Promoting Outdoor Recreation and Adventure ...

Promoting Outdoor Recreation and Adventure Tourism on the Russell Fork: An AcademicCommunity Partnership Report Author(s): Shaunna L. Scott, Stephanie McSpirit and Jason Foley Source: Journal of Appalachian Studies, Vol. 23, No. 2 (Fall 2017), pp. 170-180 Published by: University of Illinois Press on behalf of the Appalachian Studies Association, Inc. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/jappastud.23.2.0170 Accessed: 11-12-2017 04:28 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms

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Community Note Promoting Outdoor Recreation and Adventure Tourism on the Russell Fork: An Academic-Community Partnership Report By Shaunna L. Scott, Stephanie McSpirit, and Jason Foley This community note describes a five-year academic-community partnership between a community organization and two universities in Kentucky. It also documents the potential of adventure tourism to help diversify the community’s economy and contribute to the quality of life in the region. While recognizing that adventure tourism cannot make up for the loss of the area’s traditional economic base, the data indicate that adventure tourism can make a positive contribution to the quality of life, environmental quality, and sustainability of the town. A major obstacle to achieving the community organization’s goals to develop adventure tourism has been the failure to get buy-in from local government leaders. As part of the Journal of Appalachian Studies Forum on Sustainable Economic Development, this community note reports on ongoing community- based research and engagement with Elkhorn City, Kentucky (pop. 952), located in the Russell Fork River area of southwestern Virginia and southeastern Kentucky (estimated pop. 11,3001). Historically, Elkhorn City was a railroad town. Since the local switchyard closed in 1981, however, the town has lost population, and many of its businesses and its high school have closed. These days, the town is a pale reflection of its former self, a fact that saddens those who live there. The primary player in the quest to re-invigorate and diversify the town’s economy is the Elkhorn City Area Shaunna L. Scott is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Kentucky, where she also is Director of Appalachian Studies. Stephanie McSpirit is Professor of Sociology at Eastern Kentucky University, where she teaches statistics, research methods, and environmental sociology, while actively engaging her students in community-based research projects in eastern Kentucky. Jason Foley is the owner of Kentucky Whitewater, LLC, and is a business and technology consultant committed to contributing to a better future for Appalachian Kentucky. Kentucky Whitewater, the lone outfitter on the Russell Fork River at Breaks Interstate Park, regularly leads commercial excursions and rescue training there.

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Heritage Council (ECAHC). It was incorporated in 1999 in order to “preserve the history, culture, and natural beauty” of the area (ECAHC 2017); the group quickly came to view the scenic beauty, history, and culture as community assets that could attract visitors, investment, jobs, and revenue to their town. Elkhorn City’s effort is one of the many development efforts in response to the decline of the coal industry in Central Appalachia and, as such, its effort can perhaps be useful to other communities in this situation. This community note describes the academic-community partnership among the ECAHC, the faculty at Eastern Kentucky University (EKU), and the University of Kentucky (UK) in the five years since May 2012. It also documents the potential of adventure tourism to help diversify Elkhorn City’s economy and contribute to the quality of life in the region. While recognizing that adventure tourism cannot make up for the loss of Elkhorn City’s traditional economic base, the ECAHC (working in conjunction with university partners) has concluded that adventure tourism can make a positive contribution to the quality of life, environmental quality, and sustainability of the town of Elkhorn City. However, this community group has failed to get buy-in from local government leaders. This note should be read in conjunction with Tarus, Hufford, and Taylor’s (2017) “A Green New Deal for Appalachia: Economic Transition, Coal Reclamation Costs, Bottom-Up Policymaking (Part 2)” in this issue of JAS, as this essay theorizes about the same concerns that the Elkhorn City case illustrates, especially in regard to the ways that some local elites resist change. Finally, by writing this note, we encourage others engaged in this work to submit notes as a way to continue our region-wide effort to create a just transition from coal to a more diverse, sustainable, and just political economy.

