• Mission statement

The overall goal of this project is to convey the progression and development of Chimney Rock State Park. With this project we hope to celebrate the park’s achievements, hardships of development, explore the local history, and examine the significance of the park to Western North Carolina. The intended audience is the general public, especially those who are interested in Western North Carolina history.

The basic structure of our website will consist of a homepage, containing basic information about Chimney Rock and some visuals. Linked from the homepage will be four main topic pages and a few supporting information pages. The main topic pages will include information the on legends of the area done by Nell, an interactive scrapbook handled by Nell, the hill climb race done by Jacob , various legal cases and issues done by Carter, and the many investment opportunities and development plans attempted over the years of Morse family’s ownership of Chimney Rock by Christian . Each page will have the same logo and the same header photo (maybe a panoramic of chimney rock) to create cohesiveness. We will also have an about page detailing our research “specialty” for this project and a little about ourselves.

  • Tools you plan to use
    • Christian:
      • I will interviewing Todd Morse and editing the audio for our website using audacity.
    • Nell:
      • For the legends and local histories, I will be potentially using a mapping tool. For example it would be interesting to map where people thought gold was buried in the past or the bottomless pool was located.
      • For the Chimney Rock interactive scrapbook I would love to use before and after sliders of different parts of the area. I would also like to include audio and mapping tools.
    • Jacob:
      • For my potion I will be using some video clips of the hillclimb from YouTube embedded into the WordPress page. The biggest difficulty with this will be obtaining rights to use video clips from various channels on YouTube.
      • Google Sheets, Microsoft Excel, or a similar data presentation program or website will be used to show how the hill climb race times became shorter and shorter every year, and how more and more racers participated each year.
      • I would also like to map out the hill climb course using today’s map tech, such as Google Maps and Google Earth, then assign photos from different portions of the course using Thinglink or a similar program (possibly using built-in features of Google Maps or Earth) with descriptions of what is going on. These pictures will be archival documents, current-day photographs, and computer renders, depending on what is most appropriate for each location.
    • Carter
      • I will use WordPress for a lot of my information
      • I would like to use a timeline tool, possibly Timeline JS or another timeline tool to show the changes over time
      • I might make a slideshow that has a few images along with it though my image usage will be fairly light.
  • Schedule of milestones (when critical pieces are ready to present)
    • Friday, 22 February, by class time
      • 1st draft of Digital History Contract
    • Friday, 1 March
      • Begin making website accessible
      • Team progress reports
    • Monday, 4 March
      • Revised & final version of team contracts
    • Friday, 22 March
      • Hopefully all research will be done by this point.
      • Christian will have conducted interview with Todd Morse
    • Wednesday, 27 March, 5pm
      • As-close-as-possible-to-final draft of project
    • Monday, 8 April
      • Ensure web page is fully accessible
      • Consider changes recommended from peer feedback
    • Wednesday, 17 April, 5pm
      • Final draft of project, no further changes permitted
    • Monday, 8 May, 8am
      • Presentations
  • Who will do what? Be specific about who is doing what.
    • Christian Roughton:
      • Conduct interview with Todd Morse and put that transcript on the website. Also putting an either visual or audio recording of the interview on the website.
      • Conduct research into the attempts to attract investors into this area, with lots of focus on the attempt to build a resort town around Lake Lure and Chimney Rock.
      • Look at how the dreams of the Morse family for this land compared to what is there today.
    • Jacob McIntosh:
      • Scan photos from the big Photo Album and other primary sources to be used to stage then & now photos and have ideas of where we want drone footage to be taken.
      • Research the Hill Climb and produce a page on it.
    • Nell MacCarty:
      • Create an digital scrapbook. The scrapbook will be a simplistic page where you can scroll or click through different slides. There will be photographs, drawings and basic information and dates. I will also embed a couple different interactions such as audio and a map but not very many to keep it straight forward. I hope the page will be minimalist enough so that the actual content will be highlighted.
      • Research Chimney Rock legend and local histories and produce a page about it. On this page I will probably discuss legends of a volcano at Chimney Rock, bottomless pools, ghosts, hidden gold, and other folktales that were told
      • Contribute to a home/about page that potentially has drone footage of chimney rock with general information and a before and after picture of chimney rock.
      • Provide photography and possibly drone footage and photography if it is legal/ if we could get permission. This drone footage will either come from my own filming or from another creator. This will depend on what I get permission for.
    • Carter May
      • Read through the legal documents for any court cases and settlements between the Chimney Rock owners and the state/federal governments.
      • Research the exact legal structure of Chimney Rock and the many changes that it went through in terms of organization and ownership
      • Map out the changes that Chimney Rock had as an organization throughout the years
      • Produce a compact summary of the major changes and legal issues/cases that Chimney Rock had to deal with. Very compact and simplified version of events.
      • Gather brochures and promotional pieces and make a digital gallery of it. Possibly make a collage out of the many pieces in order to better visualize the marketing campaign through the years.
      • Digital timeline/presentation of the advertising through the years.