Heritage Area News

New Heritage Areas Brochure and Map

The new Heritage Areas Brochure and Map is now available. This colorful pamphlet includes a detailed U.S. map showing the locations of all 40 National Heritage Areas. A printable version is available as a .pdf download by clicking the link above.

Mormon Pioneer National Heritage Area Implements Early Action Projects

The Mormon Pioneer National Heritage Area (MPNHA) in Utah recently completed an impressive range of heritage tourism and preservation initiatives. These include construction of six heritage area entry signs along the 250-mile Heritage Highway 89 corridor, publication of a heritage products brochure and travel planner, production of heritage tourism DVDs, and development of a veteran’s memorial in a historic armory building. Matching funds from a Preserve America grant supported much of the work.

As a recently designated NHA (2006), the MPNHA has also implemented a series of early action “demonstration” projects, such as restoration of a Carnegie Library in Ephraim, UT, one of four such buildings in the Heritage Area. Work on the other three structures will commence soon, with fundraising efforts already underway. Another demonstration project now underway is development of an equestrian
park and arena. Serving as an event center and a boarding facility, the new space will highlight the important role that horses played, and continue to play, in the local economy. Local cowboys will be involved in interpreting this signifi cant aspect of Mormon pioneer heritage. Support for the project has come from partners at the local, state and national levels as well as the non-profit sector.

Below, before and after images of the historic armort building, which is now home to a veteran's memorial, including a striking exterior mural.

New Curriculum with Focus on Coal, Canals and the Industrial Revolution Debuts in Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor

"Tales of the Towpath," a fourth- and fifth-grade interdisciplinary curriculum, introduces students to life along the Lehigh and Delaware canals in the 1850s, when canal commerce was at its peak and the United States was emerging as an industrial nation. The focal point of the curriculum is a new children's book about the adventures of 10-year-old Finn Gorman, the son of Irish immigrants. Finn sails with his family to America in 1846 and eventually owns and operates his own canal boat. As he travels the Lehigh and Delaware canals, Finn befriends other children whose families are tied to important components of the Industrial Revolution: coal mining, the lumber and iron industries, agriculture, and the transportation of manufactured goods on America's water highways - the canals.
Written by D&LNHC Outreach Coordinator, Dennis Scholl, the storybook takes students on an enjoyable journey through time and also serves as a source of standardized classroom lessons that emphasize language arts, math, science, geography, social studies, art, and music. The project wasdeveloped by a 20-member volunteer team of current and retired teachers, principals, curriculum coordinators and historians.

When the curriculum arrives at a school, it is housed inside reproduction ship trunks. Each trunk holds copies of the book and a teacher's manual that includes lessons, activities, a book glossary, field trip and assembly opportunities, historical resources, and an expanded teacher's version of the storybook filled with inquiry questions, internet links, historical tidbits and other teaching options. The trunks also contain reproductions of 19th-century items that are mentioned in the book's 24 chapters.
The curriculum is being implemented as a pilot program in five school districts in the Heritage Corridor. Thirteen pilot teachers implementing the program completed six hours of Pennsylvania Act 48 professional development training last summer. The teachers will provide feedback to further shape and refine the curriculum before its release to public, parochial, private and home schools in fall of 2009. Funding for the project came from state and private sources.

National Heritage Area Evaluation Project Gets Underway

Per PL 110-229, nine National Heritage Areas (NHAs) designated in 1996 will soon be undergoing a Congressionally-mandated evaluation process. Authorized by PL 110-229, the evaluation directs the Secretary of the Interior to assess the progress each NHA has made in achieving the goals set forth in its authorizing legislation and management plan. In addition, the legislation also calls for analysis of investments and partnerships within the NHA, with the purpose of identifying the critical components for sustainability of the Heritage Area.

3 New National Heritage Areas Join the National Park Service Family

President Bush signed Public Law 110-229, the Consolidated
Natural Resources Act of 2008, into law on May 8th 2008. The bill created 3 new National Heritage Areas, raising the total number of areas to 40. The new NHAs are home to an impressive array of cultural and natural resources.

• The Niagara Falls National Heritage Area, located in upstate New York, stretches along the Niagara River from the western boundary of Wheatfield to Lake Ontario and includes the City of Niagara Falls, the villages of Youngstown and Lewiston, and all land and water lying within these boundaries.
• The Journey Through Hallowed Ground National Heritage Area extends across four states, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania. It follows the route of the Old Carolina Road (Rt. 15/231) from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania to Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s home in Albemarle County,
  VA.
• Finally, the Abraham Lincoln National Heritage Area encompasses a large portion of central Illinois, incorporating a number of sites where the former President traveled and lived.

National Park Service launches new Discover Our Shared Heritage Travel Itinerary on the American Presidents

The Lincoln National Historic Site in Springfield, IL

The National Park Service announced the launch of a new on-line travel itinerary on the American Presidents on September 30, 2008. The American Presidents itinerary is the 47th in the National Park Service’s ongoing Discover Our Shared Heritage Travel Itinerary Series. The series promotes public awareness of history and encourages visits to historic places throughout the country.

The American Presidents Travel Itinerary features the White House and more than 70 other sites nationwide that are listed in the National Register of Historic Places. A number of the featured sites are located in National Heritage Areas, and the itinerary includes links to the Heritage Areas websites in the Learn More section of the travel itinerary. Almost half of the sites are also part of the National Park System.

The new itinerary is available at http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/travel/presidents/index.html. The National Park Service’s Heritage Education Services produced the itinerary in partnership with the National Park Service Office of Tourism, the White House Historical Association, and the National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers. Staff from many units of the National Park System and the other sites included in the itinerary, State historic preservation offices, and others assisted in developing the content and provided images, making the itinerary a true collaborative effort.