Community-Based Participatory Research in Elkhorn City Appalachian studies as an interdisciplinary field has a tradition of community-based and participatory action research—that is, research that centers on citizen questions, participation, and empowerment (Berry, Obermiller, and Scott 2015; Tarus, Hufford, and Taylor 2017). This case, though a modest example, should be considered as part of that tradition. Researchers affiliated with the Appalachian Center2 at Eastern Kentucky University were contacted in 2012 by the leaders of the ECAHC for support in developing the outdoor recreation and adventure tourism sector of their economy. Having previously benefitted from a partnership with California State University, Poloma’s Studio 606 Design Team, which produced a 350- page recreation/tourism development plan in 2005, the ECAHC wanted to repeat that success. The Cal State Poloma-authored plan was based on community-identified assets and priorities expressed during a weekend “Our Town” workshop held at the Breaks Interstate Park. As a result of

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this community-based process, the ECAHC had a detailed plan to use as a basis for government and foundation funding and grants and to attract private investors. The centerpiece of this plan was a downtown river park, which would provide easy access to safe recreational waters with a beach, picnic area, and easy access to local restaurants and businesses. By 2012, however, the ECAHC was disappointed in their lack of progress and sought again to partner with a university in a new effort to obtain Kentucky Department of Tourism “Trail Town” status (see http://www. kentuckytourism.com/outdoor-adventure/sites-services/trail-town/). Eastern Kentucky University reached out to the University of Kentucky Appalachian Center (UKAC) and, as a result of a weekend site visit to the Russell Fork area, a partnership was formed. The ECAHC hoped a university partnership would provide evidence and legitimacy to their effort to convince local government leaders and private investors to put money into Elkhorn City’s development efforts—especially the river park. In addition, they thought that evidence of potential economic impacts of adventure tourism could support their case to convince the US Army Corps of Engineers (CoE) to take recreational purposes into account in timing the Flannagan Dam water releases. Under the original legislation that created Flannagan Dam, the CoE was charged to time water releases based on flood control, water needs, and environmental impact. This charge creates sufficient water flow in October but not in the summer, a prime vacation season. This change literally required an act of Congress. We started with the Trail Town certification process because it seemed like an easier win. The Trail Town program is part of the Kentucky Department of Tourism and, as such, it seeks ways to develop and market Kentucky as a tourism destination. The program specifically concentrates on communities that are close to trails, both land-and water-based. Because the program encourages community groups to work closely with local business and officials to plan and promote their communities’ natural amenities, it is very compatible with a community-based and participatory action research approach. In addition, this initiative does not simply aim to attract tourist dollars, but also to promote health and well-being in local communities by encouraging residents to engage in outdoor recreation. As such, it was a perfect fit for our collaboration with Elkhorn City. A Trail Town Task Force, made up of ECAHC members, the Breaks Park Superintendent, an Elkhorn City Council member, faculty from EKU and UK, an adventure tourism entrepreneur, an endurance race organizer, and interested citizens (including two members from Haysi, Virginia) coordinated the application process; the citizens, including local business owners, formed local committees focusing on different aspects of the endeavor— including trail maintenance, local business relations, public relations, and


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signage, among other things. Eastern Kentucky University and UK faculty made the project the focus of courses on environmental sociology, Appalachian studies, and Recreation and Parks Management, and students helped to collect data for the Trail Town application. This was a win-win situation for the task force and educators because the task force received information that it needed and the students gained real-world experience in surveying and interviewing. The ECAHC also formed a partnership with Virginia Tech to produce a streetscape, community garden, and signage plan in preparation for Trail Town certification. The survey responses were provided to the Breaks Interstate Park to use in its master planning process. After three years of work, Elkhorn City received its official trail town designation, in September 2015. Since that time, the Elkhorn City Trail Town Taskforce has continued to collaborate with others to promote the area’s scenery and outdoor recreational opportunities. These initiatives include development of a pedestrian plan to create a pedestrian-friendly downtown area; the creation and placement of signage in the Russell Fork area; promotion of youth engagement in natural conservation, gardening, and outdoor recreational activities; and main street beautification through the installment of public art. In addition, a UK student researched and summarized Master of Arts theses and other reports documenting the flora and fauna of the Breaks Interstate Park for a report for the Breaks Park advisory board to consider as they decided whether or not to pursue National Monument status for the park. In addition, UK students recorded and indexed oral history interviews about the importance of the river and the railroad in local history; these are available online at the UK’s Nunn Center for Oral History online archives (see https://kentuckyoralhistory.org/catalog/xt7t7659gq6v). In collaboration with the Nunn Center for Oral History, UK trained local community members about how to operate the recording equipment and then placed the equipment at the public library so that any citizen wishing to conduct oral historical interviews could check out the equipment. In addition, a UK student intern created a video on the history of the railroad in Elkhorn City, and other UK students created a travelling exhibit for the Elkhorn City Railroad Museum that could be taken to local schools and libraries for educational purposes. We hope that these materials will be used to attract visitors to the area as well as to educate local youth about the community’s history. In addition, McSpirit offered a free instructional workshop on grant writing to Elkhorn City citizens. Eastern Kentucky University students conducted research on businesses that would likely succeed in Elkhorn City (a café and an outfitter store) and wrote business plans for them. McSpirit and Scott collaborated with archivists and oral historians at EKU and UK


