In August of 2011, a small group of Tulare County residents, including local authors, historians, farmers, archaeologists, ranchers, teachers, poets, scientists, and artists, came together to talk about how best to tell the tale of the long, exciting, and far too-little-known history of conservation in Tulare County. The group wanted to discover and share the stories of the wonderfully diverse places that have been conserved here, and of the dedicated people who have worked to protect and steward them.
Naming the project "Tulare County Treasures: A Legacy of Land and People," the group determined that its mission would be to "Celebrate, Educate, and Inspire," with the following goals:
to tell the stories of the conserved treasures of Tulare County and the people who worked to conserve and to steward these special places;
to select as Treasures only sites that are:
1) located in Tulare County, 2) natural and/or cultural (historical, architectural, archaeological) resources 3) formally and officially conserved or listed, 4) and open to the public at least some of the time;
to make the Treasure Tales easily accessible to the public, in hopes of increasing knowledge, understanding, interest, discovery, enjoyment, pride, inspiration, and the desire to support and contribute to this legacy.
We chose to create a website because a website will:
* provide wide audience access * enable our work to be available to readers quickly * allow for interactivity * be flexible and readily updated * cost less to produce than other media formats
In December, 2012, we're launching this website.
We intend to tell the stories of many dozens of Tulare County Treasures. At launch date, just the first dozen have been posted to this site, so you have much to look forward to!
We're launching the website before it's finished because, for starters, we're hoping that this website will never be finished, since the people of Tulare County, as they have for over 120 years, will continue to identify and conserve more Treasures as their legacy to the generations to come. Also, we want to get this information out to you, and to receive your feedback on it.
We're hoping to hear from folks who are working right now on conserving some new Treasures (like the Fox Theatre!). And we're inviting you to share your own Treasure Tales and photos, and to nominatenew sites that meet the Treasures criteria. Your questions, suggestions, and corrections are always welcome.
Thank you for joining us in the rewarding work of sharing this never-ending story. Whether you tell a friend, take your family, pass along the website, send in your favorite photo, volunteer, or discover a new Treasure, you are a part of this lasting legacy of land and people.
