By KATHY MELLOTT
Twenty-first-century technology will combine with 19th-century history in a proposed historic walking tour of downtown Johnstown.
The Greater Johnstown Cambria County Convention and Visitors Bureau is in the early stages of developing an hourlong tour that will be guided by a route downloaded onto mp3 players.
The “Johnstown Trek” is being funded by $7,500 from the Southern Alleghenies Planning and Development Commission.
“Downtown Johnstown is a very walkable tour, and there are a lot of interesting stories we can pass on to visitors in a creative and interesting way,” said Lisa Rager, the convention bureau’s executive director. “We’re still in the very early conceptual stage.”
The intent is to offer an alternative to nature walks and to feature the heritage and other sites located in downtown areas, said Debbie Prosser, Southern Alleghenies’ director of business development.
Rager and her staff will work with local vendors and organizations to select highlights featured in the trek and develop an informative and entertaining script for visitors as they walk the route, Prosser said.
The goal during the next several years is to develop a town trek in a populated area for each of the six counties within the regional economic and planning agency.
“We want to educate people,” Prosser said. “We want to entertain people. We want to get them into the commercial areas.”
Bedford County was the first to receive funding through the project. A downtown Bedford Trek is available to the public, said Dennis Tice, executive director of the Bedford County Visitor’s Bureau.
“It’s actually a pretty nice little tour,” Tice said of the 53-minute walk, which includes the county courthouse, a number of churches, the historic commercial area and other highlights.
The public also can download a map of the trek.
Southern Alleghenies provided Bedford County with $10,000, more than what other counties will receive, because Bedford took the lead with the concept.
Tice said his bureau actually spent $15,000 of its own money, along with the $10,000 in regional subsidies.
Much of the cost was tied up in technology, allowing development of related Internet videos.
“Give me two years, and we won’t be (Steven) Spielberg, but we’ll be competing with the big boys,” Tice said.
Somerset County will be awarded money for a town trek in 2010 with funding for Blair, Huntingdon and Fulton counties to be made available in years to come.
Because Johnstown has so much to offer, Rager said selecting what will be included is a challenge.
“We’re definitely on board, and we’re excited about it,” she said. “We kind of have to keep the geographic area manageable, decide what is interesting and what can be presented in more of an entertaining way.”
After the stops on the trek are chosen, the bureau will get a script together.
Rager said they should be shooting video when the leaves are on the trees.
The project is to be completed in 2009.