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to write an unsuccessful National Endowment for the Humanities grant proposal in an effort to get more resources and knowledge to support the development of the Railroad Museum (and to include a training component for student archivists). We presented information about the town’s efforts and assets to academic conferences and to Kentucky state legislators at a Capitol Day poster event for students, and we have participated in local lobbying efforts to persuade the US Congress to allow the CoE to consider recreational uses in decisions about Flannagan Dam water releases. We have written and presented reports of our findings to Elkhorn City residents as well.

Assessing the Potential of Adventure Tourism and Outdoor Recreation Based on our research, ECAHC is convinced that an expansion of adventure tourism and outdoor recreation could be beneficial to Elkhorn City and the Russell Fork watershed. Here is why: In the United States, the consumer spending generated by the outdoor recreation economic sector is exceeded only by the financial services and health care sectors of the economy (Outdoor Industry Association 2016). In 2015, US families spent $646 billion on outdoor recreation, including equipment, vehicles, trips, and travel-related expenses. This sector continued to grow even during the 2008 recession period. The outdoor recreation sector seems likely to continue to expand in the future with a potential to create jobs and business opportunities while increasing tax revenue. Most residents we interviewed and surveyed stated that the main attraction of Elkhorn City is the Russell Fork River. Dubbed “one mean and determined stream” (Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources 2016), the Russell Fork offers the most challenging white waters in the eastern United States. Because of its “mean-ness,” the Russell Fork has been used as the site for US Olympic qualifying trials and the World Championships in kayaking. It is also the site of an annual race called Lord of the Fork, which brings paddlers from around the world to compete. It provides an excellent site for emergency rescue training as well. The river has its friendlier passages as well, offering white-water opportunities for all paddling levels from novice to expert. Paddlers journey to the Russell Fork to enjoy natural run-off in winter and spring and also crowd to the area in October, when the CoE releases water from the Flannagan Dam in order to draw the lake down to winter-pool. The October releases bring an estimated two thousand to twenty-five hundred paddlers to Elkhorn City and the Breaks Interstate Park, where they fill park cabins and rooms to capacity. While many camp at the Breaks and other places on the river, this influx of lodging revenue during October helps maintain operations


