ROCKVILLE, Ind — When the leaves begin to turn and the air is a little nippy, it is time for Parke County to throw out its welcome mat.

For the 52nd year the Parke County Covered Bridge Festival, a couple million visitors are expected to descend on western Indiana during the 10-day event that opens Friday.

“We have three phones lines, and they are ringing all the time,” said Cathy Harkrider, executive secretary of Parke County Inc., the organization that puts on the festival each year with hundreds of volunteers. “We had 15,000 requests last week.”

The festival features the county’s 31 covered bridges, towns and countryside showcase crafts, antiques and fall foliage.

The Harry Evans bridge in the south part of the county is marking its 100th birthday, and the bridge will be featured on several souvenir items.

The courthouse square in Rockville is the central headquarters for the festival with 150 vendors underneath tents on three sides of the courthouse lawn and on Jefferson and Market streets. More than 20 food shacks will be on the lawn offering various items ranging from beans simmered over an open fire and hot biscuits to persimmon ice cream and pudding.

The booths will be open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. EDT daily. Free entertainment will be on the south side of the square.

A new book, “Festival Chronicles,” will feature 50 years of the festival in its 80 pages. It features news clippings from area newspapers.

Colleen Coble, author of “Anathema,” a fiction Christian suspense based on the Amish in the county, will sign books Sunday under the big tent on the courthouse square.

“I have read it, and I like it,” Harkrider said.

Another author, Richelle Pennington, who wrote “Christmas Tree Shop,” will be under the tent all 10 days.

Bus tours the square daily from the tour booth located on the northwest corner of the square. The guided buses will make stops at communities in the county and provide views of the covered bridges. While the bus tours go on only three of the routes, all five routes may be toured by car.

Montezuma has its pig roast and tours of the Wabash and Erie Canal. Tangier is famous for its buried beef, and apple butter making is on tap in Bloomingdale. Mecca has a restored one-room school and Bridgeton and Mansfield feature craft and flea markets.

Billie Creek Village, Parke County’s turn-of-the-century village a mile east of Rockville, features 30 historical buildings and three covered bridges. You can stroll in the past with crafts and pioneer food.

The Parke Players will present a melodrama most nights at the Ritz Theater.

“We will have a color guard with our Salute to Veterans on Oct. 15,” said Joyce Paddock, who works at the tourist information center. The color guard will be from the Indiana Department of Corrections Region 5.

Dane Bailey, known as the singing auctioneer from Fort Wayne, will be featured that day.

Harkrider said the county is ready for the influx of visitors.

“There will be a lot of good eating,” she said.

IF YOU GO

To reach Parke County, go south on Indiana Route 63 from Interstate 74 to U.S. Route 36, then go west, or take U.S., Route 41 south from I-74 to Parke County.

For additional information, call (765) 569-5226 or e-mail pci@ticz.com