Options and Strategies For Enhancing Cultural Tourism In The Yellowstone Region
A project initiated by the Western Heritage Center for the Yellowstone Heritage Partnership
The attached materials are a summary of the first day of a two-day workshop hosted by the Western Heritage Center in Billings, September 24-25, 1998. The summary covers the basics of presentations made during the workshop.
A full report on the workshop and the Yellowstone Regions efforts toward developing cultural tourism products along the Yellowstone River Valley are available at
www.ywhc.org; or by contacting the Western Heritage Center, 406-256-6809.THE WORKSHOP SUMMARY
A total of 38 persons attended the workshop representing a variety of communities in Montana, North Dakota and Wyoming. These persons represented a variety of cultural and historic institutions, events, Crow and Northern Cheyenne reservations, state and federal government and private sector interests across the region.
September 24, Morning Session
The workshop began with a brief introduction by Lynda Moss, Director of The Western Heritage Center, on the purpose of the workshop and some background on its organization. Anne Cossitt, Workshop Coordinator, quickly referred to the many interpretations of cultural tourism and suggested that participants review the various articles in the workbook for a more detailed discussion. For purposes of the workshop, Ms. Cossitt proposed a working definition of cultural tourism as: "The heritage, arts and way of life unique to this region's people and places."
Dan Rice, Director of the Ohio and Erie Canal Corridor Coalition, began the morning session with a discussion of key characteristics of heritage areas and the specific work of the Corridor Coalition. The Coalition preserves and interprets the natural, historical and recreational resources along the route of the historic Ohio and Erie canal. The 87-mile corridor extends across four counties. It includes major industrial areas such as Cleveland and Akron as well as small towns and rural farm areas. The Coalition assists interested partners with organization, fund-raising, structure, focus and special projects. The principle foundation of the heritage corridor is that it is locally driven.
The canal corridor vision is one that balances preservation and interpretation of resources with economic development opportunities. Dan Rice spent a portion of his presentation addressing that balance and how the recognition of important heritage resources can elevate the attraction of the area to businesses. As an example, he cited a major company that moved from Tennessee to Akron because it preferred the location of a building next to the canal and its amenities for recreation and scenery. He also described Akron's Canal Park Stadium, a new baseball field located on the canal, that may have found a different location (and a different name) if it had not been for the renewed interest and redevelopment of the canal. These are examples of enterprises that are first attracted to the heritage area and then expand on it through their own development. Dan Rice discussed how a similar kind of mushrooming effect, building on success, can be experienced in the fund-raising sector. In one of the rural counties in the region, a commitment by local officials and other supporters resulted in a $5,000 grant. This small grant was then used to leverage additional funds and resulted in a total of $250,000 in a two-year period.
Rice also discussed the importance of developing a wide variety of partners. Don't forget to involve elected officials as much as possible," Rice advised. He also recommended involving the media as a partner. One of Rice's measures of success is when he reviewed a year's worth of newspapers and saw a minimum of one article a week on some aspect of the canal project. "These are not all cases of us issuing press releases - one of the true measures of success is when the media instigates the stories."
Rice closed his presentation by stressing the importance of building on the region's heritage to create a legacy. He commented on the challenge of providing hospitality at the beginning of a visitor's experience. If that first experience is bad, it can taint the whole impression of a place. You must have staff in tourist-related businesses who can answer questions, be prompt and efficient. (Rice commented that his first experience off the airplane in Billings was that staff at the car rental were loaded with information about the region.) One of Rice's final statements about developing a heritage program was the importance of remembering to celebrate the successes along the way.
A short question and answer session followed Rice's presentation. In response to a question about how to find motivated people, Rice commented that it's fairly easy to find interest among the museums and sometimes harder to involve the Convention/Visitor Bureau types, but they are needed. Rice advised looking for enthusiasts of all types - the hikers, and bird watchers were among the enthusiasts for the Ohio and Erie Canal project. In response to a question about strategies for working through opposing viewpoints, Rice advised getting people talking together to really identify the concerns and differentiating between existing and projected problems; agreeing on a common vision; and maybe trying a pilot project.
