A Higher Education grant to Colorado State University’s Public Lands History Center will fund a new project called “Telling Untold Stories.” The initiative will establish partnerships with community stakeholders to research and bring to light the stories of underserved communities and their historic experiences of America’s national parks and public lands.


The Henry Luce Foundation has awarded the Public Lands History Center $225,000 over three years to fund a project called “Telling Untold Stories.”

The center plans to use the funding to identify two underserved communities that have untold stories, conduct research to help those communities claim a voice, incorporate them into American West Program events, and expand the center’s Parks as Portals to Learning program.

Jared Orsi, faculty director of the Public Lands History Center, said the center will replicate the Parks as Portals to Learning program at another national park. For the past seven years, it’s been based at Rocky Mountain National Park, where history students spend a week working with staff to address park management issues.

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