barreca

Old buildings and the DAHP

Joe Barreca — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 18:33:00 GMT

I spent hours on the phone Thursday talking to Greg Griffith at the Washington State Department of Archeology and Historic Preservation (DAHP) and Leslie Jones at TEDD. At usual, the to-do list is longer than the original question list. Nevertheless I feel like a status report is in order. A note on technique. I had to call both of these people. They didn't answer emails or place phone calls. But let me emphasize that they were both very helpful, informed, congenial and (by inference) overworked.

The two burning questions (in my mind) are 1) How can we accept financial contributions to our grant project right now and count them in the application and 2) How should a research grant application be structured? Neither conversation was much help on either question.

What is evident, is that despite Preserve America itself being not about buildings, most of what is being done at the State level is all about buildings. With cultural assets that are underwater (old towns), sensitive to disturbance (Indian habitations) or remote and somewhat dangerous (old mines) we are going to have a tough time of it.

The DAHP relies heavily on its inventory of historic structures and culturally significant places. That information is restricted to planners, archeologists and similar professionals. We can't know what is on that list without going to Olympia personally to do research right now, though they are working to put most of it into restricted web access. If we want our historic properties listed, we need to work through approved professionals. Those professionals however can train and oversee local volunteers.

The DAHP is working on a new Historic Preservation Plan for the state. We are in the last year of a five year cycle for those. We are all encouraged to review the current 52 page plan, downloadable from the DAHP website, http://www.dahp.wa.gov/. We are also encouraged to answer their online survey preparing for the next plan - due out at the end of this year. You can do that survey (15 minutes or so) right off of their front page (you need to scroll down a little).

The situation with CTED is much the same, emphasis on preserving and renovating mainstreets. Being a Certified Local Government (CLG) is very much encouraged. There is money available to help survey local historic structures once a city gets CLG status.

May is Historic Preservation month.

One-on-One

Joe Barreca — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 00:29:00 GMT

There has been an upsurge in interest for Stevens County History. The Colville Chamber of Commerce has designated April as "History Month" and is scheduling history theme presentations for their Tuesday, noon, meetings at the Eagles in Colville. The first, on April 1st, (no this is not a joke), is Pat Graham, speaking on the origins of the City of Colville. We are also hoping for presentations on Leno Prestini, Civil War Soldiers buried here, Genealogy and progress on Preserve America.

The first batch of Preserve America Crossroads on the Columbia DVDs flew out the door, and more have been requested. Thank you Grady Knight! As a matter of fact, many people have been lending their time and experience to the project. I have a tally of some $1400 in contributed time, mileage and other expenses right now. If you have been spending any time in research or plans for research, I would like to know about them so they can be added to the tally. Grant applications have a lot to do with showing local interest and support. Partnerships and plans go a long way toward demonstrating that we are working together. If your museum, municipality or even just you and your family have been spending time on local history, I would like to hear about it.

Some people I have talked to lately are Alan Bedford with the City of Colville Historical Preservation Committee, Fran Bolt, the mayor of Marcus and Kathy Berrigan of the Kettle Falls Historical Society. I have a long list of others to talk to - and add to the tally. Fran contributed a nice sketch she wrote of the history of Marcus. They are working to restore their old High School Gym into a Community Center and have a grant to work with. It may be a nice opportunity for historical interpretation. I have a list of other people to talk to within the County and at higher levels of preservation activities. If you don't hear from me in the next few weeks and have some ideas, please call me, Joseph Barreca, (509) 738-6155 or email Joe.Barreca@gmail.com.

Discussion now available as a forum

Joe Barreca — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 04:00:00 GMT

There is a new forum available to discuss our first Preserve America Grant proposal and related topics. Two main differences make the forum format different. It is easy for you to submit comments in the Forum. So far we are not screening comments so it should stay easy for now. The second is that Forum content extends down rather than adding to the top of the stack. If you want to follow a forum discussion, subscribe to the RSS feed and get all comments, updates etc. as an email.

