Title:  Respect the Past, Live the Present, Dream the Future: Preservation Planning in the Cowboy State - Wyoming's Comprehensive Historic Preservation Plan

Wyoming Preservation Plan

Number of Pages:  79
Approval Date:  February 15,2002
Planning Cycle:  4 years

Contact Information:

Judy Wolf
Chief, Planning & Historic Context
   Development Program
State Historic Preservation Office
Department 3431
1000 E. University Avenue
Laramie, Wyoming 82071
(307) 766-5366
E-mail: jkwolf@uwyo.edu
Website: http://wyoshpo.state.wy.us/SHPOweb2002/2002webpages/presplan.htm

Mission/Vision Statement:
Wyoming is a state where we, the residents, are proud of our heritage and honor our roots. We have not and will not forget those who came before us and helped make our state what it is today. We take pride in our communities and their pasts and in our quality of life. As citizens of Wyoming, we actively seek out opportunities to learn about our history and to share that history with others, especially our children. We support, both philosophically and financially, preserving those buildings, sites, objects, structures, collections, fossils, natural features, repositories and archives, which are significant and valuable parts of our history. In particular, we recognize the special contributions our agricultural, energy and transportation industries have made to the success of the state, and we value the importance of Native American culture to Wyoming. Not forgetting our senior citizens can tell us much about our heritage, we record their memories. Private organizations and the public in general take the lead roles in preservation in our state, but they are supported by and coordinate their work with local, state, and federal governments to achieve our preservation goals. In Wyoming, we have grown economically, but we have done this without sacrificing our cultural resources, our environment or our small community atmosphere. We are a state of pioneers and individualists, where people can still see the ruts made by wagons crossing our prairies and mountains. And whatever our age, our race, our gender, our religion, or our occupation, we respect each other and work together to maintain the way of life we hold dear.

Table of Contents:

Introduction
Purpose
How the Plan Was Formed
Current Conditions
SHPO Programs
Cultural Resources Are...
How the Plan Will Be Updated
How the Plan Will Be Distributed
How the Plan is Organized
Vision Statement
Goals and Strategies 2002: Section I

Goal 1: Funding
Goal 2: Public Education
Goal 3: Tourism Opportunities
Goal 4: Preserving Important Wyoming Resources

Goals and Strategies: Section II

Goal I: Funding
Goal II: Educational Programs
Goal III: Economic Development and Quality of Life
Goal IV: Historic Contexts

Section III: Government Information

Local Government
Local Government Officials' Favorite Sites
State Government
Federal Government

Bibliography
Appendix

Summary of Responses to Surveys
Public and Local, State and Federal Survey Forms

PLAN DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES
Public Participation Strategies:

• CLGs, and other local entities in non-CLG communities, were asked to use one-page public opinion survey to obtain comments from their residents;
• Wyoming Association of Municipalities and Wyoming County Commissioners' Association helped distribute a longer questionnaire to local elected officials;
• Separate questionnaire sent to state and federal agency officials.

Other Plan Development Strategies:
None specifically mentioned.

HISTORIC AND CULTURAL RESOURCES
Cultural resources as defined by the people of Wyoming include: "any building, site, district, object, structure, repository, collection, natural area, fossil, organization, or person that offers information about or contributes to our state's heritage; these resources include both prehistoric and historic archaeological resources. …[T]he statewide preservation plan addresses and includes resources that, while they may not be eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places, are important to the people of Wyoming."

ISSUES, THREATS, & OPPORTUNITIES

• Lack of funding for preservation is major constraint but a necessary action to future preservation success;
• Government budget constraints result in lack of staff and inability to conduct preservation programs;
• Increased funding will provide greatest benefit for cultural resources;
• Limited financial incentives;
• Citizen wariness of government programs for their perceived restrictions, excessive control, intimidating bureaucracy;
• Need for increased public education to benefit preservation;
• Lack of citizens' and government officials' knowledge about preservation is a major threat to cultural resources;
• Strong link between tourism and preservation;
• Growth of heritage tourism and potential seems limitless;
• Wide range of cultural resources are valued by Wyoming residents;
• Need for growth and economic development, leading to economic stability and quality of life;
• Need to balance preservation and growth;
• Too few communities and counties have adopted local land use plans that incorporate preservation;
• Existing historic contexts need to be updated, and new contexts developed.

