A trip to Glacier National Park in Montana gave Avery Salomon an idea for her supervised agricultural experience (SAE).
“There was an audio tour we listened to as we went past different locations,” Salomon recalls. “So basically, we could drive around and hear about the park.”
Salomon, a sophomore at Gothenburg High School and member of the Gothenburg FFA Chapter, wanted to create a similar tour to showcase the historic landmarks in her hometown of Gothenburg, Neb., which is situated just off of I-80 and sees roughly 10,000 visitors per year. The Pony Express Station, an original mail station-turned-museum, was a natural starting point and became the first stop on the audio tour.
Salomon researched the history of the local landmark and recruited a retired teacher and local historian, Mark Peyton, to help her create a script and serve as the voice for the audio narration of the Gothenburg Historical Audio Tour.
With the first location in the audio tour created, Salomon focused on expanding it to other sites. In addition to the Pony Express Station, she created episodes for the Sod House Museum and the Swedish Crosses Cemetery, as well as an episode about how the midwestern town got its name.
Each episode has audio and video components. Salomon uploaded them to Facebook and YouTube and created signs with QR codes that are mounted at the location so people can access episodes on their smartphones.
“It’s just a three-minute video, but the process that goes into it is hours long and all the research is just a lot bigger than you think,” she says.
Salomon was excited about the audio and video content she created, but she had no idea whether others would feel the same. To her delight, the Gothenburg Historical Audio Tour turned out to be popular.
The tourist attractions in Gothenburg were the initial focus of the Gothenburg Historical Audio Tour, but Salomon plans to expand the project, adding sites that highlight the town’s strong agricultural roots.
“We were founded upon agriculture as a community,” she says. “I want people to see how connected we are with ag.”
Salomon wants to add an historic grocer, plus Bayer and Frito-Lay, which have divisions in Gothenburg. In the meantime, she’s already seen how the communications skills she developed in FFA and through her SAE have benefited her in the classroom and in her life.
“I’ve learned asking open-ended questions is better, asking people to elaborate further on those questions,” she says. “I think it’s cool that when you do something you’re passionate about, it’s so much easier to talk to people.”
