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 share the stories of the conserved treasures of Tulare County and the visionary people who worked to conserve and to steward these special places;
- to select as Treasures only sites that are:
- located in Tulare County
- natural and/or cultural (historical, architectural, archaeological) resources
- formally and officially conserved or listed
- 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 launched this website and published our first dozen Treasure Tales. Since then, we’ve published dozens more, along with a number of supplementary articles, and lots of videos, along with our interactive maps.
As of this writing , there are still Treasures on our original list that don’t yet have their Tales, but we’re working on them! And actually, we’re hoping that this website will never be finished, since the people of Tulare County, as they have for over 130 years, will continue to identify and conserve more Treasures as their legacy to the generations to come.
We’re hoping to hear from folks who are working right now on conserving some new Treasures. And we’re inviting you to nominate new 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.