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and staffing at the Breaks Park for the rest of the year.3 Every spring, there is an annual gathering of kayakers to enjoy the river before the summer low-flows hit, as well as the local Apple Blossom Festival. In addition to the river, Elkhorn City has other assets to support a more robust outdoor recreation and adventure tourist sector. One of them is its proximity to urban centers, such as Charleston, West Virginia; Lexington, Kentucky; Asheville, North Carolina; and Knoxville, Tennessee, all approximately two-and-a-half to three hours away. This is a reasonable driving distance for weekend adventurers. Though its distance from major interstates, airports, and major urban centers makes it more challenging for far-flung adventurers, this has not prevented the Russell Fork from attracting world-class kayakers from all over the world. Its location off the beaten path may also have helped protect the scenic beauty and small town charm of the downtown—at least from strip mall and corporate chain development. As our October 2013 survey of visitors indicates (see table 1), this area appeals to adventure tourists who wish to get away from it all to enjoy nature. Those surveyed reported that Elkhorn City was the primary destination, that they had visited the area before, and that they came to kayak, enjoy the scenery, and engage in other outdoor recreation activities, especially hiking and camping (see table 1). They specifically cited the area’s lack of crowds, lack of traffic, and lack of tourism overdevelopment as features that kept them coming back. In addition, white-water kayaking is not the only option for outdoor recreation here. The town sits at the trailhead of the Pine Mountain Trail, Kentucky’s only Scenic State Trail, which offers 110 miles of hiking, mountain biking, and horseback riding trails to outdoor enthusiasts. It is also located along the route of the TransAmerica Cycling Trail, a cross-country bicycling route that runs from Astoria, Oregon, to Yorktown, Virginia. It is a gateway to the Breaks Interstate Park, the “Grand Canyon of the South,” which offers camping, rock climbing, twenty-six miles of hiking and horse trails, a pool and splash park, restaurant, lodge, and cabins (Breaks Interstate Park 2017). In addition to the kayaking race (Lord of the Fork), a Table 1: Visitor survey results, October 2013 (n = 269) Visited Elkhorn City before? (Yes)

74%

In the past two years, how many times have you visited Elkhorn City (Breaks Interstate) area? (Median)

4 trips

Number of people in your group? (Median)

3 persons

Length of stay? (Median)

4 days

Reasons for trip? (Outdoor Recreation and Whitewater)

71%


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one-hundred-mile endurance race on the Pine Mountain Trail called the Cloudsplitter 100 has occurred here annually; it has brought hundreds of cross-country runners to the area to tackle this challenging course. Finally, Elkhorn City offers adventure tourists cultural attractions and entertainment in the form of Actors Collaborative Theater, an award-winning community theater whose seasons run from September through July each year, and a railroad museum, which documents the history of the town’s most important industry. In the first step to estimate the potential future economic impacts of adventure tourism in the Russell Fork area, we refer to two economic impact reports of similar activities in eastern Kentucky: the Cloudsplitter 100, and the economic impacts of rock climbers on the area surrounding Red River Gorge near Stanton, Kentucky. A 2015 economic impact report on the Cloudsplitter 100 estimated that one hundred race participants spent, on average, $227 during their stay, which brought approximately $23,000 in direct revenue to the Elkhorn City area. From 2015–2016, the number of race participants doubled for this US Track and Field-sanctioned race and, it is expected that numbers will continue to increase in 2017 for even greater area economic impact. Unfortunately, Elkhorn City will not reap the benefits of future growth, because the Cloudsplitter 100 race is moving to a different location, due to a general lack of local government support as well as the state’s failure to secure right-of-way access from private property owners for the Pine Mountain Trail. The state of Kentucky has had many years to secure public access to the Pine Mountain Trail but has lacked the initiative and political willpower to follow through on this responsibility. Also, in spite of the evidence indicating that the race benefitted the local economy, the mayor angered race organizers by publicly stating that the Cloudsplitter 100 was a drain on city resources, did not profit local businesses, and only benefitted the event’s organizer (Little 2016). Based on the findings of the Cloudsplitter economic impact study, we project that the typical kayaker (like the typical endurance runner) probably spends between $112 (camping) to $239 (Breaks Interstate Park lodging) per day on a typical four-day trip to kayak the river and hike. Using our most conservative estimate for the number of kayakers who typically come for the October Flannagan Dam releases (two thousand paddlers), we project that white-water activities contribute $224,000 to $478,000 in additional revenue to the area’s economy in October alone. In addition, a recent economic impact report on rock climbers in the Red River Gorge area of Kentucky (Maples, Bradley, and McSpirit 2016) found that the typical weekend climber spent about $50 during a typical day trip, with expenditures per day increasing if they spent additional time at the Gorge. Over seventy-five hundred climbers visit the Red River Gorge per


