Preserving our past and future
Many communities are facing a challenge in how to preserve and make readily available current and historical information about themselves for future generations. Kalama, having a rich history and even more a rich cultural and economic future ahead of itself must start preserving this heritage so that future generations can continue to understand the richness of the place they live, go to school, work and enjoy.
While many communities have valuable information to be preserved, in general larger regional or national preservation endeavors, do not consider this material of high enough priority to be included in such projects. Leaving the problem for the local communities to solve themselves. For many communities the window of opportunity to successfully preserve their past is rapidly closing, many of the ‘old timers’ who have the local knowledge to identify and describe events in the earlier part of the 20th Century will no longer be with us. In addition, there is a rapid deterioration of the original source material taking place and unless some measure is taken the loss will be permanent. Capturing at a minimum a digital image will ensure some form of longer term preservation and access.
Todays preservation challenge is even more critical, since so much of our current new history is created and produced in digital formats, waiting 20 or more years before deciding if something should be preserved for future generations will be most likely to late. Therefore a big part of the proposed project, is to ensure that the community of Kalama is well positioned to start preserving today such material, from digital photos of community events, to digital recordings of a speech commemorating the last spike in the cross continental railway to relevant documents, newspaper articles and so forth.
Therefore Saving Tomorrow Today is a crucial project to all of Kalama and Cowlitz county, to ensure that our children can learn from our experiences to continue to build a better future.
Some Examples of material to be preserved
The old ferry Tacoma