Federal leverage attracts private investment at US heritage sites: A case study

Abstract

This case study examines why people are returning to the Blackstone Valley, America’s industrial birthplace. Beginning in 1790, with cotton manufacturing, the Valley became the place to achieve the ‘American Dream’. By the 1940s, industry was leaving. The Valley went into economic freefall, people moved away, and mill villages decayed. In 1986, the National Park Service, with special legislation, and the Valley’s historic resources, began to tell the story about this special landscape. Using education, the Blackstone River is cleaner, historic properties are being thoughtfully restored, and visitor numbers are growing. Private investment in the Valley is now 15 times the National Park Service investment.