Heritage Happenings
September 2017 
News from
the
MSNHA msnha.una.edu 256.765.5028 msnha@una.edu
Notes from the director
By Dr. Carolyn Barske
Interim MSNHA director
After a long, relatively quiet summer in our office, it is wonderful to welcome back all of the public history students. Hearing the beginning of the semester excitement in their voices as they talk about projects makes us all smile.
Many of them have been very busy over the summer. Class of 2017 graduate and former MSNHA graduate assistant Sam Keiser spent the summer interning at the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Stephanie Vickers, a UNA Public History Center graduate assistant, completed an internship at Pond Spring: The General Joe Wheeler Home and traveled to London for the UNA History and English departments’ study abroad trip. UNA public history certificate student John Griffin also studied in London this summer. Lori Reynolds, the MSNHA’s new graduate assistant, worked with the USDA Forest Service at the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest. Sarah Harbin, a new public history student and graduate assistant with the UNA Public History Center, helped the MSNHA with our Native American educators’ resource packet. Brian Corrigan, the new graduate assistant with the UNA Archives and Special Collections, worked on the Tennessee River educators’ resource packet. Brian Murphy, graduate assistant with the MSNHA, spent the summer working on a re-interpretation plan for Pope’s Tavern and research for our forthcoming book and companion exhibit on the Tennessee River and northwest Alabama. We were also joined this summer by Sewanee student Victoria Hinshaw, who worked on an educators’ resource packet for the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio and worked at the studio giving tours.
Even though the summer was quiet without most of our students, much happened! We were able to officially announce our partnership with Sacred Way Sanctuary, Museum and Interpretive Center. The site will serve as our interpretive center for our Native American heritage theme. We will partner with Sacred Way on educational and cultural events. Dr. Yvette Running Horse Collin, the director of the site, is also working with the MSNHA as our Native American heritage consultant. As a public historian, I have been trained to think about preservation not just in terms of buildings, books and papers. Preserving other parts of a people’s culture, whether food, language, traditional clothing or animals. The project that Yvette and her husband, Sean, have built will do all of those things, but will especially work to ensure that the horses of many Native American tribes do not disappear. The adoption program Sacred Way operates helps to introduce new people to these amazing animals. The museum and interpretive center will serve as a center for the study of the native people’s connection to the horse. I still remember the first time I visited Sacred Way. We walked all around the property – looking at the different herds of horses. I teared up on numerous occasions, so impressed with the work that Sean and Yvette were doing. As some of you know, I have ridden horses my entire life and have always recognized the important connection between people and these amazing animals. I am proud, as are all MSNHA staff, to call Sacred Way one of our partners.
Our partnership with Florence-Lauderdale Tourism continues to result in great events at the tourism center. In June, the MSNHA and Florence-Tourism held a Young Singer/Songwriters of Muscle Shoals event, highlighting the next generation of music makers in the Shoals. In July, we partnered with tourism on W.C. Handy Festival events. We are so thankful for the hard work the tourism team puts into these events and look forward to developing many more like them!
The UNA Continuing Education program, the UNA Department of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation and the MSNHA are partnering on the development of the NatureCORE program. This program is focused on facilitating the development of adventure services businesses in the heritage area and across the state. We will be holding our first certification program, focused on planning for and starting adventure services businesses, on January 23-25, 2017. Future offerings will include Wilderness First Responder courses and specialized certification programs, including ACA Canoe and Kayak certification. For more information, contact Patrick Shremshock in HPER at pshremshock@una.edu.
We have also been working with the Bear Creek Development Authority on a project to preserve, protect, reopen and interpret Overton Farm in Franklin County. The Overton Farm dates back to 1817, when Abner Overton moved from North Carolina to the big bend in Bear Creek. The farm remained in the family until TVA acquired it in 1969. TVA turned it into an educational facility. Thousands of children visited Overton Farm until its closure in 2013. Stay tuned for more news as the project develops.
In June, I traveled to Washington, D.C., with delegations from the Alliance of National Heritage Areas and the Southeastern Tourism Society to advocate for the heritage area program, which had been zeroed out of the president’s budget. We all worked very hard to articulate why our program is so important. The heritage area program is an excellent example of a public-private partnership. We are able to take a relatively small amount of federal money ($18.8 million for 49 heritage areas in 2016) preserve historic sites, carry out community development projects, restore and preserve land, and gave out over $4.5 million dollars in grants to organizations in our communities. Luckily, after meeting with congressmen, senators and house and senate appropriations staff, the heritage area program was put back into the budget with level funding.
Our grantees from our April round of grants are working on their projects and we are gearing up for another grant round, which closes on Sept. 15. We have spoken to many groups across the heritage area who have some exciting projects planned. We will update you soon on these new projects.
Grants deadline is Sept. 15
Remember that 5 p.m. Friday, Sept. 15, is the deadline to submit applications for MSNHA's community grants program. Visit the grants page at our website for details.
Student spotlight:
Sam Keiser
Recently, I returned from an Education Internship with the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) in Washington, D.C.
 I, along with two other interns, researched and acquired various video, audio and photographic assets for an educational tool that will allow visitors to create mini-documentaries. Future visitors will hopefully see this finished project later this year in October. Additionally, we hope that this educational tool will eventually be available worldwide as an app on the NMAAHC website.
For me, personally, working as an intern for NMAAHC was a dream come true. Being able to be a part of the newly opened museum was an experience I will never forget. The amount of excitement and anticipation of the people waiting in lines every day has to be seen to be believed. The fact that I was able to contribute in some small way to the continued success of the museum is simply incredible. I hope to return in the future to continue to educate the public on African American issues and history.
