Natchez_Trace_Visitor_Center_Scoping_Report_Attachment_1.pdf

INTERPRETIVE PROGRAMMING AND EDUCATION

Scoping Meeting: Report

Natchez Trace State Park Visitors Center

Resource Identification

Soil, Historic Residents, Reclamation

To establish selected resources, park staff collaborated on identification through ranking. The below list is representative of all responses mentioned more than once.

• Natural Resources: Creeks, Flora/Fauna, Wildlife, Soil (candy clay)

• Cultural Resources: WPA Structures, Cemeteries, Homesites, Folk

Culture

• Combined Resources: Trails, Landscape, Gullies, Reclamation, Lakes, Invasive Plants, Forestry, TVA

Activities & Amenities

The visitors center is the best place to tell the environmental recovery story for Natchez Trace.

Park staff listed five facilities through which visitors experience the park’s resources. Next, they identified how visitors engage with the facilities. This helped to establish which park story should be conveyed through the exhibit.

• Cabins – Boating, Overnight Stays, Hiking, Stress Relief/Relaxation

• Fire Tower (to be developed) – Climbing, Observation

• Cub Lake Bridge – Fishing, Boating, Photography

• Visitor Center – Environmental Education, Information

• Five Points – Camp, Step Back in time, visit camp Store, Group Camp, Reunions

Universal Concepts

Understanding, Appreciation, Reflection, Families, Recreation

Park staff worked in small groups to do word association with the park.

The words were then identified as tangibles, intangibles, or universals.

Each group selected their top three for each category.

• Tangibles: Kudzu, Historic Structures, Ranger, Forest, Camping, Trails

• Intangibles: Conservation, Preservation, Interpretation, Nature, Water Erosion, Sustainability

Audience Profile

Regular park visitor who does not know the significance of the park’s reclamation efforts. This visitor is in the eight grade and relates to visual and graphical representations of information while readily adopting technology.

Park staff developed a visitor profile based on Age, Education, Location of Origin, and Reason for Visit. Each person identified a visitor profile based on an amenity of the park.

Currently, the majority of park visitors are aged 30-50 and have at least a high school education. They come from a local audience or people traveling within 150 miles and using the park as a space to meet up and have reunions. Another audience are those who use the park as a camping stop while traveling I-40.

Theme Experiencing the lands of Natchez Trace requires walking with the families who lived off the land and discovering how their lives impacted the environment.

A composite statement based on the above findings was developed and presented to the staff. Each staff member edited the statement into a theme. These were compared and merge to create an exhibit theme.

Sub-themes were identified and narrowed to four topics.

• Flora and Fauna

• Hydrology and Erosion

• Restoration

• Site Co-management

Space Allocation

• Flora and Fauna: 15%

• Hydrology and Erosion: 25%

• Restoration: 35%

• Site co-management: 25%

The staff used ranked voting to establish the space allocation.

Notes • Information area needs to address which recreations are available where, the naming of the park, and the presence of bears in the park.

• Additional consideration needs to be given to the use of AR/VR, the creation of interpretation at the Five Points area, and Equestrian uses of the park

Next Steps 1. Digitize building blueprints and identify structural changes from facilities improvements.

2. Take quality photos of current exhibits.

3. Identify background information related to the theme in each subtheme. Can include park narratives, land surveys, ecological reports, historical documents, oral histories, etc.

4. Allocate space to information, reception, retail, exhibit, and meeting room.

5. Compile information and deliver to exhibit designers for quotes.

6. Assign budget.