Talking Trails representative visits Jamestown

Jamestown (CSi) The Jamestown Tourism Board has approved having Talking Trails, a Mandan-based company, perform an assessment of the community.

The recent assessment will determine which stories about Jamestown and the community would be compelling to visitors and the best way to get those stories told.

On Tuesday’s Wayne Byers Show on CSi Cable 2, Jamestown Tourism Director Searle Swedlund said the project is still in the development stage, as the board will be discussing the possibilities. Swedlund said the effort is a part of Jamestown Tourism’s goal of telling the story of Jamestown.

He added that a representative from Talking Trails, Shawn Brannan visited Jamestown last week to view various locations, including a tour of Historic Franklin School in downtown Jamestown, now the home for CSi Cable and CSi Computers.

Talking Trails will review the sites, and then indicate where the locations should be included in the program.

Brannan said the goal is to return the completed assessment by November 6^th. The assessment will include five completed talking point recordings, a geo-tag of the locations of all talking points for the project, along with a brief taste of the direction of those recordings.  He said that he expects to be back in Jamestown a number of times before the assessment is completed.  Swedlund pointed out that Historic Franklin School and Jack Brown Stadium in Jamestown are good examples of stories that can be told about venues in Jamestown that are tourist attractions.

Swedlund says when a site is established, a sign is placed at the location, including a cell phone number that will be available 24/7, day and night where a recording will tell of the historical significance of the site.

The cost for this assessment is $5,000, and the cost of placing a sign denoting a historic or notable place is $600.

Tourism Board President Mitzi Hager previously said, the board is just having the assessment done for now and no decisions have been made about how many stops would be on any route using the Talking Trails system.