Latest on the Preserve America Program

Joe Barreca — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 19:43:00 GMT

The Preserve America Program has been moving ahead in DC. 20 new communities have been added. Our acceptance has yet to be announced. $5,000,000 in grant monies were awarded in 2007 in 60 grants. The next round of awards will probably come in June. The deadline for those applications was November 1st for recognized Preserve America Communities. So I expect another application deadline in late spring and hope to have an application ready as well as Preserve America Community Status.

At the last meeting I presented an idea centered around Hudson Bay's Fort Colville. It had some merit but left some of the hardest working museums at a disadvantage. I want this next concept to bring us all into the mix with some direct results in creating a sustainable mix of Heritage Tourism and Preservation.

This is the concept as it stands:

Crossroads on the Columbia
The Columbia River as a highway for sturgeon-nosed canoes from the north and dugout canoes to the south opened up to steamboats, wagon roads, railroads, ferries and bridges as white settlers moved in. New communities sprang up where roads crossed, each with its own unique blend of resources, culture and conflicts. Researching the flow of goods and people over and around the flow of the Columbia River will bring together their stories. The construction of Grand Coulee Dam cut off and drowned many of these roads and communities marking the end one era and the beginning of our own. This research project will find the ties that bound these communities together in the past and weave them into a roadmap for heritage tourists to follow in the future.

For over 9000 years, Native People gathered at Kettle Falls on the Columbia to fish, trade, govern and celebrate nature’s bounty. With the arrival of David Thompson and his party in July of 1811, British, Scottish and Eastern Native people brought new transportation, new goods and international trade to this cultural Mecca. The declaration of the International Boundary in 1846 brought more structure and strife to the crossroads as the boundary survey parties, British and American, Chinese miners, homesteaders, military and commercial enterprises pursued their interests, often at the expense of the native Sinixt People.

Each of these groups tried to adapt to the others as best they could. There were good and bad actors on every side. National and civil wars rippled into these far corners. Our museums, private citizens, libraries and living memories hold the lessons of those days. The objective of this grant is to bring those stories into focus and organize the materials we have and the questions that remain around them.

If this concept gives each of us enough room to work and enough focus to combine our efforts, we can move forward quantifying how it will get done. The meeting agenda is full, as usual. Email responses are welcome, especially if you won't be there to represent your organization.

Chewelah Needs Research

Joe Barreca — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 23:41:00 GMT

Here is a response from Barbara Swanson at the Chewelah Museum:

Hi,
I am not sure this is what you want but here goes.

#1 Documenting and reserching the museum items.
#2 ? Reserch or Interpretation
#3 Once it is documented we would only have to add the donations or loans as they come into the museum.

Barb Swanson
Chewelah Museum

Clayton Needs Research

Joe Barreca — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 23:40:00 GMT

Here is a response from Bill Seabright at the Clayton Historical Society:

The Clayton Deer Park Historical Society spends most of its time in research. Planning and training go right along with that. We are doing a lot of interviewing, digitalizing pictures and material, posting information on our web site, and publishing books from our interviews and pictures.

I'm not sure what form you want this info, but that's it in a nut shell.

Later,

Bill

Preparing Grant Proposal for Preserve America

Joe Barreca — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 23:37:00 GMT

With this post I am starting a discussion online as we develop a grant proposal to present to Preserve America, assuming that we are accepted as a Preserve America Community. Your first thought may be "Well if this is a discussion, why is it his Blog?" Fair question. All of us are pretty new to the blog system on Community Server, including Scott Hirsch who manages and got me this far. As a moderated blog, I can build the content and filter it. I can also open it up to public or member posts, which may be faster and less work for me, but also riskier, though I think the worst would be blog spam (Is that as bad as it sounds?) At any rate here we go. I will start putting your emails on this site and try to has out the outlines of a grant proposal.

Hunters Museum's idea of a Virtual Tour of Museums

Joe Barreca — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 23:37:00 GMT

Hunters Museum's idea of a Virtual Tour of Museums

Please check out this website in detail. This is exactly what I have been talking about somehow doing for small out of the way museums and historical sites. They have made this site so interesting that I can't wait to go and see it in person. WHAT DOES EVERYBODY THINK?

http://www.miniatureworld.com/

Research Starter Kit

Joe Barreca — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 23:36:00 GMT

Hello Stevens County History Preservationists:

As agreed at the last Heritage Network meeting, I have created a form for listing stuff you think should be researched from your museum/group/stash....

