After the burn.

MESA VERDE PLANS RISE FROM ASHES

Last summer's wildfires in Mesa Verde National Park still raged when the National Park Service and surrounding communities began efforts to rebuild public confidence and revive tourist interest in the park. It was, for some, a matter of economic survival.

In the dry, rugged corner of Colorado dubbed "Mesa Verde Country" by the Montezuma County Economic Development Council, most people make a living from ranching, farming or tourism. Nearly one in four jobs near Mesa Verde is directly related to the tourist industry, which accounts for about one-third of the area's total economy. Many businesses are Mom-and-Pop operations, counting on summer visitors for half their annual revenues. "We are the gateway communities to the park," said Lynn Dyer, tourism director for Montezuma County. "There's a relationship between our well-being and that attraction."

No wonder while the fires raged, anxiety ran high. The 2000 fire season in the United States was the worst in 50 years. Tourists, alarmed by fires burning across the West as early as May, canceled previously scheduled plans. Mesa Verde was basically closed from July 20 to Aug. 28. Visitor numbers plunged. The fires' economic impact was greatest inside the park and in nearby Cortez, which reported a 7.25 percent drop in municipal lodging-tax collections through August. Visits to the national park itself dropped nearly in half in July, to 78,000 in 2000 from 143,300 in 1999. August was even worse. By the end of the month, year-to-date visits for the park were off nearly one-third, or 31.3 percent, from the previous year. The park's campground was down 39 percent for the year.

"The early fire season put us on alert even before the Mesa Verde fires that we needed to look at the effects of fires on other national parks," said Lynn Davis, president of Strategic Communications Inc., which handles public relations for Aramark, the concessionaire in Mesa Verde National Park. "We were prepared ahead of time on how we would work together if one hit here."

Their strategy already had a name.

CULTURAL-HERITAGE TOURISM

Area businesses and officials work to cultivate the type of visitors who make a place like Mesa Verde National Park their vacation destination. Known as "cultural-heritage" tourists, they are travelers seeking an "authentic" experience in a distinctive place. In recent years, many rural communities have tapped cultural-heritage tourism as an effective tool for economic revitalization. "Cultural-heritage tourism gives people a reason to go someplace," said Shauna Palmer, tourism development research associate with the Colorado Center for Community Development at the University of Colorado-Denver. "It doesn't compete with resorts; rather it makes the most of what's distinctive about a community. It's the 'value-added' principle, packaging it with other tourist destinations that draw families with diverse interests."

It's also good business. Cultural-heritage tourism is the fastest growing segment of the travel market. "People don't travel to stay in a hotel but to experience something special," said Kimber Craine of the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies. "Touring isn't just about museums, but about real things that people do or did -- street festivals, farming, old manufacturing techniques that are still in use." The Travel Industry Association said that cultural-heritage visitors tend to spend more on average than U.S. travelers as a whole, $615 per trip vs. $425. They also stay an average of 5.2 nights at a destination compared with 3.3 nights for all U.S. travelers.

Mesa Verde Country, the county tourism campaign, promotes travel packages that incorporate visits to other local attractions. The nonprofit Cortez Cultural Center features dancers, storytellers and artists who demonstrate the multi-cultural heritage of the region, from Native American songs to cowboy poets. The Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad offers visitors a scenic trip on an authentic 1882 coal-fired, steam-locomotive train. Stagecoach rides promise visitors a "trip back to the Old West" of the 1860s. Outdoor recreation -- fishing and boating at Lake McPhee, rafting on the Dolores River, and hunting opportunities -- also draws visitors.

But Mesa Verde National Park is the linchpin. Spectacular cliff dwellings and mesa-top villages thread the landscape, the exact circumstances of their construction -- between 450 and 1300 A.D. -- still open to scholarly debate. Established in 1906, Mesa Verde was the first national park set aside to preserve the work of humans. UNESCO designated the park a "World Cultural Heritage Park" and National Geographic Traveler magazine named it one of the world's 50 greatest destinations.

Last summer's fires threatened to cloud that shining reputation.

THE RESPONSE

"When the fires started our plan was to make sure that visitors knew about alternative things to do," said Patty Zink, director of media relations for the Durango Area Chamber Resort Association. "We were in constant contact with our neighboring communities. Our joint focus was to not let tourists go away disappointed."

Drawing on past experience -- primarily the 1996 Chapin fire in Mesa Verde and the 1988 fire that scorched Yellowstone National Park -- officials devised a marketing plan. They identified key media outlets to carry their core message, hoping to spin an "informational" campaign into a quasi-advertising effort. None of the communities has much money for advertising, Dyer said, and they found other ways to get the word out. One of the most effective was making park rangers available for media interviews during the fires. "They put a human face on it and put the fire into context," said Will Morris, chief interpreter and public affairs officer at Mesa Verde National Park.

