The story
Turpentine Festival in Portal
Portal Heritage Society's Catface Turpentine Festival preserves the history of harvesting resin and distilling turpentine. The community parade leads toward a day of vendors, food and heritage activity, while operation or interpretation of the restored still supplies the event's essential demonstration. The recurring practices—Catface festival parade, restored turpentine still interpretation, and pine-gum and naval-stores heritage demonstration—tie the public program to the place and the people who sustain it.
The old Carter still fires in Portal, pine gum meets heat and a sharp scent recalls the naval-stores work that once paid family bills across South Georgia.