In preparation, I visited the Hunters Museum - (This may be your last chance to see it.) I took some photos there, and they already have many suitable for a virtual tour. They also lent me some materials Ted, Dianne and friends have prepared about Hunters: a short history with pictures, a video CD and some post cards.

I have printed a blank Research Form as an Adobe PDF and also saved it as an Excel Spreadsheet. I also filled in a sample sheet to show you what I had in mind. You can find the Research form here: http://theheritagenetwork.org/blogs/barreca/ResearchForm.pdf and the sapmle fille-in form here: http://theheritagenetwork.org/blogs/barreca/ResearchSample.pdf. What I want out of it is a quantifiable number of research hours assigned to identifiable tasks. (Remember we will probably contribute at least half of them for free.) The items, quantity, dates etc. are to help in identifying what you have already and where you want to go with it.

To re-iterate, what the Preserve America program wants from research is to identify and prepare materials for interpretation to promote historical tourism, preservation and community identity. This little trip helped me visualize how this would work.

I see five fundamental outcomes from this research work:

It will create digital records to speed access for genealogy and interpretation (telling the stories).
It will help identify, organize and categorize materials for museum use.
It will highlight important and interesting stories and themes with roots in the collection.
It will help preserve with scans, photos of collections and copies of media a museum's collection.
It will help identify materials whose rights for use or copyright are owned by someone else.

This is my first take on the task. I'm open to suggestions. We can continue the blog and talk it over at the next meeting.

Joe

Share Information but Give Credit

Joe Barreca — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 23:34:00 GMT

Hi Joe,

Though I no longer live in Stevens County, I still own property there and certainly am still very much interested in the history of the area. This may not fit into your pending grant (which sounds like a great idea to me) but I thought I’d make you aware of it anyway. A few years ago I led a tour for the Northwest chapter of the Oregon-California Trails Association in which we visited historical sites in Stevens County (and a few in Spokane County) primarily associated with the fur trade and with migration routes into Stevens County, by fur traders and by pioneers, many of whom had come across the Oregon Trail. We also covered Indian sites such as Kettle Falls. In doing research for this tour it became clear to me that there is a whole lot of fascinating history and historical sites in Stevens County that are not known to the general public, and many not to Stevens County residents even. One of the leading guidebooks on historical sites in Washington State doesn’t even include any sites in Stevens County. There is work to be done to make the history of Stevens County known to people.

For that tour I put together a booklet that covered some history of fur traders, settlers, missionaries and miners, as well as some history of some of the Stevens County communities we went through on our tour. I have a huge box of information (and some photographs) that I gathered in researching the tour and accompanying booklet. I am willing to share any of this material with Heritage Network folks, with one caveat: In the past, when I have shared information that I had spent considerable time researching and writing up, when the information was made public, I was given no credit for it whatsoever, even though the wording was mine almost word for word; I really don’t want that to happen again. Also, I have some unique photographs that I would not be willing to share unless I am given credit for them. As I said, I am willing to share what I have learned, but with proper credit given. This is a matter of ethics and professionalism in my view, and is something that should be paid attention to in all that the heritage network does if you want to be taken seriously by the larger historical community.

Here’s to a successful outcome to your grant writing efforts!

Lethene Parks

Wish list for Grant from NEW Genealogical Society

Joe Barreca — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 23:03:00 GMT

As to fitting in to your Preserve America stuff.....definitely making old newspapers available digitally would be a high request for us. We use newspapers extensively in our research whether looking for individuals or looking for items of historical significance (like the building of Grand Coulee Dam and other major events, the history of a building, the history of an area). Having them OCR'd is even a bigger "wish" on our "wish list." Even if not totally accurate, it would be a huge help. We currently have almost 60,000 entries in our newspaper database but it took us over 10 years to get to that point and we still have lots to index.

I know that the Washington State Archives has started to digitize some of our oldest newspapers in the state, but would expect it would be quite awhile before they get over here. You can see what newspapers they have done at http://www.secstate.wa.gov/history/newspapers.aspx.