GREENE COUNTY PARKS & TRAILS

As a popular destination park in Greene County, Ohio, the Narrows Reserve offers over five miles of hiking, an apiary and aviary, and a nature center while also boasting direct access to the Little Miami River (designated a National Scenic River.) Primarily viewed as a recreation park for enjoying the outdoors, Greene County Parks & Trails sought to shift how the park was utilized. There was an impetuous to increase usage of the visitor center while not increasing foot traffic on the hiking trails due to excessive existing wear and erosion. Likewise, the intent was to capitalize on people coming to use the park for purely recreational purposes, piggybacking on the natural draw of the river with enjoyable interpretive opportunities throughout the park. In fact, the central theme was crafted with this in mind…Greene County is connected to the Little Miami River in every way. This acknowledges that the resource (in this case the Little Miami River) is king and goals shouldn’t seek to challenge this, but instead to embrace why people are there in the first place. Subthemes tying our physical, cultural, ecological and recreational well-being to the river seek to connect visitors to the idea that the Little Miami is no only worthy of being conserved, but needs to be enjoyed and explored to fully understand how amazing of a resource that it is.

CHAMPAIGN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY

This regional history museum comes with ample square footage and a bounty of artifacts. The challenge comes with how to hone and focus the intent and stories of Champaign County in a manner that engages modern audiences in a way that not just conveys the history but gets people to want to engage with and conserve it. The interpretive intent began to come into focus around the idea that the region has been a hub for many national and international movements. Be it the movement of bison herds, Simon Kenton’s actions creating a human migration pattern into Ohio or the fact that the landscape lent itself to being a staging point and recruiting ground for numerous military endeavors in our nation’s history…Champaign County has found itself as an important juncture along many stories path. The interpretive plan itself came with a multitude of fairly substantial parameters; lots of square footage but some inefficiencies in how it is laid out, more artifacts than can be effectively displayed in an exhibit which implies significant archival storage needs, and a push by the organization to gain greater financial support from the community in the form of a levy. These requirements, coupled with a full-site evaluation and the intent to provide a fresh approach to storytelling in the CCHS, helped shape an approach that embraced bringing the community voice as an integral part of the historical society experience.

BRADFORD OHIO RAILROAD MUSEUM

New text goes here.

TAU KAPPA EPSILON FRATERNITY

As