TalkingTrailsBufMuseum Jamestown (CSi) The Jamestown Tourism Board approved moving ahead, and establishing a Talking Trail guide for historical and cultural sites around Jamestown.

The board approved a proposal from Talking Trail, the Mandan-based business that develops guides and trails in any given area that includes stopping points where people can call a phone number and learn a little bit about the historical and/or cultural significance of that particular site.

Talking Trail’s Shawn Brannan, speaking during a video-phone connection said he developed a Jamestown trail with a 70 sites trail with signs at each stop and would cost $42,560 using silk screen signs or $46,130 for wood signs. To just provide finished professional recordings for each site without any signs, the cost is $28,000.

The board approved spending $28,000 to purchase the finished recordings for 70 sites. Board members said they wanted to see if they could work out a deal with Newman Signs to see if the Jamestown-based sign-making company could produce signs for the Jamestown trail at a lesser cost than Talking Trail presented. Brannan said the project’s cost doesn’t include installation of signs at each site.

The list of proposed Talking Trail sites stops in multiple locations. There are 17 proposed sites in Frontier Village and 12 proposed sites in the National Buffalo Museum. The trail includes sites at Fort Seward, the Stutsman County Memorial Museum, 1883 Stutsman County Courthouse and the Midland Continental Depot Transportation Museum in Wimbledon.

A committee will be formed to oversee the development of the Jamestown Talking Trail, including Jamestown Tourism Board members and community members who have an interest in the region’s history and cultural heritage.

Brannan will start working on completing each site’s recording starting in December. If the trail development goes as planned, the project could be completed by March 15.