WHEELING — It was 40 years ago this year that the Christmas lights first lit up at Oglebay Park in Wheeling.

Now, even four decades later, visitors line the roads to and through the park during the holiday season to experience a signature event in the Ohio Valley. And this year, in honor of that major milestone, there’s even more in store.

The Wheeling Park Commission is celebrating its 40th “Festival of Lights” event at Oglebay, with Santa set to flip the switch on “Light Up Night” Nov. 7. The lights will shine each day from dusk until midnight through Jan. 5, 2025.

And those looking at the park’s 100 luminated displays — which stretches over more than five miles of Oglebay — might want to look up at the sky on Nov. 7, and again on Nov. 9.

Drone shows on each of those nights by Sky Elements — a finalist on this season’s America’s Got Talent — will feature 100 drones choreographed to holiday music.

“This year is truly special,” said Bob Peckenpaugh, Wheeling Park Commission president and CEO. “The addition of the first-ever drone show in the Ohio Valley makes it even more magical.”

G. Randolph Worls, chairman emeritus of the Oglebay Foundation and former longtime CEO of the Wheeling Park Commission, said when he and others set out to create the Festival of Lights 40 years ago, he never envisioned how it would grow and what it has become today.

“We had had some success with a prior project, ‘The Zoo Lights Up For You’ at the Good Zoo,” he explained. “It was successful. And we were aware of some other festivals of lights — such as one in Niagara Falls, NY — that had had some success.

“We thought by expanding it we would at least have a chance of doing something that would help us during the months of November and December.”

Lighting planners from the Phillips Corporation were consulted.

“We opened the show the first year in the early part of December. Then by the end of December, we knew it was going to be a success,” Worls said. “Cars were lined up almost to the interstate.

“So we doubled the show the following year and started it in November. Then, year after year it has been extremely strong. Last year was really one of our best years.”

Worls indicated he and Ross Felton of WWVA radio worked together to organize and establish the first Festival of Lights events. Another influential member of the project was the late Bob Otten, who now shares the honor of Wheeling Hall of Fame member with Worls. In 1985, Otten created the first of five initial displays for the festival and created 50 festival displays throughout his time with the park.

Worls noted that there now is an “emeritus” in his title, and he is no longer involved in the regular day-to-day planning for the Festival of Lights each year. There is a Festival of Lights committee that reviews the show each year and makes changes in it where they find them necessary to keep it fresh, Worls said

“There have been significant changes in lighting technology, and they have put in new displays as the technology changes,” he said.

The first year consisted of five displays, including the iconic poinsettia wreath display that is still used annually, Worls continued. There was also uplighting on the trees and on the surrounding building, and colored lights were placed.

The entire driving route consisted of about two miles of displays the first year, he added. A laser show and lighting at the zoo also was part of the experience, as was a Christmas shop.

“By the second year, we added another three miles, so it’s now about five miles of driving through the show because of the great number of cars that would come in,” Worls said.

“Even now, there are about four Saturday nights in the latter part of November and December when cars get backed up to the bottom of the hill. There are significant crowds. We really can’t get any more people through the show.”

But one thing that has declined during the 40 years of the Festival of Lights is the number of tour buses driving through, according to Worls. Early in the Festival of Lights, about 2,000 buses came though the displays each year. That number is now only about 500 to 600 annually, he said.

“Tour buses just aren’t what they used to be,” Worls explained. “They are still important, but we get 60,000 cars each year that come through the show.”

At an average of four people per vehicle, that amounts to about 240,000 people seeing the lights each year.

“We check licenses, and it’s usually about an average of 36 states involved because they come off the interstate,” Worls said. “They become aware of the show and stop and go through.

“It has significantly improved our business in September and November, and that’s part of the reason for doing the show.”

Worls is usually the first one to tour the route prior to the start of the Festival of Lights each year.

“I go through when they do practice nights — making sure all the computers are working when they turn them on,” he explained. “And I’m just curious about seeing the new displays.

“I really do not have any input on the show on an annual basis. I’m sort of the park historian at this time.”

He added he does enjoy the lights.

“It’s a family-oriented situation, and we’ve yet to see anything diminish in the interest of people bringing their children through the show. That’s a big deal,” Worls said. “The kids drive the show, basically.”

There is also added value, he continued.

“It makes the final two months of the year feel good. The lights are a big attraction,” Worls added.

Wendy Kirker, marketing director for Oglebay Park, said the scheduled drone shows from Sky Elements will be the first to take place in the Ohio Valley.

The 70-foot welcome tree placed atop the fountain in the Bissonette Gardens also is going to have something special, she added. A star commemorating the 40th anniversary will replace its usual tree-topper.

Kirker remembers visiting the Festival of Lights when she was a child before she came to work there.

“I grew up here, and my family would come to the Festival of Lights every year,” she said. “Then I came to work at Oglebay, and worked at the zoo when the buses came in.

“It’s ingrained in my memory.”

She noted she actually has more memories of working in the zoo and of the visitors coming there.

“They would come in off the tour buses in droves and get off, and they always wanted hot chocolate and fudge,” Kirker said. “I spent a lot of time there for the Festival of Lights.”

The big difference today is there is more car traffic than bus traffic, she said.

“And Santa wasn’t here every night, but now he is,” Kirker added.