Exploring Life & Business with Eva Welsh of Tour Warrenton

Today we’d like to introduce you to Eva Welsh. 

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Tour Warrenton is celebrating its one-year anniversary in September 2021! Similar to so many recent entrepreneurial startup stories, Tour Warrenton was born out of the pandemic in an effort to give back and raise awareness about Warren County, North Carolina. I am a full-time Cary resident that pivoted to my family farm located in Warren County, NC in March 2020 during Covid-19. Finding a silver lining in an unknown period, I was able to spend nearly three months on my childhood farm with my own children and parents. This time spent submerged in rural Warren County, NC rooted my foundation in all the things I loved about growing up there and inspired a passion to champion a personal giveback project that became known as Tour Warrenton.

Spending the past year volunteering and giving back to the community where my ancestors date back to the 1700s has been a surreal blessing. I realized that I didn’t have to travel to Europe or another faraway continent in search of history. I became thankful in the pandemic darkness for an inspiring and fresh perspective on Rural Warren County, Charming Historic Warrenton, and my Haliwa-Saponi Tribal People.

After traveling to more than fifteen countries as well as almost every state in the union, I wanted to find a way to share my love for travel, touring, and Warren County, NC. Historic Warrenton Food Tour service business was started with our first influencer’s tour hosted in October 2020. Charming Historic Warrenton and Warren County, NC were founded in 1779 and have a rich and diverse history. Thanks to Warrenton’s Historic Preservation Commission, many of the buildings along Main Street are in very good condition or have been completely restored. Meanwhile other buildings are ripe for new startup investments.

Historic Warrenton Food Tour became the Facebook name of our business, with food tours and events listed for locals and visitors. TourWarrentonNC is our Instagram site which was recently restarted after our original site gained 3600 followers. Thanks to Instagram for challenging us to be better than before- that is the true entrepreneurial spirit – startup or start over!

As with any giveback project, the goal was not established for a personal profit but as a passion project to support and highlight other small businesses, entrepreneurs, and rural volunteers during a difficult period. Based on a love for touring and leaving something to showcase all the people who supported this project, the Ghost 7up sign located in Warrenton was named as our first restoration project. We later added the Ghost Coca-Cola sign as well. These two projects will bring restored signage art to Historic Warrenton and serve as large symbols of what a few small people can accomplish by working together in rural America during a pandemic period. The restoration of these signs has been fully funded, and we are anxiously waiting on our North Carolina painting team to complete them in fall 2021. In addition, Tour Warrenton has sponsored a United States Flag at Arcola Rural Fire Department, along with three students graduating from North Carolina Universities and Rural High Schools.

Tour Warrenton has been a wonderful community network builder as we extended our service to hosting Markets and Events around Warren County, NC. These have increased our fundraising efforts and broadened our reach for diversity and inclusion. To date, we have completed nine Historic Warrenton Food Tours, fifteen popup markets located in Warren County, NC including Warrenton, Lake Gaston, Brown Family Farms, and Arcola Rural Fire Department. In addition to these events, we also sponsored a free Native-America Heritage Celebration in Warrenton North Carolina highly supported by Haliwa-Saponi Tribal Members.

Tour Warrenton is only possible because of the regional community support, entrepreneurial support, and small business partners that have welcomed our new innovative ideas during a unique period in our collective history.

As we move through this fall, Tour Warrenton has been named the Community Organizer for Global Entrepreneurship Week Warrenton / Warren County NC 2021. Our efforts are focused on planning a successful first GEW for Warren County, NC with several ambassador kickoff events leading up to November 8th – 14th. Please save the date to join an event in Warren County, NC and experience our Charming Historic Warrenton, Lake Gaston Vacation Area, or Haliwa-Saponi Tribal Area! We are open to innovation and the entrepreneurial mindset. If you are an influencer, reach out to me directly for a free influencer tour as part of GEW2021 to experience a unique three-hour historical food tour in a small town of less than 900 residents since 1779! You can also purchase a Historic Warrenton Food Tour one year anniversary tour ticket for Saturday October 23rd 2021 via Eventbrite link on our facebook events page.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Tour Warrenton was no stranger to challenges in our one-year journey, which seems par for the course for any startup business. Raising awareness and gaining traction in rural Warren County North Carolina, which has less than 20,000 total population, has been one of the most difficult obstacles. Explaining our value in Rural Tourism, Rural Excursions, Rural Volunteers, and Rural Entrepreneurs to a broader circle of potential customers from Raleigh NC to Richmond VA on social media has been daunting. Restarting both our Facebook and Instagram sites caused huge delays in channeling our marketing to regional customers and guests.

In addition, resilience has been needed to showcase the value of connecting with our local small businesses and entrepreneurs across Warren County, NC to increase our attraction as a place to visit and explore for exurbs within a two-hour commute. We have a laid-back small historic downtown that is surrounded by tons of natural outdoor beauty with two lakes, two vineyards, hunting, fishing, boating, and a ton of southern charm.

We’ve been impressed with Tour Warrenton LLC, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Tour Warrenton, LLC – Tour Warrenton was established September 2020 during theGlobal Pandemic to connect people to Historic Warrenton and Warren County, North Carolina through culinary food tours, market tours, and special events. As a native of Historic Warren County, NC with ancestry dating back to the 1700s, it is our pleasure to share local architecture, history, experiences with newcomers, visitors, and friends. Tour Warrenton is focused on rural volunteerism, entrepreneurship, and restoration. For more information visit: Historic Warrenton Food Tour on Facebook, @tourwarrenton on Instagram, or email [email protected]

Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
I grew up in Warren County NC attending rural schools including Mariam Boyd Elementary, Vaughan Elementary, Hawkins Elementary, John Graham Middle School, and Warren County High School. My high school graduating class is estimated at 180 students which is quite tiny compared to my kids’ current sixth grade class of 600 students.

After my primary education, I moved to Raleigh NC for undergraduate studies in Textile Engineering at North Carolina State University and completed a Masters in Business Administration, with a concentration on Innovation and Certificate in Marketing, in 2019. The transition from Warren County High School with 180 students, to the largest state university with 30,000 was dramatic and inspiring.

My personality is based on my experience during the early years and I was quite shy and introverted. Growing up on my small family farm of thirty acres with a drive to nearby farm families is quite a world away from my freshmen year experiences on the NC State campus.

I loved becoming part of the Pack and all the academic challenges it presented during undergrad. This includes many extra-curricular activities such as Native American Student Association, Students for Native American Culture, and American Indian Science and Engineering organization. These organizations kept my Haliwa-Saponi Native American identity strong while away from Tribal Traditions like Tuesday night beadwork class, winter regalia making, preparation for our annual April Pow-Wow, or family gatherings.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: tourwarrentonNC
• Facebook: Historic Warrenton Food Tour