PIECES OF A PUZZLE

0

A project to put together a cartoon-style puzzle map featuring Jackson County historic downtowns, festivals and historic, cultural and recreational sites has drawn the approval of the county’s bicentennial committee.

The project is going to require a representative from each community, site or festival or event who wants to be represented on the map to spend some time with the artist designing the map.

And it’s going to require something else — some financial backing.

The map is the brainchild of Linda McCormick, a member of the newly formed Jackson County Indiana’s Historic Pathways committee. Other members of that group are Rich Green, Brad Schneck, Mark Spurgeon, Sally Waldkoetter, Morris and Nancy Tippin, Linda Seals, Brenda Holzworth and Dick Rumph.

That group met for the first time March 11 and plans to meet again at 1 p.m. April 8 at Robertson Genealogical Center, 105 N. Sugar St., Brownstown.

That meeting will give representatives from any group wishing to have their site or event included on the map a chance to be included in the project.

McCormick said she wants to include any and all organizations in the county, so all should plan to send a representative to the meeting.

Information about each site or event along with a logo and/or photo will eventually be incorporated into the puzzle map.

She said the desire of the committee is that each site or festival be portrayed as accurately as possible. The artist will spend time with a representative of each group and will likely be here at least a week.

Each site or event will be created as a standalone drawing that will be incorporated into the final product. The standalone will be available for each organization that is represented.

The project has a $10,000 price tag — $6,000 to pay an artist to design it and $4,000 more to produce it, McCormick said.

She plans to apply for a grant to pay for some of the costs, but any grant would likely require a 50 percent match.

The puzzle map, which also may be used as a calendar of bicentennial events and a road trip map of the county, has already drawn the support of at least one local group.

“Nothing says fun and education more than a puzzle map, and what if this map was of your county?” asked Cliff Sommers, chairman of the Bicentennial Planning Committee of Jackson County. That committee is putting together plans for the celebration of the county’s 200th birthday on Jan. 1, 2016.

The project also has the support of the broader Indiana’s Historic Pathways Organization, which spans the counties along U.S. 50.

Indiana’s Historic Pathways is part of the National Scenic Byways Program, which is part of the U.S. Department of Transportation and Federal Highway Administration. The program is a grassroots collaborative effort established to help recognize, preserve and enhance selected roads throughout the United States.

Information: Linda McCormick, 812-358-2793

[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”If you go” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]

What: Jackson County Indiana’s Historic Pathways committee meeting

When: 1 p.m. April 8

Where: Robertson Genealogical Center, 105 N. Sugar St., Brownstown

[sc:pullout-text-end]

No posts to display