1. To generate a variety of long-term, stable funding programs for a wide range of historic preservation programs, including the rehabilitation and preservation of historic resources.
2. To create, nurture and institute preservation education programs of the highest quality for Wyoming residents.
3. To create and support existing and new heritage tourism opportunities for Wyoming residents and our out-of-state visitors.
4. To preserve, enhance and protect those cultural resources important to the people of Wyoming.

1. To adequately fund, on a long-term basis, the rehabilitation, restoration and acquisition of cultural resources.
2. To design and institute creative cultural resource educational opportunities for both long-time and new Wyoming residents, government officials, and individuals involved in growth and development in the state.
3. To preserve Wyoming's cultural resources and support its quality of life, while encouraging stable growth and development.
4. To revise existing historic contexts and prepare new historic contexts that meet the needs of Wyoming residents and of government agencies engaged in cultural resource identification and management.

1. Funding.
   • Through community focus groups, identify funding needs for local preservation.
   • Through community focus groups, create funding programs.
   • Share fund-raising expertise through workshops.
   • Examine alternative strategies for accomplishing preservation projects without funding (e.g., barter, volunteer, etc).
2. Public Education.
   • Through student-teacher focus groups, create preservation education programs.
   • Conduct "hands-on" workshops that demonstrate preservation techniques.
   • Through community focus groups, identify needed educational programs and best presentation techniques.
   • Expand existing educational programs.
   • Conduct preservation courses that fulfill continuing education requirements for non-preservation professionals (e.g., appraisers, building inspectors).
3. Tourism Opportunities.
   • Identify cultural resources valued by young people that would attract visitors.
   • Incorporate into heritage tourism packages special programs designed for Wyoming residents.
   • Design heritage tourism programs that highlight the diverse culture of Wyoming people.
   • Through focus groups of funders, develop methods for helping establish heritage tourism businesses.
   • Examine possibility of producing heritage tourism programs with communities in neighboring states.
4. Preserving Important Wyoming Resources.
   • Preserve cultural resources important to Wyoming residents.
   • Establish networks to alert residents when cultural resources are threatened.
   • Publicize cultural resources important to Wyoming residents.
   • Conduct oral histories with senior citizens.

1. Funding.
   • Partner with private organizations and others to fund, staff, and provide space for cultural resource programs.
   • Develop programs that meet the needs identified by local respondents to SHPO questionnaire.
   • Use students and senior citizens in cultural resource processes, as appropriate.
   • Through focus groups, identify creative ways to meet preservation needs identified by respondents to SHPO questionnaire.
2. Educational Programs.
   • Design educational programs that focus on importance of cultural resources to Wyoming's quality of life, economic benefits of preservation, and stewardship responsibilities of private sector.
   • Work with print and broadcast media to increase amount of information produced about cultural resources.
   • Expand existing educational programs.
   • Through a public-private focus group, identify cultural resource training programs for government staff and volunteers.
3. Economic Development and Quality of Life.
   • Accommodate local cultural resource needs and goals in adopted state and local plans.
   • Adopt local plans that explain benefits of preservation to economic development and that reconcile conflicts between economic development and preservation goals.
   • Adopt mechanisms to enforce local plans.
   • Examine ways historic buildings can serve community needs.
   • Establish centralized outlet for local governments to obtain up-to-date information about cultural resources, environment, economy, and demographics.
4. Historic Contexts.
   • Form inter-agency team to review existing historic contexts, identify revisions needed, and design plan for distribution of historic contexts.
   • Develop plan for revising historic contexts, including who, how, when, funding, etc.