I would also like to highlight my fellow interns who worked on this project. Langston Leake, from the University of Georgia, and Veronica La Du, from George Washington University, were an absolute pleasure to work with. All three of us were able to put together a project I believe we can be proud of. Both Veronica and Langston brought their unique skills and unbridled enthusiasm to the project. We shared in the joys of research and the frustration of dealing with copyright law. Both members of my team were fantastic and have bright futures ahead of them.
Overall, working for NMAAHC was an excellent experience. I encourage anyone and everyone to go visit the museum if you have a chance. The museum is an absolutely must see experience.
Student spotlight:
Lori Reynolds
Name: Lori Reynolds
Hometown: Ravenswood, West Virginia
Undergraduate studies: Shepherd University, Shepherdstown, West Virginia
Degree: Environmental Studies; Historic Preservation
Graduate Studies: UNA, Public History
Why I chose history: I was lucky to have had the opportunities while growing up to visit and experience many of our country’s National Monuments/Historic Sites/Parks/Forests, Civil War sites, battlefields, and other places of historical significance. Since I began visiting those places at such a young age, the importance of each site did not always stick with me. However, being pushed by a historic and nature inclined family over the years, subsequently led me down the path that I am on today to further pursue a career that will help bridge the gap between people of all ages to their human histories and natural histories.
What I specialize in: Historical and natural interpretation. This includes a combination of human histories and the historical development of our natural environment. I would like to work on bringing more historians into the park system (state and federal), increasing the interpretation of human histories and their role in parks that are otherwise centralized on natural history.
After I’m out of school: Eventually I hope to return to work in northern Arizona with the National Park System. But, if that does not work out right away, I plan on returning to work another season at the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest near Big Pine, California -– home to the world’s oldest known living organisms!
Projects for MSNHA: Previously, in my undergraduate studies, I interned for MSNHA in 2013. During that time I volunteered on behalf of MSNHA at Pond Spring (cleaned, stored and recorded artifacts), Florence Lauderdale Public Library archive (transcribing divorce record books) and Colbert County Tourism (developed OnCell tour script). Now, I'm working on compiling and organizing surveys from the Oka Kapassa Festival and developing an educators’ resource packet for MSNHA on music in the Shoals.
Other interests: I enjoy exploring new places, planning trips, riding horses/mules, hiking (I am doing the 52 Hikes Challenge), spending time with my family here and afar, sitting by the campfire and reading books that are not textbooks – time permitting.
Background: After graduating from college in 2014, I briefly moved to Alabama to live at home and began taking summer coursework in geographic information science at UNA – thinking about getting a GIS certificate. But then I got the opportunity to move to Grand Canyon, Arizona, and work as a trail guide/wrangler for the National Park Service concession, Xanterra. After I completed my summer GIS class, I moved west and did not return for another two years. During my time out west, I primarily did guide work from muleback, but I did take the summer of 2015 off and worked as an interpretive ranger for the NPS at Olympic National Park in Washington. After I came to the conclusion that an advanced degree would help further my career placement, I returned to the Shoals last July and began taking graduate classes in public history. I chose to pursue public history because of the relationship that it seeks to form between the public and the past, helping to raise awareness and embrace the significance that acknowledging the past can have on our future. This summer I had the opportunity to work for the U.S. Forest Service in Bishop, California, stationed in the White Mountains, where I provided information to visitors and gave ranger talks on the Great Basin Bristlecone Pine. I also worked on developing an interpretive manual for future rangers and employees at the Shulman Grove Visitor Center. This manual will be a guideline to providing visitors with interpretive information on the history and remarkable adaptations of the Bristlecone Pine.
Dempsey named new UNA public history director
Brian Dempsey is a new faculty member in the history department at UNA and also has  been named director of the UNA Public History Center, which works closely with the Muscle Shoals National Heritage Area on preservation, archiving and other public-history projects.
An assistant professor with UNA, he received his Ph.D. in public history at Middle Tennessee State University, in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, writing on the development of blues tourism in Mississippi. Since then, he has worked in academia, the music industry in Nashville and most recently as director of communications and brand on a town revitalization project in the Arkansas Delta. Originally from the Mississippi Delta, he focuses his work on the changing identity of the American South, Southern heritage tourism and cultural landscape analysis.
And the winners are ...
MSNHA's first photo contest encouraged several northwest Alabama residents to send in their best creative & evocative images of the Tennessee River, Native American heritage, music and nature.
And thanks to MSNHA partner Larry Bowser, manager of the Marriott Shoals Hotel and Spa, in Florence, grand prize winner Mary Carton received a night's stay & dinner at the 360 Grille while category winners Laura Gaile Brown, nature; Courtney Hamner Siegel, the Tennessee River; Eamonn Walsh, Native American heritage; and Carton, music, received gift cards to the Marriott's Swampers Bar and Grille. All winners also received cash.
MSNHA will hold another photo contest soon, although dates have not been finalized. Check MSNHA's Facebook page & website for details.
Here are the winning photos:
Mary Carton, grand prize, sunset over the Tennessee River
Laura Gaile Brown, nature, heron at Joe Wheeler State Park
 Eamonn Walsh, Native American heritage, Tom Hendrix's great-grandmother's basket
Courtney Hamner Siegel, Tennessee River, Shoal Creek Nature Preserve
Mary Carton, music, Travis Wammack's guitar
MSNHA plans to use these winning photos (as well as many of the others submitted to the contest) in advertising, brochures, promotional campaigns, websites, Facebook and any place where we can showcase northwest Alabama's natural beauty & cultural heritage. Your image of the MSNHA could be seen nationwide, so check our Facebook page & website often for news of the next contest.
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