Each year, the first weekend in April brings the Mule Day Parade to Columbia, Tenn. The event attracts mules in all sizes and all colors--the hybrid offspring of a jack and a mare. An estimated 200,000 visitors turn up, as well, to gaze at mules as far as the eye can see. There are so many mules in one place that Columbia, located 42 miles southwest of Nashville, has long proclaimed itself "Mule Capital of the World."

"When I first moved here, I thought people were kidding about Mule Day," says John Holtzapple, AS '80. "It's really something to see. We're still trying to figure a way to get these same visitors to stop by the museum."

That would be the James K. Polk ancestral home, located at the corner of West Seventh and South High streets--roads once traveled by pioneers on their way west. Holtzapple has been the director of the presidential site since 1984. It is the only surviving residence of the 11th U.S. president (1845-1849), whom many historians rate as one of the greats. During
Polk's tenure as president, 800,000 square miles were added to the territory of the United States, extending its breadth to the Pacific Coast.

A lifelong history buff, Holtzapple first volunteered as
a young teenager to work at the Historical Society of York (Pa.) County and the Golden Plough Tavern, an historical house in the same region. He attended UD because of its fine reputation for history and museum studies.

"Most of my focus back then was on colonial American history," recalls Holtzapple, "but I really enjoyed a survey course in American history that centered on the Jacksonian time period, which also included the tenure of Polk. I received a broad general education in history and the humanities, which very much comes into play at historical sites. You're not only presenting the history of the person, but the whole cultural setting as well."

During his college summers, Holtzapple was employed as a seasonal interpreter at Fort Necessity National Battlefield in southwestern Pennsylvania near Farmington, the site of the first battle of the French and Indian War. After obtaining a graduate degree in history and museum studies, he was hired as curatorial assistant at the Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site at Flat Rock in the western mountains of North Carolina.

After a yearlong stint as lead interpreter at Historic Rugby--a failed English aristocratic settlement in the Tennessee wilderness in the 1880s-- Holtzapple accepted his current position at the Polk Home. The only full-time staff member at that time, he saw it as a solid opportunity for someone just starting out. That was 15 years ago.

"My stay has been a fairly long one," Holtzapple says. "I found a niche, and I'm very happy. It's a presidential site, but unlike the modern ones, it isn't large and wasn't fully developed from the start. This was a tiny nonprofit run by volunteers. They had this wonderful collection of artifacts that were mainly the belongings of James Polk and his wife. The Polks had no children, so their possessions were passed along to nieces and their families and gradually found their way to this site."

In the mid-19th century, Columbia's early industry centered around the agricultural products of the area, and there were a number of mills and tanneries. Samuel Polk, a prosperous farmer and surveyor, built the modest, brick Federal-style house in 1816 while his oldest son, James, was attending the University of North Carolina. The home is distinguished by classic design, careful proportions and good workmanship, Holtzapple says. The site's landscaped grounds feature a formal boxwood garden, a white azalea garden and a wildflower patch.

In 1924, Polk's great-niece purchased the Columbia home (where Polk had lived with his parents at the start of his political career) using her own funds along with those provided by the state, county and town. The house has undergone a number of thorough studies by preservationists in an effort to restore it as accurately as possible to its original condition, Holtzapple says.

The floor plan, arrangement of windows and doors, fireplaces and chimneys, mantels and floors, as well as the paint colors on walls and woodwork are authentic to the house shortly after its construction in 1816. The artifacts and memorabilia represent a collection of furnishings that belonged to President and Mrs. Polk from their years in the White House.

Last May, C-SPAN paid a visit to tape a segment for its "American Presidents" series.

Holtzapple, who was the museum's chief spokesperson on the broadcast, says he's confident the national television exposure (it's been on several times) will help spur interest in the museum and swell the number of annual visitors, which is now 13,000.

Polk was a man of strong purpose and clear vision, Holtzapple says, and he established four basic goals for his administration--a reduction of the tariff, an independent treasury, the settlement of the Oregon boundary and the acquisition of California.

Polk also was a controversial, contradictory figure, Holtzapple says. "He was a populist Democrat and an outspoken advocate of religious freedom, yet he was an investor in a Mississippi plantation that used slave labor. His determination to extend American democracy led to a war against Mexico that critics denounced as American imperialism.

"Harry Truman considered Polk one of our greatest presidents," Holtzapple says. "He championed liberty and the common man. He accomplished his presidential agenda and left office after one term, returning to Tennessee. James K. Polk did what he said he would do."