Tell City's Sunset Park & Flood Wall Mural

The town of Tell City has been selected as the 2011 recipient of Historic Southern Indiana’s Community Legacy Award. The award recognizes the community for its for outstanding achievements in preservation, enhancement, and promotion of its distinctive heritage.

As this year's winner, Tell City will receive a $1,000 cash award to support heritage-related projects and an emblem of achievement for public display. The award will be presented at the Schweizer Fest on August 10.

Award criteria include, but are not limited to, efforts to initiate significant preservation efforts within the past five years; establish a program to revitalize and restore its downtown; implement zoning and planning that include billboard and sign ordinances and guidelines to protect and preserve its special character;  have an active historical society, museum, archives, and/or published history or histories; or host heritage-related festivals or other special events relating to its heritage.

Historic Southern Indiana and Historic New Harmony are co-hosting a workshop this fall to help cultural and heritage tourism organizations answer the tough question: How do cultural heritage sites and destinations survive – or even thrive – in an economic downturn that seems to have no end in sight?

Boot Camp: Survival Training for Cultural Heritage Tourism is a new training session offered through the National Trust for Historic Preservation's Heritage Tourism Program that will showcase "11 Key Survival Strategies for Tough Economic Times" and real-life stories that show how these strategies have worked for cultural and heritage tourism organizations across the country.

Boot Camp will be an all-day workshop geared toward organizations such as historic sites, museums, Main Street programs, scenic byways, arts organizations, and tourism agencies. It will be held on September 30 in New Harmony, Indiana. More information will be available later this summer.

Historic Southern Indiana will celebrate its 25th anniversary with a two-day bus tour on October 20-21. The bus tour will explore the Historic Southern Indiana region, including portions of two national scenic byways: the Ohio River Scenic Byway and Indiana’s Historic Pathways.

Guests will enjoy lunch at the Stream Cliff Herb Farm and Winery, a special dinner and tours at Hillforest Mansion and Veraestau in Aurora, and an overnight stay at Hollywood Casino and Hotel in Lawrenceburg. Other planned stops will explore outdoor adventure, southern Indiana artisans, and architecture.

This anniversary event will touch upon heritage tourism, historic preservation, history education, and corridor development – all part of the Historic Southern Indiana mission. More information will be available later this summer.

The 2nd annual Indiana's Historic Pathways teacher workshop is set for October 4 at the Paoli Community Learning Center in Paoli, Indiana.

Designed for teachers of Indiana history, this workshop focuses on the history of transportation along Indiana's Historic Pathways, one of the state's National Scenic Byways. This year's topics include Native Americans, the Underground Railroad, the Buffalo Trace, and the history of steamboats and railroads in southern Indiana. A panel session will highlight classroom project ideas from current teachers. Attendees will receive a box of items representing the history of communities along the byway to use in hands-on lessons with their students.

Registration will be open at the end of August. Check the HSI website for updates.

The year 2011 marks the 200th anniversary of the first successful steamboat voyage down the Ohio River, and the Belle of Cincinnati and the Belle of Louisville are coming to southern Indiana for a series of cruises this fall to celebrate this bicentennial event.

Both Belles are coming to Madison October 14-16 for a weekend of cruises including a race between the two riverboats. For schedule and registration for these events, please visit the 2011 Steamboat Bicentennial Celebration website.

The Belle of Cincinnati is also visiting Evansville, Tell City, and New Albany for dinner cruises. Please visit BB Riverboat's fall cruise schedule for pricing and registration.

For a schedule of other steamboat bicentennial events, visit the Rivers Institute Steamboat Bicentennial calendar.

Indiana's Historic Pathways
Indiana's Historic Pathways now has a blog that features events and attractions in the communities along the byway. Visit the blog at indianashistoricpathways.blogspot.com.

Ohio River Scenic Byway
The Ohio River Scenic Byway will celebrate its 15th anniversary as part of HSI's 25th anniversary bus tour October 20-21. More information about the bus tour will be available later this summer.