CASE STUDY the ROAD BECKONS BEST PRACTICES FOR BYWAYS CREATING AWARENESS AND EDUCATING THE PUBLIC INDIANA NATIONAL ROAD ASSOCIATION “NATIONAL ROAD ANTIQUE CAR TOUR” Indiana INDIANA NATIONAL ROAD ASSOCIATION “NATIONAL ROAD ANTIQUE CAR TOUR” The National Road, our nation's first federally funded interstate highway, connected the eastern seaboard in Maryland to the western interior in Illinois. The 156-mile stretch of road across Indiana was completed in 1834. Even though the route was nothing more than a dirt path with trees cut low enough for Conestoga wagons to clear, the National Road drew thousands of visitors. They continue to arrive today. PHOTOS: 1957 MGA owned by John and Vivian Seeburger, Indianapolis, IN (cover). Tom Carnegie, "Voice of the Indy 500," inspires tour participants and volunteers (right). Along U.S. 40, drivers pass by the Huddleston Farmhouse, a welcome respite for National Road travelers in the early 1800s (opposite right). Photos by Russell C. Poole. Thanks to committed volunteers, the Indiana National Road Association has successfully completed its second, and is gearing up for its third, National Road Antique Car Tour. The tours provide a visible means to promote the Historic National Road across Indiana and increase awareness of the historic and cultural significance of the route. A great source of civic pride, the tour attracts people of all ages. To mark the event, a tour publication was developed to showcase the special features of both the road and the automobiles. Tour information has been made into a commemorative CD-ROM and distributed to the libraries of all of the schools located along the Historic National Road. By sharing this story, the Association hopes to create interest and promote stewardship to protect and preserve the nationÕs first federally- funded interstate. WINNING ELEMENTS: TAPPING INTO EXISTING EVENTS. “It seems to me that having historic cars travel the Historic National Road is a perfect fit.” With that statement, an idea was born.The seed was planted to encourage the Indiana National Road Association (INRA) to assume sponsorship of an Indiana car tour series initiated in the early 70s.The previous sponsor was no longer able to host the event, but public interest remained high to keep the popular tour series alive. INRA was quick to realize the potential of utilizing an already existing event to further raise awareness and appreciation for the byway. INRA has now successfully sponsored 2 National Road Antique Car Tours. PROVIDING THE OPPORTUNITY FOR PEOPLE TO EXPERIENCE THE ROUTE IN A DIFFERENT WAY. Both tours were designed to provide antique car enthusiasts the opportunity to drive their vintage cars along the route.A linear exhibit on a linear museum, the tours provide participants a unique glimpse into auto technology past, present and future.Tour vehicles vary from a 1910 Empire “Little Aristocrat” (manufactured in Indianapolis!) to the 2001 Solar Phantom VI designed and built by Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology students. By tapping into the crowd’s interest in the automobiles, INRA has been able to highlight the roadway as a resource to promote heritage tourism and increase civic pride. MAKING IT SPECIAL Lending a familiar voice to the festivities. Tom Carnegie,“Voice of the Indy 500” for 57 years, served as Grand Marshal and banquet speaker for each of the tours.A car enthusiast, Mr. Carnegie was instrumental in planning the original tour series. Revving up the engines and the crowd. Drivers were invited to take a lap around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.World renown, as the home of the Indianapolis 500, the site of the tour vehicles circling the track was an unforgettable experience for one and all! Making the connection to the past. During each tour drivers were invited to “take the road less traveled” by following the official byway onto older alignments of the road. Driving along at much the same pace as early auto travelers, the drivers were afforded the chance to take in the scenery and enjoy the view just as they might have done before the dawn of the interstate. Celebrating success. Each driver received a special trophy, an information packet and a CD-ROM complete with tour events, auto photos,and National Road history.An evening banquet topped off the day’s festivities. ACTIVELY ENGAGING THE HELP OF LOCAL COMMUNITIES TO HOST THE EVENT. Local businesses, police, chambers of commerce, convention and visitors bureaus, churches, libraries, courthouses, community centers, citizen advocacy groups, private museums, schools, governments and volunteers all worked with INRA to make the tours possible, successful, interesting and safe. HIGHLIGHTS: To raise awareness and engender civic pride: • Cars stopped at designated locations in each county along the route • An advertisement for each county was included in the tour publication • Local Car Clubs encouraged