An Analysis of Self-Guided Historic Walking Tours in Whatcom County, Washington
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Western Washington University Western CEDAR WWU Graduate School Collection WWU Graduate and Undergraduate Scholarship Fall 2016 History at Hand: An Analysis of Self-Guided Historic Walking Tours in Whatcom County, Washington Laura M. (Laura Marie) Stone Western Washington University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://cedar.wwu.edu/wwuet Part of the Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Stone, Laura M. (Laura Marie), "History at Hand: An Analysis of Self-Guided Historic Walking Tours in Whatcom County, Washington" (2016). WWU Graduate School Collection. 539. https://cedar.wwu.edu/wwuet/539 This Masters Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the WWU Graduate and Undergraduate Scholarship at Western CEDAR. It has been accepted for inclusion in WWU Graduate School Collection by an authorized administrator of Western CEDAR. For more information, please contact [email protected]. History at Hand: An Analysis of Self-Guided Historic Walking Tours in Whatcom County, Washington By Laura Stone Accepted in Partial Completion Of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts Kathleen L. Kitto, Dean of the Graduate School ADVISORY COMMITTEE Chair, Dr. Sarah Campbell Dr. Daniel Boxberger Dr. Joyce Hammond MASTER’S THESIS In presenting this thesis in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a master’s degree at Western Washington University, I grant to Western Washington University the non-exclusive royalty-free right to archive, reproduce, distribute, and display the thesis in any and all forms, including electronic format, via any digital library mechanisms maintained by WWU. I represent and warrant this is my original work, and does not infringe or violate any rights of others. I warrant that I have obtained written permissions from the owner of any third party copyrighted material included in these files. I acknowledge that I retain ownership rights to the copyright of this work, including but not limited to the right to use all or part of this work in future works, such as articles or books. Library users are granted permission for individual, research and non-commercial reproduction of this work for educational purposes only. Any further digital posting of this document requires specific permission from the author. Any copying or publication of this thesis for commercial purposes, or for financial gain, is not allowed without my written permission. Laura M. Stone November 13, 2016 History at Hand: An Analysis of Historic Walking Tours in Whatcom County, Washington A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of Western Washington University In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts By Laura Stone November, 2016 Abstract This study explores and analyzes self-guided historic walking tours in Whatcom County, Washington, as part of Whatcom County’s heritage tourism offerings. Heritage Tourism a specialized field of tourism that has seen growth over the last several decades and has become the most successful specialized tourism market. Twelve self-guided historic walking tours were analyzed from an anthropological framework, exploring themes in multi-vocality, authenticity, sense of place, and audience engagement in interpretation. The narrative text from each tour booklet or pamphlet was analyzed using criteria developed by the author to examine the presence or absence of diversity, authenticity, audience engagement in the interpretation, and how the piece contributed to developing a sense of place for the location selected. Suggestions were made for the self-guided historic walking tours that did not meet the criteria for multi- vocality, authenticity, sense of place and audience engagement to improve the tours to include these themes in future presentations. Improvement to the presentations were informed using historic background information researched for this study using public history and ethnohistory approaches. The criteria developed by this study can be used by future historians to develop more inclusive and engaging presentations to attract a larger audience to popular tourist districts, helping to increase revenue and support local businesses. iv Acknowledgements I would like to thank Dr. Sarah Campbell, for her advice and guidance throughout the research process. Dr. Daniel Boxberger and Joyce Hammond shared their time and expertise, and were invaluable resources. Dr. Joan Stevenson and other faculty from the Anthropology Department at Western Washington University provided support, research sources, and valuable feedback during the initial phases of my thesis research, for which my work was greatly enriched. I would like to offer thanks for the opportunity provided by Dr. Sarah Campbell and Dr. Daniel Boxberger to share aspects of my thesis during Spring Quarter 2014 classes, and the encouragement from Dr. Sarah Campbell to present at the Northwest Anthropological Conference. The opportunities to share my research contributed not only to my public history methods but provided an outlet to express my research goals with the broader community and receive valuable feedback. I would like to thank the Burlington Historical Society for the opportunity to apply my methodology to another research project, which culminated in a public engagement. It helped to deepen my understanding of my own work and begin to explore ways in which to continue it beyond my MA. For assistance in research, I would like to thank Jeff Jewell from the Whatcom Museum Photo Archives, for providing insight into past exhibits, anecdotes that enriched my historic research, and assistance in locating many of the photos used in my thesis. I would also like to thank the staff at the Center for Pacific Northwest Studies at Western Washington University for their assistance with archival research. Special thanks are due to my graduate cohort, for hours of proofreading, love, and support. I am grateful to my family, who encouraged me at every step of the process, Finally, I would like to thank my husband, Zach Stone, for all the encouragement, attending events with me, even when I knew he would be bored, transporting me to and from meetings, and ensuring my success with this project. v Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... iv Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................................... v List of Tables ................................................................................................................................. viii List of Figures ................................................................................................................................... x Chapter One: Introduction .............................................................................................................. 1 Chapter Two: The History of Tourism and the Anthropology of Tourism ...................................... 4 The Anthropology of Tourism ...................................................................................................... 7 Heritage Tourism ......................................................................................................................... 9 Self-Guided Historic Walking Tours ........................................................................................... 12 Chapter Three: Theoretical and Applied Frameworks in Heritage Tourism ................................. 15 Authenticity ................................................................................................................................ 15 Sense of Place ............................................................................................................................ 17 Multi-Vocality ............................................................................................................................. 17 Chapter Four: Heritage Management and Heritage Tourism in Whatcom County ..................... 20 Chapter Five: Methods and Approaches ...................................................................................... 27 Self-Guided Historic Walking Tours and Heritage Management ............................................... 27 Public History ............................................................................................................................. 29 Ethnohistory ............................................................................................................................... 31 Chapter Six: Whatcom County’s Early History and Development ................................................ 33 Environment of Whatcom County ............................................................................................. 34 Early Settlers in Whatcom County ............................................................................................. 38 Inland Settlement ...................................................................................................................... 43 Indigenous Peoples of Whatcom County .................................................................................. 44 The Timber Industry and Lumber Mills ...................................................................................... 47 Coal Mining ................................................................................................................................ 56 Salmon Fishing and Canneries ..................................................................................................