From Extraction to Attraction: Case Studies in Historic Preservation, Heritage Tourism and Interpretation, 1945-2010

From Extraction to Attraction: Case Studies in Historic Preservation, Heritage Tourism and Interpretation” examines four interpretive sites in Nevada—Virginia City, the Springs Preserve, Spring Mountain Ranch State Park, and Walking Box Ranch—to explore tensions over shared authority at these significant public history sites and landscapes. Nevada’s economy and environment, historically shaped by mining, ranching, and military activities, underwent a transformation with the decline of extractive industries and the rise of tourism. This transition affected the use, management, and preservation of public lands, with tourism becoming the primary identity. These changes presented challenges and opportunities for environmental advocates and public historians who wished to interpret and preserve critical sites and landscapes. This dissertation uses interpretive sites to link geographically diverse attractions that share a history of complex relationships between tourism, federal land management policies, cultural sovereignty, and environmental preservation. Each site reflects important changes in perceptions of the desert landscapes and demonstrates the tensions between various stakeholders, including federal agencies, miners, ranchers, and local communities as they collaborated and contested the fate of these historic sites. This dissertation explores the concept of ""shared authority"" in public history, where stakeholders collaborate and contest interpretive narratives. Shared authority underlies the interpretation and meaning making of objects, sites, or historical figures. It is inherent in how stakeholders understand and interact with interpretive sites. It analyzes how relationships with land management agencies and changing views on public use and access influenced Nevada's public history landscape. In examining shared authority reveals that it is often unequal among stakeholders, with tensions surrounding whose interpretation of the historic site and land use takes priority. Overall, shared authority is often aspirational, and public historians should strive to achieve more equal authority at these sites. By exploring these case studies, the dissertation addresses key questions about Nevada’s history, including the role of evolution of “one-industry economies,” the influence of federal agencies like the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) on that process, and the significance of the regionally specific environmental context for each of these interpretive site case studies. Each of these case studies serves as an excellent example for public history practice as it evolved in the twentieth century and as it is practiced today. By better revealing the context for historic preservation efforts in these four Nevada case studies this dissertation provides new insights on the relationships between tourism, federal land management policies, and contested desert environments