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Scope Over 2,000 historical markers commemorate Virginia 's rich and diverse history. Sites acknowledging significant events, people and places from colonial homes, to birthplaces of notable persons, to Civil War battlefields, have been documented along the state's roadsides, offering travelers accessible opportunities to learn about local, state and national history. Highway markers are generally not sought after by tourists in the same manner that many other historic sites are. In fact, people often encounter highway markers by chance while traveling. This condition of happenstance is certainly due in part to the nature of the medium; a motorist heading down a highway at 55 mph will likely not even notice all of the road's historical markers, let alone stop to read them. For some, however, tracing historical markers along Virginia 's roadsides is a journey in itself. For example, using A Guidebook to Virginia's Historical Markers,1 Annette Fletchall and Molly Wood, take annual trips together to visit sites based on highway markers associated with former Presidents and other famous Virginians.2 One must first learn about and purchase the guidebook, however, to discover the locations of all of the state's markers. This project aims to expand upon the information provided within the guidebook by enhancing the existing database and adding additional historical background; and it seeks to reach a vastly wider audience by using networked technologies. Starting with using Northern Virginia as a test project, we will create a website which offers a searchable database of the region's 152 markers.3 Each marker will be listed and searchable by seven factors: marker title, marker number, county, category, theme, historical actor and keyword.4 Once a particular marker is selected, the visitor will be taken to a webpage which provides the marker text. In addition to providing access through deasktop browsers, we also intend to offer this information via Palm OS PDA and Pocket PC expansion cards and through Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) enabled cell phones. We will also provide an interactive map constructed in Flash which will plot each marker and provide their locations. In the center of this webpage will be a map of Northern Virginia and beside it will appear a list of four of our search factors: counties, categories, themes and historical actor. Clicking on a factor within the list would result in a drop down menu. For example, clicking on “counties” would result in a drop down menu of all of the counties and after clicking on a particular county, all of the markers falling within that county would appear plotted on the map. Visitors will then be able to click on a marker and be given a detailed road map of the area provided through MapQuest. In addition to providing marker texts, a searchable database and an interactive map, we will provide a series of essays based on a select number of themes important to state and national history and will provide supplementary contextual information to the marker texts. A sizable number of markers will relate to each chosen theme. For example, there are a number of makers which document the Civil War, thus it would be ideal to include an essay on this topic. Other criteria for selecting themes would include areas of history which are often ignored or misunderstood. A history of Native Americans, for example, might be an ideal theme to write an essay about. Audience This website will be aimed broadly at people who are interested in traveling to learn about and “experience” history and culture. Heritage tourism is used by communities across the nation to draw visitors and encourage economic growth. Cheryl M. Hargrove, who served as the first heritage tourism director for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, claims that heritage tourism is a popular and growing industry and cites a survey that finds that of activities that people engaged in while on vacation in 2001, visiting historic and cultural sites ranked second to shopping.5 In fact, cultural and heritage tourism is so popular that many commercial sites such as Walt Disney World, Bush Gardens and a number of other attractions use or recreate historical figures and images to provide entertainment. These sites often reshape and manipulate cultural and historic images to use for entertainment purposes. At Walt Disney World, for example, fictional and non-fictional figures, as well as non-fictional actors from different time periods, are presented as existing together. For example, visitors might find a robotic Benjamin Franklin and a robotic Theodore Roosevelt speaking to one another. When images and meanings are taken out of context in this manner, a sense of historical time can be lost. If the growing industry of heritage tourism is going to continue to include sites and tours that are based on actual historic sites and offer interpretations that are backed by scholarly research, these sites must be accessible and promoted. Highway markers are already features of the landscape and can offer ideal opportunities to learn about the past. While it may be true that few people have an interest in visiting all of the state's markers, people with specific interests (in areas such as battlefields, forts, bridges, and architecture of colonial homes, for example) would surely find a website outlined in this proposal useful. To attract an audience, we will work with Northern Virginia local historical societies to reach out to their members and audiences through their publications, mailings and emails. We will also send mailings and emails to our current registered users. Perhaps most importantly, we will seek to have our website linked from local, state and national preservation, tourism and educational websites. There may also be opportunities to work with these various societies and agencies to prepare and publicize for the commemoration of Virginia 's 400 th anniversary in 2007. A subset of the traveling population who visit historic sites are students and teachers. Thus, we will also specifically reach out to Northern Virginia school districts to encourage them to visit our website. Our searchable database could inform teachers of historic sites that they were previously unaware of and our essays would provide them with additional contextual information.
1A Guidebook to Virginia's Historical Markers , compiled by John S. Salmon, prepared by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, University of Virginia Press, 1994. 2 See The Virginia Department of Historic Resources website http://www.dhr.state.va.us/hiway_markers/hwmarker_info.htm . 3 This project will include all markers located within Arlington , Caroline, Culpepper, Fairfax , Fauquier, Loudoun, Prince William, Rappahannock , Spotsylvania and Stafford counties and the City of Alexandria . 4 The Guidebook categorizes each marker by subject (e.g. churches, courthouses, colonial homes, etc.) and we will use this classification system for our category field. The themes field will include a select number of significant themes in Virginian or national history for which there will be scholarly essays written about. 5 Cheryl Hargrove, “Heritage Tourism,” CRM: The Journal of Heritage Stewardship , No. 1, 2002, pp.10-11.
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