Oklahoma Historical Society

PROJECT PURPOSE

ARPA-CSRHC-2102 Exhibits - The Cherokee Strip Regional Heritage Center opened to the public eleven years ago. While the museum maintains an active traveling and temporary exhibit program using private funds, the main museum galleries are now eleven years old and need to be redeveloped to continue to remain state of the art and draw tourist dollars to northwest Oklahoma.

EVIDENCE

Our projects utilize local or regional contractors to perform the work and draw local, state and national visitation to the area thus boosting the local economy from construction activities and tourism for the area and state. Past projects have increased visitation / tourism. In 2011, the renovation project visitation was increase from 1,200 to over 10,000 people per year.

POPULATION DESCRIPTION

The communities and local businesses around this site were impacted by the state shutdown and the decline of tourism as a result of the COVID pandemic. The local communities, municipalities and businesses lost revenue from sales, lodging, taxes and other tourism related benefits. This project benefits everyone by employing local businesses to create or improve local attractions and facilities to improve local tourism and community programing. The museum is located in Enid the largest city in the county with a population of 49,618. While the county if fairly affluent with a median income of $75,937, the museum is located in a qualified census tract. 9.6% of the population lives in poverty. Unemployment is at 2.5%. The population of the county is 62,846 with 94% identifying as white, 1% as Black/African American, 30% as Hispanic or Latino, and 2% as American Indian. In 26% of the homes a language other than English is spoken.

PERFORMANCE MEASURING

Project performance will be measured by visitation statistics with our current monthly statistical tracking system and tracking earned income at the site.

ONGOING INVESTMENT AMOUNT

$

ONGOING INVESTMENT DESCRIPTION

None

ONGOING INVESTMENT REQUIRED

Able to continue operation without additional funding from the State of Oklahoma