If the math is correct and it’s really broken down, pseudo-scientifically, of course, there’s about four light bulbs to every inch included in Oglebay’s Festival of Lights road tour.

  • 6 Miles – Oglebay officials extended the festival route to the Speidel golf area soon after its first year in 1985.
  • Oglebay’s website reports there are more than 100 lighted attractions with more than a million LED lights along those six clicks.
  • All of the bulbs must be tied down with zip ties – by hand – to the respective display frame.

“There’s a lot of lights, that’s what I know for sure,” said Ryan Wilson, the park’s director of horticulture and grounds. “There’s well over a million lights. Well over a million. The American Flag display? There’s at least 25,000 lights right there, and there’s more than a hundred others.

A few fake trees with lights.
Once again there are well over a million lights included in this year’s 6-mile road tour.

“The 70-foot ‘Welcome Tree’ by the Mansion has more than 10,000 pixels – or RGB lights – to it that can dance to whatever it’s programmed to react to,” he explained. “And the displays around Schenk Lake are at least another 6,000 pixels there, so, yes, there are well over a million lights now and that number will just keep going up as we continue to add more displays in the future.”

Wilson manages the maintenance for all gardens, flower beds and baskets, as well as the mowing, tree pruning, and planting. When it comes to the annual Festival of Lights, he oversees display set-ups, identifies damaged frames, and he and his crews replace the burned-out bulbs during the two-month event.

Lights tied to a pole.
The LED lights were slowly implemented into the festival’s route over the course of a few years.

“The LED lights are brighter than the incandescent bulbs we used to have, and they are more efficient cost-wise, too, but they don’t last forever,” Wilson said. “And there are displays that are outside all year long, and the sun degrades those plastic lights during the summer months, and we have to replace them.

“There have been times when we’ve had to replace a few of the lights, and there have been times when we’ve had to replace thousands at a time. It’s one light at a time every year.”

A very large house.
The Mansion Museum has long been a tourist attraction, but thanks to the Festival of Lights, the attraction welcomes more visitors during the colder months of the year than ever before.

38 Years of Tourism

Oglebay staged its “Light Up Night” last Thursday evening at Wilson Lodge with “Santa Mike” Slenski once again portraying Ol’ St. Nick, and the tour’s displays will twinkle until January 9th. There are evenings around Thanksgiving and close to Christmas when vehicles have been lined along W.Va. Route 88 all thew way to Interstate 70.

A new attraction is the Winter Carnival at the Levenson Shelter near Good Zoo where there is a synthetic ice rink, a 32-foot climbing wall, a Decorated Christmas Tree Trail, wagon and train rides, and family-friendly concessions.

A basket with lighted lights.
Wilson and his staff are responsible for everything we see at Oglebay, and that includes all of the baskets of flowers – real or LEDs.

“I started working for the Wheeling Park Commission when I was still in high school about 17 years ago, and once I graduated college, I started working here full time,” Wilson recalled. “But I’ve only been involved with the Festival of Lights for the last three or four years, and I can tell you it’s a year-long process because it has to be.

“There are times each year when we have to do certain things after Labor Day, and then again after Oglebayfest because the frames need wired and repainted, and just refurbished every five years or so,” he said. “And there are always things we have to do with the displays that stay in place all year because of weather and wear and tear.”

A true with blue lights in them.
Maybe it just seems as if that certain shade of blue is only along W.Va. Route 88 in Oglebay just as it is once again this year.

The Festival of Lights was modeled after an event in Niagara Falls, and the traffic counts have varied over the years because of weather conditions, nearby copycat displays, and interstate construction, but the driving tour flourished during the pandemic and new displays, live entertainment, and a plethora of food and beverage venues have added to attendance.

“I hear a lot of talk about the displays now at Schenk Lake and how it’s all tied together with the RGB lighting. It’s really impressive there now,” Wilson said. “There’s really not a display I don’t like. I mean, some are harder to put up and take down, but that’s the job and (the festival) means a lot to a lot of people.

“But, you know, you can go across the country and there’s nothing really like what we have here,” he added. “That’s what makes it worth all of the hard work.”

A light show.
A full-blown, amazing lighting show has been added to around Schenk Lake.
A lighting display.
Several of the lighting displays have been damaged by weather events through the years.
A row of light flowers.
Oglebay’s gardens near the Mansion Museum have been planted for this year’s festival season.
A frame with lights attached.
Visitors to Oglebay’s Festival of Lights likely do not realize the amount of maintenance that is necessary.

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