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Annual Report
2007
JCHS Mission: To
actively discover, collect, preserve, and promote the heritage |
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Olympic gateway visitors center In April of 2007, JCHS
contracted with Jefferson County to manage the Olympic Peninsula Gateway Visitor
Center. The agreement is seen as a win-win arrangement for both organizations.
JCHS can fulfill its mission of "promoting the Bill Roney, long-time manager of the Rothschild House Museum, became the manager of the Visitor Center, assisted by a core group of volunteers. A committee of JCHS Trustees and staff are establishing Center policy and planning remodeling. The goal is to make the Visitor Center a destination for residents and visitors alike, and not simply a place to pick up brochures. We also wanted to upgrade how we presented information on Jefferson County as it is today, both east and west, to visitors. The Jefferson County Commissioners approved our plan and allocated additional funding for the project. Exhibits are planned to portray life outside Port Townsend with a focus on the forestry, fishing and farming that began to change our place on the Olympic Peninsula in those heady days of the last half of the 1800s and early 1900s. The exploitation of these resources eventually led to the formation of the Olympic National Park. This World Heritage and Biosphere site would change the character of our county forever. Sixty percent of the Olympic National Park is within Jefferson County. When the remodel is completed we will have a resource that graphically illustrates this history and diversity within our county. The Gateway Visitor Center Board's vision provides JCHS with opportunity to promote Jefferson County history and to serve an active conduit to our museums in Port Townsend. Our service to Jefferson County continued as these plans for change were formulated early in 2007. We began with longer hours and more daily openings. Seasonally, we are open seven days a week, thanks to a small volunteer group. This volunteer work enabled us to greet and inform 10,713 people in 2007, up from 9,204 in 2006. We hope that Jefferson County Historical Society members will visit the Visitor Center at some time after our remodel and exhibit project is complete in the spring of 2008 to enjoy our blend of history and the present in Jefferson County.
William Roney, Home Page News & Events Hours & Directions
Jefferson County
Historical Society |
