Heritage Renewal

This afternoon a delegation comprising Dr. Isern and six NDSU students departs on a mission to Ashley, North Dakota. Program for the weekend: a shakedown cruise  of Ashley: German-Russian Country. This is a self-guided tour of grassroots heritage tourism sites, developed by the center on the Whitepoint platform. The students, accompanied by knowledgeable citizens of McIntosh County, will navigate the tour, making notes as to logistics of the tour and points of interest around the sites. Their observations will guide production of the beta version of the tour, which will be ready for public use by end of winter. The weather forecast is splendid - a great weekend for exploration.

A good word from the Forum today.

http://www.inforum.com/opinion/editorials/3841434-forum-editorial-new-life-welk-homesteadhttp://www.inforum.com/opinion/editorials/3841434-forum-editorial-new-life-welk-homestead

NDSU press release - https://www.ndsu.edu/news/view/detail/21539/

The Center for Heritage Renewal has received a grant of $8926 from the Northern Plains Heritage Foundation for the project, "Building Public Awareness of Heritage Themes in the Northern Plains National Heritage Area." This sounds a little complicated, so to put it simply - we're going to organize some book discussions in public libraries in central North Dakota dealing with the significant themes of the Northern Plains National Heritage Area. More later on this.

Amanda Biles has commenced her work at the Center for Heritage Renewal. She has a whole portfolio of tasks assigned to her, but top of the stack is updating the center's directory of fall suppers and transitioning that line of work into a research study on the significance of these community events in regional culture. See, below, the press release on this from NDSU University Relations.

--------------------------------------------

The Center for Heritage Renewal has played a significant role in the designation of the Welk Homestead, in Emmons County, as a state historic site. The State Historical Society of North Dakota purchased the property and took over management of it effective 1 July 2015.

As was reported frequently in the press, the center recruited and coordinated work crews of NDSU students to stabilize and rehabilitate the barn on the property, which was a condition for state purchase. The center not only provided the labor but also raised private funds to purchase the necessary materials. Clarence Herz, PhD student in History and special projects coordinator for the center, took the leadership role in the work on the Welk barn.

NDSU manpower puts a reinforcing beam in place in the Welk barn

The successful rehabilitation of the Welk barn, and the establishment of the homestead as a state historic site, are points of pride and satisfaction to us in the Center for Heritage Renewal. We did our part, alongside many others, to make these things happen.

Looking ahead, under state management there will be new lines of historical interpretation at the Welk site, emphasizing agricultural history (homesteading and farm life) and ethnic history (the Germans from Russia). With that in mind, the center has issued a new circular: The Welk Homestead: A Source Book. This is Circular No. 2 published by the center on a publish-on-demand basis via Amazon Createspace. Here is the link with information on the publication:

     https://www.createspace.com/5634557

The Welk Homestead is compiled by Thomas D. Isern and Michael M. Miller. Look for additional publications to appear, as the center continues to support redevelopment of the Welk Homestead and heritage tourism in German-Russian Country.

As of today, photos uploaded to Panoramio by the Center for Heritage Renewal have had 172,543 views. See them here - http://www.panoramio.com/user/5602625