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year—some of them visiting in excess of forty times per year. Based on trip expenditures, number of visits, and length of stay, it is estimated that the local economy around Stanton, Kentucky, receives $2.7 million in direct revenue each year ($3.6 million in induced and indirect revenue each year) (Maples et al. 2016). Elkhorn City could experience similar economic growth in the future. The Breaks Interstate Park’s master plan recently added rock climbing to the park’s attractions (Schmidt 2016; “Rock Climbing Open” 2016) and included a proposal to further develop horseback riding trails. With the addition of summer dam releases alone, these three initiatives should expand the local impact of adventure tourism and outdoor recreation in this area. The river park, though it requires a large investment, has the most potential for revitalizing Elkhorn City’s downtown area and creating new business there. Some local residents say that Elkhorn City could be another “Gatlinburg [Tennessee]” but perhaps a better analogy would be a “tiny Asheville [North Carolina]” inasmuch as this small community is located in the mountains near hiking trails, rivers, state parks, and national forests. Unlike Asheville, it lacks the “mini” equivalent of a Nantahala Outdoor Recreation Center (NOC), an $11 million enterprise employing eighty to ninety people year-round and five hundred people during peak season summer months (Thurmond and Kennedy 2006). On a smaller scale, a downtown river park could become similarly important to Elkhorn City’s economy.

Transforming Potential to Reality: The Challenging Trail Ahead The ECAHC has been working for over twenty years on developing and protecting natural and cultural resources to support tourism development in Elkhorn City. Thus far, it has accomplished three major river cleanup projects in the early 2000s, production of three plans based upon community input (the Russell Fork Plan, the signage plan, and an Elkhorn City Comprehensive Plan), the collection of oral histories, some improvement at the local railroad museum (an exhibit and a video), some public art installations, and getting a commitment from the Breaks Park to allow rock climbing. In March 2017, we received word that citizens and officials from the Pound Dam service area have joined with the Flannagan Dam enthusiasts to put additional pressure on US Congressional representatives and senators from Virginia and Kentucky to authorize the CoE to consider recreational uses as a justification for water releases in this area of Appalachian Kentucky and Virginia. Other positive developments, most notably the institution of the Actors Collaborative Theater, have also occurred, though not as a result of the ECAHC’s efforts. Elkhorn City Area Heritage Council members are frustrated, however, that the river park project has not been funded and are dismayed at the


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uncooperative attitude of some local officials. Though some local businesses such as a bakery, bed and breakfast, art gallery, and antique shop have opened, several important local businesses have closed, including a gift shop and a popular restaurant called The Rusty Fork (a play on words on “Russell Fork”). In 2017, they suffered other blows: the railroad museum building suffered water damage and the Cloudsplitter 100 endurance race was relocated. It has been rough going, and the future looks even more challenging in the current political climate. We close this note with a brief reflection on the barriers that have slowed the revitalization and diversification of Elkhorn City’s economy. First, as Elkhorn City residents and ECAH members already recognize, not everyone is on the same page in this little town. To address that, the community must improve communications. Only 29 percent of the residents surveyed agreed or strongly agreed that they knew what different groups were trying to accomplish in Elkhorn City, which, for a town of fewer than one thousand residents seemed surprising. Not surprisingly, 83 percent agreed or strongly agreed that communication between groups and individuals in the town needed to improve. We have identified two reasons for this communications dysfunction. First, there was the loss of an important civic common space with the 2002 closure of the local high school, a place where the community as a whole gathered, engaged in informal conversations about town matters, and forged a sense of collective solidarity. The public library addresses this need somewhat, but it has limited availability. Perhaps the recent transformation of the now-closed city pool’s pool house into a community center will help to restore a civic commons. But the town needs more than just a place to meet and talk. As Tarus, Hufford, and Taylor (2017; this issue) point out, the community (region and nation, too) must rebuild social trust, develop a common language, and navigate a political terrain pervaded by extractive corporate power. Key members of local government, for example, see outdoor enthusiasts as a drain on the local economy rather than a boost. Our evidence clearly did not convince them otherwise. The town’s mayor put a Friends of Coal bumper sticker on the town hall window, an indicator of the pro- corporate, pro-extractive position of local government. The town is not only deeply divided on issues related to the economy and environment, but it also tends to take a dichotomous view on other issues, particularly on the issue of legalizing alcohol sales. On this topic, the city’s residents are split fifty-fifty, according to our 2013 survey. The promoters of tourism are in favor of legalizing the sale of alcohol while others—citing religious values, public health concerns related to addiction, and extra strain on law enforcement as reasons—are strongly against alcohol sales. The leader of local government believes that legalizing alcohol sales will increase public


