Funding Announcement for Daniel Boone Wilderness Trail
Interpretive Center
December 15, 2008
Weber City, Virginia
We are here
today to announce a significant new milestone in our effort to highlight the role
the Daniel Boone Wilderness Trail through Scott and Lee Counties
played in American history. The U.S.
Department of Transportation has agreed to provide a grant in the amount of
$280,000 for planning and design of the interior exhibits at the Daniel Boone
Wilderness Trail
Interpretive Center,
a major Visitors Center that will be constructed on U.S.
58 in Duffield.
The Daniel Boone
Center will be the major interpretive
center along the route followed by thousands of Americans as they made their
way from Philadelphia and other points of origin
along the East Coast, down the Valley
of Virginia, through Kingsport
and Scott and Lee Counties and across the Cumberland
Gap on their way to settle the American West. The funds to build
the center are in place, and a groundbreaking is anticipated in early
2009.
The Center
will be a significant historical asset for our region, as well as a major
attraction for tourists, drawing more visitors to the area and keeping them
here longer. It is anticipated that the
Center complex will draw 90,000 visitors each year and will generate $850,000
in revenue annually for the region's economy.
The
Center will offer permanent and changing exhibits as well as educational and
interpretive opportunities. The innovative exhibits being planned will allow
visitors to experience American history through the eyes of the original
travelers, the first long-bow hunters and the early pioneers. Bob McConnell, President of the Daniel Boone
Wilderness Trail Interpretive Center Foundation, will be providing a more
detailed description of the exhibits concept shortly.
The design phase for the exhibits will
take approximately one year and will take place concurrently with site
preparation and early construction activities for the center. Once construction of the center is underway
early next year, fundraising for fabrication and installation of the exhibits
can begin.
Our
success to date can be attributed to the strong partnerships that have
developed around this truly extraordinary project. The Virginia Tobacco Commission, through the
leadership and strong support of Delegate Terry Kilgore, has provided a
significant contribution to the design of the exhibits, and Delegate Kilgore
has assisted with many additional components of our efforts to highlight the
Daniel Boone Wilderness Trail in Lee and Scott Conties. We will be hearing from him shortly.
The
Virginia Tourism Corporation has provided not only financial support when
critically needed, but also invaluable technical support in the person of Kitty
Barker, Community Development Specialist.
It was Kitty who prepared the lengthy and ultimately successful grant
application to the U.S. Department of Transportation that brings us here today,
and she has been an invaluable asset to our efforts.
The Scott
County Board of Supervisors has been highly supportive of this project, and I
want to thank the Members who have joined us here this morning. We will be hearing from Board of Supervisors
Member of Chad Hood later in the program.
Much of the
hard work for this project has fallen to the Scott County Economic Development
Authority, and I want to thank the members of the EDA Board for their support
and Executive Director John Kilgore for the many hours he has devoted to the
effort. I also want to express my
appreciation to the staff of the LENOWISCO Planning District Commission for
their longtime involvement and support for the project and for the invaluable
expertise they have provided this effort and many, many others.
My friend Bob
McConnell has been the inspiration and leading expert for this project, and we
all owe him a great debt of gratitude for his commitment to preserving the
history of our region for future generation.
Bob serves as the President of the newly formed Daniel Boone Wilderness
Trail Interpretive Center Foundation, which will be leading the effort to
secure funding for fabrication and installation of the exhibits.
Finally I want
to thank my Senior Advisor Becky Coleman for her great interest in the Daniel Boone
project and for the many hours she has devoted to it.
Let me now
introduce Delegate Terry Kilgore for his remarks. He will be followed by Bob McConnell and Chad
Hood.
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