Ebey's Landing National Historical Reserve Visitor Study: Summer 2007

Papadogiannaki, Elonora; Holmes, Nancy; Hollenhorst, Steven

Ebey’s Landing National Historical Reserve is a non-traditional unit of the National Park System. It is the first unit of its kind with most of the land under private ownership. A unit of local government, the Trust Board of Ebey's Landing National Historical Reserve, is charged with management as called for in the legislation creating the Reserve. The Trust Board is a partnership of local, state and federal governments working collaboratively to ensure the historic and natural resources of the Reserve are protected for future generations to enjoy and experience. The Reserve was set aside by Congress in 1978 to preserve and protect a rural community—a cultural landscape—that is a laboratory of Pacific Northwest history. Today, historic land uses continue, with the rich prairie soils still being farmed, the forests being harvested, and century-old buildings being used as homes or places of business. (Ebey’s Landing National Historical Reserve, National Park Service, Department of the Interior website http://www.nps.gov/ebla April, 2008) This report describes the results of a visitor study at Ebey’s Landing National Historical Reserve (called “NHR” or “the Reserve” in this report), conducted July 13-21, 2007 by the National Park Service (NPS) Visitor Services Project (VSP), part of the Park Studies Unit (PSU) at the University of Idaho. The report is organized into four sections. The Methods Section discusses the procedures and limitations of the study. The Results section provides summary information for each question in the questionnaire and includes a summary of visitor comments. An Additional Analysis section is included to help managers request additional analyses. The final section includes a copy of the Questionnaire. The separate appendix includes comment summaries and visitors' unedited comments.