[printer sound]
[Music]
- Dana Younger: So the best possible thing is for a
visitor to be able to have a one-on-one experience with someone with deep knowledge of the park.
[paper slicing]
And it can create the most meaningful connection.
Unfortunately, it's not always possible for there to be people with deep knowledge,
everywhere in the park, and that's where we come in. We are the exhibits shop.
So there are nine of us, that service 89 parks, and we run,
typically 50 to 70 projects per year. They range in size from a handful of signs,
all the way up to a large visitor center, or a nature center, and everything in between.
- Kristina Schlegel: We make these other signs,
visitor orientation panels, VOPs, and they have the big red arrow on them. You are
here. So that's the ringing joke, and then my brother-in-law said, "We'd be lost without you."
- Stephen Garrett: What we
can do is to tell the story of the people who built the walls.
- Dana Younger: I supervise three teams, we have the interpretive
planners, who research and write content for our projects, and also project manage those projects.
- Penelope Ray: We identify interpretive
themes, we write content, find pictures, research background.
- Dana Younger: And then I have a
team of graphic designers, and they do all the design work.
- Kristina Schlegel: The photograph that I was told about,
they wanted to put in from the Austin History Center. It's really fun to bring an idea to life.
[metal sheet cutting]
- Dana Younger: And then I have a team of
fabricators and installers, that make exhibits, interior exhibits, exterior exhibits, furniture,
and they also drive all over Texas, and dig the holes and put the things in the ground.
[shoveling sound]
- Dana Younger: Over the 14 years that I've been here,
we have put literally thousands of signs out in parks. And most of those signs each have
two holes, and if you've ever dug a hole in Texas, you know that it is serious business.
[drill Sounds]
- Dana Younger: Of those, probably 10,000 holes that we have put
in Texas, Tom has probably dug 9,000 of them. And he has been to every single park at least twice.
- Tom Lamm: Yes, I have, at least twice.
- Dana Younger: He's put more miles on vehicles than
most of us combined. Everyone is super creative, and we bring all those skills and labor together,
to make whatever we think is gonna serve the stories of the park the best.
[drill whirring]
So, we take that job really seriously.
And some topics are more challenging to talk about than others.
[gentle music]
- Kristina Schlegel:
One of the very special things about McKinney as a park, is that it has some very sensitive history.
- Stephen Garrett: Part of the history here is enslavement.
Thomas McKinney is a well known Texas pioneer,
and like many of his contemporaries, was an ardent slave owner.
- Kristina Schlegel: We're just trying to give facts about a space.
[sheet Cutting]
- Kristina Schlegel:
And sometimes it's not the best of news, it isn't the prettiest story.
- Stephen Garrett: We try to tell the
stories that relate to all Texans. Telling the stories of enslaved people, of segregation,
other sorts of difficult topics, that were maybe at one time in the past more avoided,
we try to take those head on, when they're appropriate in our parks.
- Kristen Williams: We're all an equal part in this story, and I think
excluding some stories, and lifting up other stories, doesn't do a great service to our state,
and to the legacy of Texas, that I think we're all really proud of.
- Kristina Schlegel: Having that ability,
because of what we do, is phenomenal. What a, we're so lucky that we get to do that.
- Dana Younger: And so we are in
a very privileged position, to be able to be so central to the
mission of Texas parks and wildlife, in connecting people to the resources.
- Penelope Ray: Connecting people to the park, to the land, to the
animals, the plants, the history, is really what it's all about for us. Telling those stories and
helping more people learn them, at least until we can get back to the park, and tell another one.
[boots walking on dirt]