their members to participate • Marianna Weinzapfel of Indiana Tourism provided professional marketing guidance • Bill Eccles edited and published the tour publication and created over 200 CD-ROMs for distribution to tour participants,VIPs and local schools To make the connection between auto technology past and present: • The Texaco Museum, Golay Community Center, and Mr. Kleptz’s private automobile museum opened especially for participants • Dorothy Jerse spoke about the history of the automobile dealership To make the event a success: • The Indiana Department of Transportation’s (INDOT) Crawfordsville and Greenfield Districts kept the Historic National Road well maintained to enhance driving pleasure • Motorcycle police donated their services to provide escort and traffic control • Volunteers from Cumberland G.A.P. and Indianapolis helped set up the kickoff locations • Pi Kappa Alpha members directed and parked cars at each location as part of a service/partnership project • Meijer provided pastries and coffee for the 2001 tour kickoff • Volunteers in Greenfield and Knightstown welcomed tour participants to their communities with cool beverages • Tom Carnegie donated his services as Grand Marshal and banquet speaker • The Indianapolis Motor Speedway, through special consideration, made the lap trip financially feasible • In 2002, a Mt. Pleasant United Methodist Church hosted the tour banquet • In 2001, Jack Warble made black walnut bases for the trophies FIGURE: FUNDING SHARE & SOURCES DOLLARS PERCENTAGE STATE SHARE: 2001 Indiana Division of Tourism Ad $100.00 2% PRIVATE SHARE: Cash (represents 2001 tour) Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology Solar Phantom expenses underwritten $280.00 Advertisements in brochure $550.00 56% Participants $5,820.00 Total $6,650.00 IN-KIND 2001 ESTIMATED VALUE Meijer $420.00 Greenfield Chamber of Commerce $140.00 Knightstown Chamber of Commerce $140.00 Russ Poole - 92 photographs for CD-ROM $100.00 Bill Eccles CD-ROM and Publication $480.00 Shelby Co. Sheriff Dept. ($10/hr, 8 hrs, 5 officers) $400.00 Tom Carnegie (estimated honorarium) $750.00 42% Janet Musgrove photos $30.00 Jack Warble publicity mailing $17.00 Jack Warble Trophy bases $255.00 Liz Wheeler professional time $170.00 Jim Hicks/Trish Eccles mileage $310.00 Trish Eccles Admin Time (est. intern pay) $1,500.00 Historic Landmarks Foundation publicity $300.00 Total $5,012.00 TOTAL COST OF 2001 TOUR $11,762.00 100% SPREADING THE NEWS! The car tours provided an excellent forum for publicizing the Historic National Road and its story. • Publicity for the event included providing information on the event to all 6 Historic National Road states with a special focus on media contacts, historical societies, city/county officials and others within Indiana. Magazines, including Old Cars Weekly and many newspapers, including one in Los Angeles, picked up the story. Just prior to the tours, several radio stations interviewed the INRA Executive Director to learn more about the event • A newsprint tour publication was produced that included photos of the cars, milestones of the Historic National Road, related stories, and early tour guides.Three thousand copies were printed for each tour and distributed to school children at host schools along the route and to the public attending the event. CD-ROMs containing this information were also created and distributed to participants and 31 local school libraries. Creation of the CD-ROM helped lay the groundwork for a website developed during the second tour (www.eccles.net/tour). PHOTO: 1910 Empire "Little Aristocrat" owned by Joe and Boni Goss, Lafayette, IN. EVALUATING WHAT WORKS AND WHAT DOESN’T. After the first tour, an informal survey was mailed to participants requesting their suggestions and comments. Where possible, these ideas were incorporated into the second tour. Promotion of the car tour has generated strong community interest in preserving the road’s historic and cultural resources. LESSONS FROM THE ROAD: “IN THEIR OWN WORDS” During this project we learned: • A car tour provides an effective way to promote the Historic National Road across Indiana, the National Scenic Byway (1998) and All-American Road (2002) designations, the Scenic Byways program, and the Indiana National Road Association. • Participants were very enthusiastic about the unique experiences they had on the tour.These included driving a lap around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway; driving stretches of the 1920s alignment of the road; being with Tom Carnegie (Voice of the Indy 500) in a casual, personal setting and then hearing him speak; being a part of local festivals; and simply enjoying a very well organized and pleasant tour. • The tour provided new avenues for strengthening relationships with community organizations, businesses, government leaders, and other partners. • If so planned, a car tour could provide an innovative