ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (AP) - The nation’s leading agency for national parks will be in St. Joseph in November as the city looks to revitalize some of its most historic locations.
Making the trek all the way from Santa Fe, New Mexico, landscape architects and two trail historians from the National Parks Service will spend four days getting a pulse of St. Joseph’s history come Nov. 5.
During that time, National Park Service members will meet with local stakeholders, speak with historians and analyze a treasure chest of information related to two historic St. Joseph trails: the Pony Express and California Gold Rush Trails, the St. Joseph News-Press reported.
Historic Preservation Planning Consultant Lauren Manning - who has spent much of the year researching documents and artifacts on the trails in preparation for the National Park Service’s arrival - said the Parks Service’s utilization of trail history is used often as a redevelopment tool for areas.
“They’ll be compiling that information, figuring out how to interpret that, bring that history back to St. Joe through signage, interpretation and riverfront development,” Manning said.
Sites in St. Joseph - where trail riders began before heading west across the river - are examples of history that have been forgotten by historians and local residents, Manning said.
“The Pony Express Trail and the California Gold Rush Trail start on the Kansas side . but it all started in St. Joseph though,” Manning said. “They’re trying to connect that portion back to the trail.”
Manning spoke about the eagerness she’s seen from Parks Service members on the opportunity to document and analyze the historical significance of St. Joseph’s trails.
Creating digitized pages of century newspaper ads, diaries and other documents, Manning and others can offer Parks Service members insight into those locations.
“They’re very excited,” Manning said. “They felt like, ’We should have done this long ago’ and they feel like they’re essentially indebted to St. Joe.”
Manning said by bringing the trail’s history back into the public eye, it will hopefully work to kick-start development.
Like many others, the project serves as another initiative in St. Joseph’s pursuit to revitalize its downtown and riverfront areas.
“Downtown has done a great job as it is,” Manning said. “I know the city has been talking about riverfront redesign for years so this is just an extra reason to do it.”
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Information from: St. Joseph News-Press/St. Joe, Missouri, http://www.newspressnow.com
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