The purpose of this project award is to create virtual outdoor experiences (hereafter referred to as voes) for five archaeological sites in lincoln county for distribution to the public and school…

The Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management awarded a $188,926 Cooperative Agreement under the Eastern Nevada Conservation, Recreation and Development program (CFDA 15.017) to the Desert Research Institute (DRI) of the Nevada System of Higher Education. The purpose of the award is to create virtual outdoor experiences (VOEs) for five archaeological sites in Lincoln County, Nevada, to provide free and equitable public access to these resources through online tours and story maps. The project will produce two story maps, each containing virtual walking tours of 2-3 sites, using 360-degree images and multimedia content to simulate an on-site experience. The virtual tours will feature interpretive information on the archaeology, history, geology, botany, and biology of the areas. This project aims to enhance public education and engagement with Nevada's cultural heritage through innovative digital preservation and dissemination of content related to the targeted archaeological sites.

The purpose of this project award is to create virtual outdoor experiences (hereafter referred to as voes) for five archaeological sites in lincoln county for distribution to the public and school districts within the state of nevada. The voes will provide free and equitable access to the population regardless of physical, economic, or logistical limitations. The only requirement will be internet access.voes are comprised of a virtual walking tour embedded into an arcgis storymap. The virtual walking tour will allow the user to explore the sites as if they were on location, functioning similarly to google street view. The tour will be created by taking high-resolution 360-degree images at regular intervals. The images will then be imported into virtual tour software and linked to simulate a walk at the site. Each virtual tour will feature text and images that will be analogous to physical interpretive signs and kiosks in existing interpreted archaeological sites or trail systems. The interpretive signs will include information relevant to the archaeology, history, geology, botany, and biology of the area. The tours will then be embedded into a storymap. Contained within the storymap will be a longer narrative about the sites and the cultural history of their surrounding areas as well as other multimedia, including additional photographs, newspaper articles, audio or video clips, and links to relevant archaeological materials. Combined, the tour and storymap will provide an engaging and immersive experience for public users to learn about the history of nevada. The expected deliverables for this project will be two storymaps with five walking tours. The storymap for the BLM caliente field office will contain virtual walking tours for the ASH springs, crystal wash, and white river narrows archaeological sites. The storymap for BLM basin and range field office will include the virtual walking tours for mount irish and shooting gallery. Each site will have its own subsection within its respective storymap where the virtual tour and narrative will be located. These five locations were selected because they are interpreted public use sites and represent significant clusters of unique regional rock art.upon completion of this project, the links for the voes will be added to the websites for each BLM field office, the BLM ELY district, and the BLM nevada lcai page. There, voes will be a freely accessible and beneficial tool for users who may wish to visit archaeological sites but cannot given the difficulty of access, lack of transportation or ADA accommodations, hiking abilities, financial constraints, or other restrictions limiting outdoor recreation and exploration. In addition, as free media, voes can be distributed to school districts around the state for teachers to engage students in immersive, digital media without incurring costs or risking the safety of their students on site.