Roundtable Introductions: Why Participants are Interested in Cultural Tourism
The participants had many diverse reasons for attending the workshop and for their interest in cultural tourism, but there were some common threads throughout the discussion. Several persons discussed the need to expand economic opportunities in eastern Montana and tourism was one of those opportunities. Many participants pointed out that there are opportunities for communities to work together in a regional effort to draw out-of-region visitors. Participants were interested in using the information from this workshop to design programs that would encourage visitors to spend a few more days in this region. Crow and Northern Cheyenne representatives indicated that Native Americans in this region understand their culture and its importance but are in the process of determining the right balance between tourism and culture. Several participants mentioned the opportunities for connections between agriculture and tourism as a means to diversify farm income.
Native Culture, History and Approaches to Tourism
Lawrence Flat Lip, Crow Historian, discussed the oral history tradition in the Crow Tribe and his personal experiences with oral history. Lawrence Flat Lip covered a number of oral history topics including traditions around death, creation stories, clans and families, and battles. For example, Flat Lip provided personal details about Crow customs related to death - that once a
person dies, they are no longer considered the same as a living person and therefore their body must leave the dwelling by some other means than the main entry. When the Crow lived in teepees, the body would be removed by lifting some of the stakes and pulling the corpse out from under the teepee material. Even in the 1950s, this tradition was still practiced; a corpse would
leave the house by a window rather than the door. Oral history provides detail and conveys tradition that would otherwise be lost. Flat Lip is interested in using oral history to bridge gaps in written history and gaps between non-Native and Native interpretations of the past. He cited as an example details about the Rosebud Battle that he learned from oral history that he has not seen in written descriptions of the Battle.
Lynda Moss also provided a few concluding comments, indicating that Lawrence Flat Lip works with the Western Heritage Center. It is these kind of presentations that visitors are looking for in a cultural experience - stories from a personal perspective unique to the place.
Cultural Tourism: A (Brief) Look at the History of Cultural Tourism, A Review of programs in Tennessee and Opportunities in Montana
Carroll Van West began his presentation with a discussion of cultural tourism over the past century. Van West cited the importance of battlefields as attractions. In the late 1870s, Crow Indians were already guiding visitors to regional battlefields where bones and other evidence of the battle were still lying on the ground.
"Cultural Tourism" did not just spring up as a new concept in the last decade. Van West reviewed three main types of cultural tourism projects that existed long before this decade. 1) The Williamsburg "living history" exhibit type, 2) the "old town" recreation with buildings brought in from a variety of locations and restored to create a new sort of history theme-park town, and 3) the retention and preservation of existing structures in a town, such as the historic district ordinances used in New Orleans to maintain that city's historical character. The integration of trails as part of historic themes and corridors has also been taking place for some time; Van West cited the Natchez Trail near Nashville as an example.
Van West discussed the need to consider a variety of perspectives in cultural tourism. For example, Tennessee's Statewide Heritage program on the Civil War interprets the history and legacy of the Civil War. Including the "legacy" as part of the interpretive mission allows for links to be made in time from past to present, broadens and deepens the story so that a perspective isn't just limited to a narrow slice of time (and potentially narrow interpretations).
Van West gave a unique perspective on the Yellowstone Region as an outsider, but also as one who is intimately familiar with the region's history through his own research and his work in developing the Montana Historic Preservation plan. People outside of this region are not all that familiar with its resources, but it has tremendous potential. For example, when he shows slides of Fort Union, people in the East are impressed but surprised they've never heard about it before.
Van West discussed the potential of a number of sites throughout Montana. A few he mentioned were the Rosebud Battlefield and the Fort Site at Miles City. He commented that many of the region's historic sites and buildings are important in part because they are still in use. During the 1970s there was an explosion of the "historic theme park" re-creations across the northern plains.
According to Van West, these "theme park towns" are a bit like graveyards because they're not really used. What makes many of the sites in the region unique is that they are still part of the community. As examples, he presented slides of local bars, historic schools, and other buildings.
Van West concluded his presentation by stating that in his experience "cultural tourism" does not work when imposed from the top. "If the community doesn't do it, it won't last." The cultural tourism efforts have got to be initiated and carried forward by local communities.
