Bowling Green, Ky. - The culture and history of the Mammoth Cave region will be the focus of two weeklong workshops this month for community college teachers from Kentucky and several states.

“Mammoth Cave: People, Place and History” will be presented by Western Kentucky University and the Mammoth Cave International Center for Science and Learning. The Landmarks of American History and Culture Workshop is funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

About 40 community college teachers will participate in the workshops July 16-21 and July 23-28. In addition to community colleges in Bowling Green, Elizabethtown and Owensboro, participants are coming from Georgia, West Virginia, Minnesota, Illinois, Tennessee, New York, Nebraska, Texas, Wyoming, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Florida, Virginia, North Dakota, Arkansas and Washington, D.C.

The workshops will be based at the Cave Research Foundation’s Hamilton Valley Research Station at the eastern edge of Mammoth Cave National Park and will include field trips to several locations in the park and nearby area such as the Gardner House in Hart County, Diamond Caverns, the ruins of Bells Tavern and Wigwam Village.

“Participants will not only learn about the Mammoth Cave region and its connections to larger historical movements, but they will also gain an understanding of techniques that can be applied to learning and teaching about the culture history of their own regions,” said Dr. Rick Toomey, director of the Mammoth Cave International Center for Science and Learning. “Place plays a fundamental role in our understanding.”

During the workshop, each day will highlight a different theme of the cave’s cultural history taught by experts in archaeology, anthropology, history, cultural geography, genealogy and folk studies.

“People consider Mammoth Cave a natural resource and often overlook the history and cultural impact,” said Dr. Katie Algeo, associate professor of geography and geology and one of the workshop presenters.

Topics include the Native American occupation of the cave area; folklife, oral history and traditional architecture of the region; African American contributions as cave explorers and guides; tourism development and how changes in transportation affected the area; and the creation of Mammoth Cave National Park and its impact on communities and residents.

“The diversity of groups who have occupied the Mammoth Cave region and depended on its resources for their livelihoods, along with the region’s role in shaping American identity through tourism and the national park movement, make Mammoth Cave National Park an ideal site for the study of place-based history,” Dr. Toomey said.

Presenters include Dr. Darlene Applegate, associate professor of anthropology at WKU; Dr. Patty Jo Watson, distinguished professor of anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis; Dr. Gwynn Henderson, education coordinator for Kentucky Archaeological Survey; Russell Townsend, Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians; Dr. Lynwood Montell, former folk studies professor at WKU; Dr. Michael Ann Williams, folk studies professor at WKU; Joy Lyons, chief of program services at Mammoth Cave National Park; Dr. Michael E. Crutcher Jr., assistant professor of geography at University of Kentucky; Robert Ward, cultural resource specialist at Mammoth Cave National Park; Bruce Noble, superintendent of Colorado National Monument; and Dr. Michael Hawkins, associate professor of geography at Ball State University.

A few openings remain for community college teachers to attend the workshops. For information, visit www.wku.edu/neh_landmark/

More WKU news is available at www.wku.edu. If you’d like to receive WKU news via e-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.

For information, contact Rick Toomey at (270) 758-2145.

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