Time Traveling in Delaware State Parks: Issues and Strategies for a Public Participation Program

Abstract

Shortly after I stated my job with Delaware State Parks in the Fall of 2014, my supervisor casually asked if he had told me about Time Travelers during the interview. I replied somewhat cautiously that no, he had not. He then told me that it was the volunteer program that Parks used to have for archaeology, and that I would have to restart it. While panic was my initial response, I came to see the potentials of a participatory public archaeology program. Restart it I did, and there are now over 60 people donating hundreds of hours of effort annually to support the cultural heritage programs of State Parks and related agencies of the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control. This chapter details the strategies that were used to reboot this program and adapt to the twenty-first century, including (1) branding, buy-in, and partnering, (2) media and communication, (3) training, recognition, and rewards, and (4) program responsiveness.