Some nearby attractions actually gained visitors. Ridership on the Durango-Silverton Railroad was up 2 percent in July from 1999, and hotels in Silverton were running at 80 percent to 90 percent occupancy. Traffic at Hovenweep National Monument, about an hour west of Cortez, increased 38 percent in July and 18 percent in August. While Mesa Verde was actually closed, visitor numbers at Hovenweep more than doubled, from the usual 100 a day to 275. The Anasazi Heritage Center in Dolores reported nearly 50 percent more visitors in July and August.

LOOKING AHEAD

Once the fires were out and the park re-opened, Mesa Verde Country partners pulled together $35,000 and launched a regional advertising campaign focused on luring visitors back to the park in 2001. "The year after Yellowstone, visitor numbers there doubled," said Dyer, Montezuma County's tourism director. "We hope for something comparable."

A small amount of money, $5,000 from the newly reconstituted Colorado Tourism Office, was earmarked in August for a quick-hit public-relations effort in the immediate wake of the fires. "We needed to allay travelers' fears and say that the 'treasures' of the park were not damaged," said Bill Jensen, chairman of the board of the Colorado Tourism Office. Regional media outlets were the primary targets, and scores of reporters ventured into the park to see -- and write -- about the fires' aftermath. "It had a positive effect," said Morris. "The fires raised the visibility of Mesa Verde."

By the end of August, another $95,000 in state monies was earmarked for a spring promotion effort -- a $25,000 grant from the Colorado Office of Economic Development and $75,000 from the state Department of Local Affairs. The $100,000 in state funding brought Dyer's budget back to normal. "We usually have about $340,000 a year generated from sales and lodging taxes," she said. "The state money made up the difference we lost from the drop in tourists. There's not much additional," she said.

The spring marketing materials aim to capture potential visitors by encouraging them to "celebrate the rebirth" of the park and to "witness the power of nature." Mesa Verde already is a magical place, said Aramark's Lynn Davis, but the effects of the fire were spectacular. "The fires burned within feet of some of the cliff dwellings and just stopped.

"It's a powerful impression," said Davis. One that area businesses are banking on.

MINING'S MEMORY PANNED FOR GOLD

Siverton has careened from boom to bust for for most if its 125 year history and where its last working mine closed nine years ago the entire industry shut down, leaving few jobs and fewer prospects. The town again balanced on the brink.

With a year around population of just 500 Silverton did have two things still going for it a pristine turn of the century downtown and an 1882 era steam-driven train.

Those two attractions -- and the town's mountain location -- have been enough to sustain a thriving tourist tourist trade. Today, more than 400,000 visitors pass through Silverton each years. About half ride the Durango Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. Most come to relieve the sprit of the Old West in an authentic mining town.

To them Silverton is living history.

Mining used to be our primary industry today its tourists said Connie Teague tourism director for the Silverton Chamber of commerce. Visitors come to the history as well as the scenery.

Between 1890 and 1910 gold and silver made Silverton wealthy and residents lavished then riches on the town.

They built sidewalks electric lights a sewer system and a Carnegie Library. They embellished the courthouse with a gold dome and added silver to the Town Hall's bell tower.

Downtown hasn't been remodeled or modernized much single then said Baverly Rich chain of the San Ivan Country Historical Society. People wantio to see that untouched bit of the past.

That draw together with location -- close to Mesa Verde National Park within a day's drive of the Grand Canyon between two seeds byways and surrounded by four wheel drive roads -- has made Silverton a prime example of cultural heritage tourism.

That brand of tourism is a way to revitalize and diversity local economies said Shuane Palmer a tourism development specialist with the Colorado Center for Community Development at the University of Colorado Deriver. It also plays a proportionally larger role in less populated areas, she said especially when packaged with other tourist destinations that draw families with multiple interests.

Silverton follows Palmer's blueprint promoting rial rides and mine tours alongside Mesa Verde's ancient cliff dwelling. Some of our success is just pure dumb luck," said the historical society's Rich. "The scenery and the San Juan Mountains are fantas to." She said. But the town also has worked hard to leverage its beauty and history.

The work has paid off Visitors the Silverton Visitors Center increased by 26 percent over the past four years from 47,896 in the first nine months of 1997 to 89,799 this year That translates to more than 12,000 added annual visitors.

Mining is the only reason Silverton is here" said Rich.

Now that the gone, towntolk are finding even its memory ca be panned for gold.

Dinah Zelger