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disorder and burden their then understaffed (and now non-existent) local police force. Differences of opinion such as these also track with other entrenched political and class conflicts within this community, which reproduce dichotomies—between pro-union and pro-business political ideologies; Democrats and Republicans; Progressives and Conservatives; environmentalists and “friends of coal”; Christian fundamentalists and non-fundamentalists; and, more recently, between Trump supporters and Trump critics. Elkhorn City is not unique in this regard. It is a “mini-USA,” fractured and struggling to move forward while bitterly divided, viewing “reality” in completely different ways, arguing past one another, and pointing the finger of blame at one another. Frustration and pessimism about the future have begun to take over as well, with many stakeholders complaining in interviews that nothing will change in this town because those in authority are resistant to change, those who have made their fortunes here do not re-invest into the community, and, in general, people here fight too much. When surveyed in 2013, less than half the residents (46 percent) believed that the community was willing to make changes and only 39 percent had faith in the economic development potential of their area. In an effort to change the dynamics within the community, ECAHC sought the assistance of university partners repeatedly, under the assumption that evidence would convince their local government and others opposing tourism development to see the proposals in a different light. That this has failed indicates the depth of the current legitimation crisis and political malaise, not only in Appalachia, but in the nation. A daunting challenge faces our region in its quest for a more just, inclusive, and sustainable future.

Notes 1. US Census blocks matched by watershed layer in ArcMap. 2. Eastern Kentucky University no longer has an Appalachian Center. 3. Correspondence with Austin Bradley, Superintendent, Breaks Interstate Park, September 2013.

References Berry, Chad, Phillip J. Obermiller, and Shaunna L. Scott, eds. 2015. Studying Appalachian studies: Making the path by walking. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Breaks Interstate Park. 2017. http://www.breakspark.com/ (accessed May 18, 2017). Elkhorn City Area Heritage Council [ECAHC]. 2017. About the ECAHC. http://www .elkhorncity.org/ECAHC (accessed May 18, 2017). Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. 2016. Russell Fork. http://fw.ky.gov/ Education/Pages/Russell-Fork.aspx (accessed November 13, 2016). Little, Josh. 2016. EC mayor questions profits of Cloudsplitter. Appalachian News Express, January 9. http://www.news-expressky.com/news/article_f2db4086-b663-11e5-8966 -8791f6b82654.html (accessed on May 19, 2016).


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Maples, James, Michael Bradley, and Stephanie McSpirit. 2016. Economic impact study of Cloudsplitter 100 footrace event. Submitted to Susan Howell (event organizer). Maples, James, Brian Clark, Ryan Sharp, Braylon Gillespie, and Katherine Gerlaugh. 2016. The economic impact of rock climbing in the Red River Gorge, KY. Submitted to Access Fund. Outdoor Industry Association. 2016. Outdoor recreation economy. https://outdoorindustry .org/research-tools/outdoor-recreation-economy/ (accessed December 12, 2016). Rock climbing open at Breaks Interstate Park. 2016. Associated Press News, June 9. http:// bigstory.ap.org/article/4445517a61b346cda4be9004a3b0c887/rock-climbing-open-breaks -interstate-park (accessed December 14, 2016). Schmidt, Kylie. 2016. A shared oasis: World-class rock climbing debuts at the Breaks Interstate Park. The Explore Kentucky Initiative. Field Journal. Features. http://www.explore kentucky.us/fieldjournal/a-shared-oasis-world-class-rock-climbing-debuts-at-the -breaks-interstate-park (accessed December 14, 2016). Tarus, Lyndsay, Mary Hufford, and Betsy Taylor. 2017. A green new deal for Appalachia: Economic transition, coal reclamation costs, bottom-up policymaking (Part 2). Journal of Appalachian Studies 23 (2): 151–69. Thurmond, Gerald, and Payson Kennedy. 2006. Payson Kennedy, the Nantahala Outdoor Center, & troubled times in North Carolina’s whitewater recreation industry. Appalachian Journal 34 (1): 22–40.


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