Smokey Hill Historical Museum

Purpose: Sustaining Cultural Heritage The Smoky Hill Museum will create and install "Crossroads of the Heartland," a permanent exhibition that examines the Smoky Hills region's historical role as a crossroads of business, transportation, and social exchange. This project will shift the museum's interpretive focus and provide the cornerstone for programming and audience development for the next decade. The exhibit will illustrate the history of the region in a way that provokes thought and encourages community dialogue about the area's heritage. Project activities will include the preparation, fabrication, and installation of the exhibit, including construction of walls and casework; preparation of labels, graphics, photographs, and artifacts; production of learning centers and dioramas; development of education kits, programs, and interactives; and assembly and installation of the exhibition. Grounded in scholarly research and with improved exhibit structures and consideration of audience needs, the exhibition will be a community forum for discussion of the region's heritage and its place in American history. This exhibition will teach tourists and local visitors that Salina was, and remains, a crossroads in the heartland of America.