Fairplay, CO |
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Park County is facing increasing pressure from residential and commercial development, and has a wealth of natural beauty and recreational/economic opportunities intimately tied to the land. An important objective of our planning efforts was to craft messages to not only connect visitors to the rich past of the region, but also to help locals embrace a new sense of ownership and pride of place. The project involved a complex set of stakeholders with different relationships to the land. Park County is a patchwork quilt of public and private land ownership. |
| But there is a strong grassroots movement toward preservation of cultural heritage and a shared sense of land stewardship in the traditional sense of “the commons.” |
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| Our primary client was the Park County Department of Tourism and Community Development, but a large number of agencies and private stakeholders were partners. They included the Colorado Historical Society, USDA Forest Service, Colorado Division of Wildlife, The Nature Conservancy, landowners and the business community. |
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A number of exhibits were developed for the visitor center in Fairplay and the South Park City Museum, but the project went far beyond exhibit design and planning.
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| The project team planned and produced a 24-page, full-color, self-guiding tourist brochure that includes maps and orientation material in addition to an in-depth look at the county’s history, natural resource base and social/economic/cultural climate. |
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Six wayside kiosks were planned, designed, fabricated, and installed. These structures, built of rusted steel to reflect the region’s mining past, greet visitors and introduce heritage themes as they enter the county on major highways in or near gateway communities. |
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The keystone work product of the project is the planning tool known as the Park County Heritage Tourism Manual, a unique concept in historical/cultural tourism marketing. The manual is an encyclopedia of Park County assets, intended to document cultural and natural resources so that local entrepreneurs as well as government agencies can acquaint themselves with the county’s resource base. The tool encourages heritage tourism and provides deep background to assist business-planning and marketing efforts. |
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