way to raise additional funds for the sponsoring organization (these tours were structured as “break even” rather than as fundraising events). • The newsprint publication is a very affordable way to publish information. • The CD-ROM is an excellent way to make tour information and photos available to all participants. • Because of their support for the INRA and its goals, four “VIPs” were invited to join the tours: the governor and his wife; the head of tourism and his wife; the head of INDOT and his wife; the president of Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana and his guest. None of these invitees could attend, but we sent each a tour trophy, tour publication, and tour compact disc along with a letter thanking them for their support of our organization and efforts. • Publicity can be difficult to get in a timely fashion. • We could never have broken even financially without gifts-in-kind. For example, the motorcycle policemen accompanied the tour from beginning to end as their own gifts of “community service time.” Their presence was critical to having a safe tour. • We learned that 72 cars take up a lot of room in a parking lot and that appropriate restroom facilities for 165 people are not readily available on our byway. If we were to do it again, we would: • Pay closer attention to the budget.The second tour was financially “tight” because of the expense of driving around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. • Explore ways to increase profit. • Design a tour trophy that could be used annually with a new date rather than creating an entirely new trophy each year. For example, the first year we had a freestanding etched curved glass trophy and the second year we had an etched clear-glass cookie/dinner plate. It would have made things simpler to be able to use the same design both years. • In the early stages of planning, explore the best ways to secure media attention. • Develop a web page specific to this event. • Partner with a neighboring Historic National Road states and have the tour cross state lines. ASSESSING YOUR EFFORTS This project was successful because of a number of factors. Is your byway implementing similar best practices? ASSESSMENT 1 2 3 4 1: Never 2: Sometimes 3: Frequently 4: Always 1. o o o o We interpret the historical and cultural significance of our byway. 2. o o o o We use special events as a way to educate the public and build awareness of our byway. 3. o o o o We engage a wide range of stakeholders in our byway including local car clubs, community organizations, government leaders, and schools. 4. o o o o We have developed materials to fill media requests. 5. o o o o We publicize our byway’s success stories to local and regional newspapers, television and radio stations. 6. o o o o We look for low cost, high yield opportunities to share our byway success stories. 7. o o o o We find ways to thank and recognize our volunteers. 8. o o o o We seek a wide variety of funding sources and in-kind donations. 9. o o o o We provide multiple ways to enjoy our byway (e.g., auto tour, bike ride, running marathon, etc.). CONTACT Name Joseph Jarzen e-mail inra@historiclandmarks.org Organization Indiana National Road Association Address P.O. Box 284, Cambridge City, IN 47327 Phone 765-478-3172 Fax 765-478-3410 RESOURCES Antique Car Tour publications, commemorative CD-ROM, Corridor Management Plan, Interpretive Master Plan, INRA’s Eastern Region Driving Tour brochure. PHOTO: Trumps Texaco Museum in Knightstown, IN. Photo by Russell C. Poole ROAD WORK AHEAD 1. What resources or events do people associate with a previous era along our byway? 2. Where are they? What condition are they in? How are they related to our byway’s intrinsic qualities or stories? 3. Do travelers or visitors remember those days or have they heard about them from friends? Is that what attracts them here? 4. What is the spirit of today’s era? What will people remember? 5. How can we create a tradition to celebrate along our byway? 6. How can we can organize and publicize an event on a regular basis? 7. What can we learn from this case study? 8. Are there aspects of this case study that we would like to incorporate into our byway plans and initiatives? 9. What are our success stories? In what ways are we working to increase awareness of our byway and educate the public? 10.What steps would we like to take to improve and enhance our public relations efforts? PHOTO: 2001 Solar Phantom VI built by students at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Terre Haute, LOGO: America’s Byways Resource Center America’s Byways Resource Center 227 West First Street, Suite 610 Duluth, MN 55802 P 800.429.9297, ext. 5 F 218.625.3333 www.byways.org MAY 2003 Case studies are drawn from the 2001 and 2003 Best Practices for Byways competitions. Written by: Kate Valentine,TransManagement, Inc www.transmanagement.com | Design: FUSZION Collaborative www.fuszion.com.