Hells Canyon history on display thanks to Lewis-Clark State students

LEWISTON – Everyone is familiar with the sorts of signs, kiosks and brochures that dispense information about treasured places.

Few have given much thought to how they are assembled or the amount of work it takes to select and pare down the stories they share.

A Lewis-Clark State College class is learning by doing and the fruits of its labor will introduce people to the human and natural history of Hells Canyon and efforts to preserve it while ensuring recreational access and infrastructure is maintained.

“We’re creating interpretive panels commemorating the 50th anniversary of the enactment of the (Hells Canyon National Recreation Area),” said Kade Koberstein, a student in Amy Canfield’s Introduction to Public History class. “So we’re looking at the legislative aspect, the environmental aspects, different uses of land, as well as preservation of the land itself.”

The Hells Canyon Recreation Collaborative is the real-world client of the class. The group formed in 2016 and partners with the U.S. Forest Service and other organizations to help care for the canyon. Its members, all volunteers, perform trail maintenance, help preserve historic structures and work on new additions like restrooms and camping spots. The idea is to lend a hand to the agency that is often limited in its capacity to perform such duties.

The class was commissioned to design a traveling display that highlights what the canyon is about and how the Hells Canyon National Recreation Area was formed by a 1975 act of Congress. The students were also tasked with writing a brochure with much of the same information and a brief description of the collaborative. The products were on display during a presentation at the Lewiston City Library on May 7.

To put it all together, the students first had to learn about the canyon’s history.

“We kind of looked at different aspects of Hells Canyon. One of the big ones was the natural environment. So we looked at animals, the flora and fauna, kind of like when it was formed by the Bonneville flood,” student Madeline Thornton said. “And then we did land uses and environment – which talked about reservations, families that were ranching, dams and fisheries, as well as mining. And then we talked about legislation, which would be the passage of the act and that was kind of like the history of what all went into that, who played into that, and then the recreational aspect – so who’s in the canyon, who’s using the canyon, hikers, boats, planes, all that kind of stuff.”

Canfield encouraged them to go beyond history books and talk to people who have a relationship with the place.

“I interviewed a pilot named Bob Klein who was super interesting and talked a lot about the different preservations behind the different airstrips in the canyon, and how there’s a group of pilots who go out and do maintenance on the airstrips out there,” student Hailyann Johnson said. “He also talked a little bit about the controversy between the pilots and then the people who are boating in, or the people who are hiking in, and the different ways that they mesh together.”

Other students researched the use of the canyon by Native Americans, the ranching families that moved in later, the politics surrounding creation of the recreation area and the modern-day laws and regulations that guide its management.

It’s enough to fill a book, if not several. But the students and Canfield had to pare down their research in order to fit it on the panels.

“Public history is taking all the tons of history you see in the history books, data logs, anything and trying to make it available for people to see,” said student Manuel Valdez.

He likened it to the type of displays found in museums, along nature trails or on roadside historical markers.

“We’re just taking the whole lot of history and we’re trying to shorten it, and take everything into as small (pieces) as possible and make it easy to read and then we are presenting it to the audience so they can get more interested,” Valdez said. “That’s public history. It’s just making it really easy for the public to get invested.”

The students worked with a graphic design class to put the panels together.

“We could not have done this project without them,” Koberstein said. “They were a great assistance to us, and they helped us create the actual panels themselves.”

Canfield said the entire class gave the students real-world experience. They had to research, conduct interviews, write, edit, collect photographs, work in groups, work with their client – the Hells Canyon Recreation Collaborative – and they got to experience being a client when they partnered with the graphic design class.

It exposed them to skills they will use in their careers.

“It’s already impacted how I approach telling kids about events,” said Victoria Raulerson, who is student teaching. “I’m not just regurgitating facts at them in a structured way that we’re told during our education program stuff. It’s very personalized. Now I understand that if I can connect it back to this time a kid went to a museum and had a great time, they’re going to remember what I’m talking to them about.”