From: JANET IRENE SEYMOUR <janet.seymour@wisconsinhistory.org> Subject: Using Facebook to do a local history project Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2022 21:39:46 +0000 Message-id: <DM5PR06MB34046D60F1577E4BD32846DF87209@DM5PR06MB3404.namprd06.prod.outlook.com>
Sent: Tuesday, January 25, 2022 8:59 AM
SEYMOUR <janet.seymour@wisconsinhistory.org>
Subject: Using Facebook to do a local history project
The Sterling Laketown and Eureka Historical Society, located in NW
Wisconsin, NW Polk County along the scenic and wild St Croix River,
kicked off a project to do a history of a small local town that has
mostly disappeared.
It begins with a Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/History-of-Atlas-Wisconsin-111739398049434/
We have many clippings and other information and photos from the area,
but want to involve the local folks with an Atlas background and
possibly recruit them as members and volunteers in our local history
society.
What we did is on January,3, 2022, is create a Facebook page, send
invites to the folks already on our history society Facebook pages and
then start putting the photos and stories on the page.
In 20 days we have done about 3 posts per day, now gotten 200 page
followers, average 700 views per day and have gotten the names of nearly
100 folks with ties and information about Atlas, with offers to help.
With Covid still serious here, we are waiting until March (or Covid
waning) to kick of a series of informal Atlas programs at the museum
where we gather the folks to tell us more (resulting in videos). We
also plan to do a few Atlas walks (1/4 mile) with folks explaining what
is there.
If all goes as planned, we will get a new part of our membership from
the Atlas area, some volunteers and a theme for the spring and summer as
we explore what is left of the tiny town. We even may sponsor a kids
fishing contest of the dam millpond!
The key is providing an intense saturation of the Facebook page with
posts, photos, and then get folks commenting on them sharing and giving
us new information. So far we have had about 10 stories come in and 30
new photos.
And of course all of this will go into a book to sell for the local
historical society, as one can download the posts and photos that are on
the Facebook page and turn them into a document, then edit them.
Russ Hanson
Sterling Eureka and Laketown Historical Society
Museum in uptown Cushing, WI Polk County on top of the hill where the
settler's gathered to defend themselves from the 1870s Indian uprising
(a false alarm!).