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Travelers on U.S. 395 will be able to listen to local history lessons while passing through
By Mike Gervais Register Staff
Ever drive up U.S. 395 and wonder what all those vista points are, and what interesting information they contain, but couldn’t bring yourself to pull over and take a look?
Well, thanks to a handful of grants, and the dedication and hard work of local students and staff at the Eastern Sierra Institute for Collaborative Education, travelers won’t have to make a string of highway stops to learn about the Sierra while driving through. More than three years of work, in the form of gathering information, money and learning what the average motorist’s interests are, have resulted in the upcoming release of an audio tour of the Sierra, via U.S. 395. A new grant for $2.6 million will ensure that the area’s unique and interesting scientific history and high points will also be included in the audio tour. See road, page A-5 road Continued from front page “We’ve been working on this for at least three years,” said ESICE Associate Director and Manager of one of the teams working on the project, Paula Brown Williams. The Eastern Sierra Roadside Heritage Project is a multi-media project that involves local youth in creating audio shows about the cultural, natural and scientific heritage of the Eastern Sierra that residents and visitors can listen to during car trips through the Sierra. Dozens of volunteers and organizations have made the project a possibility. The Local Transportation Commission, last year, provided funding for the creation of an audio tour for the southern half of the Eastern Sierra Scenic Byway, including funding for classes sponsored by the 4-H Program and the Big Pine Trial Education Center to help gather information for the audio tours. The Roadside Heritage Project has been developed in partnership and cooperation with an advisory committee that includes representatives from Caltrans, the Independence Chamber of Commerce and the Coalition for Unified Recreation in the Eastern Sierra Board of Directors, which includes representatives from the Bureau of Land Management, Friends of the Inyo, Inyo County Coalition of Chambers, Inyo National Forest, Independence Chamber of Commerce, June Lake Marina, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, Mammoth Mountain Ski Area, McGee Creek Pack Station, Mono County and the Paiute Traditional Ecological Knowledge Program. “With the support of the National Science Foundation, we can point out that some remarkable science has and continues to take place here. How many people know that the world’s first long-distance power line ran from Green Creek to Bodie? There is so much to celebrate here,” Williams said. The audio programs will describe the unique natural and human history of the Eastern Sierra, and thanks to a $2.6 million grant from the National Science Foundation, the programs will now include scientific points of interest in the Sierra. The audio shows will be available on a series of CDs or via the internet as downloadable MP3 files. “This project will create an important opportunity for both the people living and working in the Owens Valley, as well as the traveling public, to come to a better understanding of the science, the history and the cultural significance of what is widely considered one of the most beautiful areas of the western United States,” said Dr. Mike Collopy, executive director of the University of Nevada, Reno, Academy for the Environment. “This is the first instance that we know of where the science that is being done in a particular geographic area will be communicated to the general public in this way,” he added. ESICE worked with the University of Nevada, Reno, Academy for the Environment, and the University of California Berkeley to help secure the grant funding for the project. “They offer very specialized skills to our community,” Williams said of the University of Nevada, Reno, Academy for the Environment. The first release of the series of audio CDs is scheduled for later this month. “There are so many incredible stories and such a rich history here,” Williams said. “For so many people to travel through Inyo and Mono counties without knowing something about the landscape they are traveling through seems like a terrible injustice. But we intend to change all that,” she added. The development of a companion CD for Mono County is currently being directed by the Mono County Community Development Department.
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