Tanglewood Park

Tanglewood Park is a recreation center and park in Clemmons, Forsyth County, North Carolina, USA. It is located on the Yadkin River between Clemmons and Bermuda Run. It is home to the annual "Tanglewood Festival of Lights," a display of lights in the wintertime celebrating the holidays. Additional attractions include the Tanglewood Park Arboretum and Rose Garden, a public pool, horse stables, and Mallard Lake for fishing and paddleboat renting. Tanglewood has two golf courses, the Championship Course (designed by Robert Trent Jones, Sr.) and the Reynolds Course.

Tanglewood Park's Festival of Lights is an outside drive-thru light show open to the public every winter. Visitors can drive their own vehicles through the course or take a hay ride for a fee. The light show at Tanglewood started in 1992 with a grant from the Z. Smith Reynolds Charitable Trust as well as funds raised by the Tanglewood Park Foundation. In its early days, the Festival of Lights was a 1.5-mile (2.4 km) route with 25 light displays. The current route is approximately 4 miles (6.4 km) long adorned with about 180 displays (70 of which are animated). An estimated 300,000 visitors converged at Tanglewood Park for the 2001 Festival of Lights as the event celebrated its 10th Anniversary and honored those who were killed on September 11, 2001. Today, over a million lights complete the light show. The festival has been recognized as a "Top 20 Event in the Southeast" and a "Top 100 Event in North America".

Among the earliest European settlers of the Yadkin River Valley was William Johnson, an immigrant from Wales. In 1757, just four years after the Moravian settlement of the Wachovia Tract in the nearby communities of Bethabara and Salem, Johnson purchased the mile square central portion of the present property from the Ellis family to whom the land was deeded in 1753 by Lord William Linville. The Ellis family leased the land for a short time "for five shillings lawful money of Great Britain in hand a yearly rent of one peppercorn payment at the Feast of Saint Michael, the archangel". After obtaining the property, Johnson built a fort overlooking the Yadkin River to protect his family and neighbors from attacks during the French and Indian War. Currently, this spot is marked by a monument just south of the Manor House. In 1765, he died and is now buried on the highest hill in the area called Mount Pleasant. In 1809 a simple frame church was erected next to his grave and remains today as one of the park's architectural attractions. Although services are no longer held there, many people are united in marriage at the Mount Pleasant Church each year.

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