like this matter.

As our nation prepares to celebrate America's 250th birthday and Murphysboro celebrates 75 years of the Apple Festival, it's been impossible not to consider one with the other.

A town doesn't mean much without its traditions. A country doesn't either.

The people of Murphysboro come together for the Apple Festival. Those who have moved away come home for it. Volunteers devote years, some decades and lifetimes, to organizing it. Local businesses contribute trucks, equipment, sponsorships, and support. Together, they welcome nearly 45,000 visitors each year.

That's the power of tradition.

When the Apple Festival began in 1952, its purpose was simple: bring foot traffic to Murphysboro businesses.

Seventy-five years later, it still brings visitors to town. But more importantly, it brings Murphysboro to Murphysboro.

And like apple butter, traditions like these don't preserve themselves.

The Apple Festival has lasted 75 years because generation after generation showed up. They volunteered. They marched in parades. They baked pies. They decorated storefront windows. They set out lawn chairs on Walnut Street. They made memories worth passing down.

Murphysboro Mayor Will Stephens told me that in the seventy-five years of the festival, not a single person has been paid for their efforts. Currently, the volunteer count is over 160.

And every time I attend the festival, I experience a sense of unity unlike anything else I've experienced. For one week each year, people of all ages come together to celebrate a shared tradition and place. There's something comforting about that. After all, who can't agree on apple pie?

It is easy to think of America as something distant: institutions, laws, elections, or monuments. But those things do not sustain a nation any more than our festival runs itself.

What preserves our great and free country is participation.

Through volunteering. Through civic engagement. Through gathering, celebrating, and yes, sometimes debating.

National identity is built locally.

Mayor Stephens put it this way. He said it was a bit cliché, but it's about the best analogy I can think of:

"There's an American flag flying over there and it's made up of I don't know how many stitches, but if too many of them get frayed, the whole thing comes apart."

The Apple Festival is the heartbeat of Murphysboro.

And towns like Murphysboro are the heartbeat of America.

The things we cherish need us to continue them and each generation has to decide whether that is worth doing.

For seventy-five years, the people of Murphysboro have made that choice.

We'll see you in September.

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Author's Note: To commemorate the Murphysboro Apple Festival's 75th anniversary, I recently interviewed over fifteen members of the Murphysboro community and asked them a simple question: "Tell Me About Your Apple Festival." Inspired by my debut children's book, Tell Me About Your Apple Festival, the interview series will launch August 1 on my social channels, with the book following in September. I hope you'll follow along.