CANEHILL -- Historic Cane Hill now has an interactive website, launched last week by a team of EAST students with Prairie Grove Middle School.
The students, members of Prairie Grove Chamber of Commerce and teachers met with Bobby Braly, executive director of Historic Cane Hill, a ribbon cutting to celebrate the website, which went live to the public last week.
The website is great, Braly said at a meeting with the students in the newly renovated A.R. Carroll Drugstore on Highway 45 in downtown Cane Hill. "It's the best community outreach we can do."
He noted that by using social media and a website, anyone in the world has access to historic Cane Hill without leaving the comforts of home. The website address is historiccanehill.org and the site includes photos of historic buildings and history about each structure and history about the small community in Washington County.
The partnership with EAST is a win-win situation because EAST students are always looking for technology based projects to benefit their communities, Braly said. EAST stands for Environmental and Spatial Technologies.
"This is community based technology and a business approach for us," Braly said, adding the project helps him because he does not have time to get to everything that needs to be done. He met with the students monthly to come up with ideas for the website and then the students "would make it happen."
He expressed his gratitude to the team, telling them, "I'm thankful for your work. This will be there for a long time. Job well done."
Eighth grade EAST students Bryan Fox, Abby Milmon and Jade Cantu worked on the website. Several EAST students from Prairie Grove High School are working with Braly on two other projects to benefit Historic Cane Hill. One project is an interactive map telling about points of interest. Other students are developing templates for interpretative signs that will be installed in front of historic buildings along a walking trail.
Abby had seen photos of historic Cane Hill for the website but last week was her first time to see the buildings.
"It's a lot different to see it versus looking at pictures," Abby said, adding that her favorite building was Cane Hill College and she enjoyed seeing the vintage structures that are still in place.
"I like the architecture," Abby said. "I liked finding the information and learning about the area."
Layne Layman, who is working on the interpretive signs, found in her research that her great-grandmother, Joann Mahaffey, attended Cane Hill College.
Work continues to renovate historic buildings in Canehill. The A.R. Carroll Drugstore opened to the public last year. Currently, a group meets weekly on creating Historic Cane Hill Museum. A grand opening for the museum, located in the former Shaker Yates Grocery Store built in the 1940s, will be held at 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, March 14.
Other students involved with Historic Cane Hill are Erin Glynn, Kellen Ledbetter, Colin Clark, Taylor Caudle, Ashley Cox, Riley Gerwin and Rylan Sims. EAST facilitators are Tracie Ashley at the middle school and Melissa Burton at the high school.
Historic Cane Hill is dedicated to the historic preservation of Washington County Arkansas, primarily western Washington County and the area and communities around Canehill.
General News on 02/18/2015