The College of Wyoming will dispatch a crew of researchers to Kemmerer and Diamondville this month to doc residents’ lived experiences.
The main target of the college’s Kemmerer-Diamondville Oral Historical past Mission will take a look at how residents “understand their communities,” based on a Thursday press launch from the college.
Kemmerer and Diamondville — two neighboring cities in Lincoln County — have suffered underneath the decline of the coal business, which has lengthy served because the cities’ main financial driver. In November, engineering firm TerraPower introduced it might construct a brand new sodium-cooled nuclear reactor on the Naughton Energy Plant exterior of Kemmerer. The ability plant’s coal-fired models are slated to retire in 2025.
College students, school and employees will work collectively to interview residents about that change and document their tales. They’re going to be visiting the cities from June 15 to 24.
The brand new venture is sponsored by two college teams: the American Research Program and the American Heritage Heart.
Andrea Graham, a senior analysis scientist and folklife specialist for the American Research Program, and Leslie Waggener, archivist for the American Heritage Heart, are main the crew.
“Oral historical past is about folks telling their very own tales, describing each their private histories and their sense of place and neighborhood, from the previous to the longer term,” Graham stated within the launch.
The venture is backed by Wyoming Humanities, the Wyoming Group Basis, and the Lincoln County Library System.
The crew will host a public speak reflecting on their analysis at 3 p.m. on July 23 on the Lincoln County Library.
Supplies collected through the research might be archived on the American Heritage Heart and the Lincoln County Library. Among the venture might be used for “future public programming,” the discharge stated, like reveals and media broadcasts.