September 24, Luncheon Session:
Workshop Participants Identify Unique Sites, Regional Themes and Linkages among Sites
During a lunch session, the 38 participants and guest speakers worked in small groups to identify the sites of which they are most proud because they are unique to the region, to identify what historic theme(s) fits the site and to discuss how sites are working together now. Lynda Moss gave a brief overview of four historic themes that cut across the region: 1) Pre-history (Dinosaurs to Pictographs), 2) the Lewis and Clark Expedition, 3) Westward Expansion into Plains Indian Country, and 4) Cowboys, Homesteaders and Town-builders. The purpose of this process was to identify what this group sees as unique about the region and to identify how linkages are being made between sites. The information from this process will form the starting point for identifying potential regional cultural tourism projects and themes.
The seven groups came up with approximately 100 sites (included in ppendix B). Sites is not exactly the correct term since the list includes events (such as Festival of Nations and the Custer Battle re-enactment), transportation routes (such as homesteader trails, cattle drive trails, Nez Perce Trail), natural resources and unique phenomena (such as the "wide open spaces," Wild Horses in the Pryor Mountains, coal mining, and eastern Montana quicksand deposits).
The groups identified a number of linkages among various entities including publications and information sharing through the Visitor Centers and Travel Montana, multi-state organizations such as the Frontier Heritage Alliance, tribal alliances, commercial tours, and web sites. The groups also recognized coordination among federal and state agencies such as the Lewis and Clark Commission. Some individual sites, such as Chief Plenty Coups State Park, have formed linkages with the surrounding communities through "Friends" associations and partnerships with other organizations.
September 24, Afternoon Session
Role of Tourism in the Regional Economy
In the afternoon session, Larry Swanson reviewed his research on economic trends in the Yellowstone Region. He presented a 30-page document to workshop participants that includes a variety of maps and tables covering population changes, personal income, overall employment and the role of travel and tourism in the region's economy. Total travel and tourism-related labor earnings in the region are estimated at over $558 million in 1995, up 27% from 1987. Tourism as a sector of the economy is definitely growing in this region. Swanson indicated that efforts to build cultural tourism will basically build on where the tide seems to be going overall for tourism.
Who is the Cultural Tourist in the Yellowstone Region?
Anne Cossitt briefly presented some of the key findings of her research on cultural tourism in the region (copies of the report were available at the workshop). There are several key visitor attractions throughout the region, but the real show-stopper in terms of visitor numbers is Yellowstone National Park, with over three million visitors each year. Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument has 350,000-400,000 visitors and the Buffalo Bill Historical Center approximately 250,000. All other sites in the region are below 50,000 visitors per year. However, a study of Yellowstone Visitors indicated that "most visitors [to Yellowstone] participate in highly circuitous routes that do not appear to minimize time, distance, or cost of travel" indicating an opportunity to expand cultural tourism visitation in the region.
Cultural Tourism in Montana: A State Perspective
Shari Nault Pullar presented information developed for the Montana Cultural Tourism Discussion Group, a statewide group that is being facilitated by Ms. Pullar. She went over information that was included in the workbook binder (in the section on speakers, immediately after her bio-paragraph). Some key points made by Ms. Pullar included the need for a community process for determining in advance what residents really want in the way of tourism, because once it gets started it's a difficult train to stop. Ms. Pullar suggested communities may want to identify what sites and activities residents really want to share with visitors (e.g. do you really want to let everyone know about the best fishing hole?). She suggested using events as gateways to heritage and cited as an example that the Russian fine art exhibit (on display at the Yellowstone Art Museum in late 1998) could be tied to the Russian community in the region, to Billing's sister city in Russia and the programs related to the "sister city" effort, to the immigration of Russians to the Yellowstone valley in the early 20th century and to their foods, traditions and culture. Ms. Pullar raised the questions, "How well do we know ourselves? How equipped are we to answer questions from visitors who want to know about Lewis and Clark (given the increased interest as the bi-centennial of the expedition draws near)."
A Virtual Tour of Cultural Tourism on the World Wide Web
Lois Cunningham and Dr. Robert Wier shared this presentation. Ms. Cunningham presented a variety of examples of how different locations are marketing their sites on the world wide web. She also discussed how the Internet is only part of an overall information outreach package. Dr. Robert Wier shared information about the Oregon-California Trails Association and its web site, which is totally volunteer-supported. Data on usage by location of web site visitor indicates that hundreds of "hits" come from Japan, Europe and South America.
(Material courtesy of Western Heritage Center and Yellowstone Heritage Partnership, Web site address:
www.ywhc.org