Want Historic Tourism in Warren County? Support the Library First

As someone who has done her fair share of historical tourism over the past few decades, I was very excited to hear Dr. Jamieson bring it up at the August 19, 2025, Board of Supervisors meeting.

In fact, during my first visit to Warren County, about a year before I moved here, I did a number of online searches about the area.   I was very excited to learn that the Belle Boyd House was just a few miles from where I would be staying.    I had taught middle schoolers about Belle Boyd and other women spies of the Civil War.   The Belle Boyd house was the first place I visited in Warren County.

Historic tourists like me tend to do a lot of research before going to a location.    We are searching for an area’s historic figures, important events, historic houses and buildings, cemeteries, battlegrounds, geographical features, regionally important foods, traditional arts, and cultural entertainment.   If the historic tourist is also a family historian, that tourist is looking for any location or organization that might have any type of family records.

A historic traveler is not content just looking at things for a few minutes.    They are in the area to do a deep dive into its history.   They are going to stop at the visitors’ center, the historical society, and…the local library.

Historic travelers know local libraries hold much of an area’s heritage.   We go to the public libraries.   Because we know the wealth of local information we are likely to find.

If today, a potential historic tourist googled the Samuels Public Library, we all know what they would see.  A library under attack.   A library struggling to stay open.    And that will have a lot of them looking at other towns to visit.

Dr. Jamieson, if you are sincere about wanting to attract historic tourism, you need to start supporting the library and encouraging Mr. Butler, Mrs. Cook, and Mr. Stanmeyer to do the same.     Otherwise, you will never see the revenue you were touting at the meeting.

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