Yes.  The Brazoria County Historical Museum established what is now the
county's primary identifier--the place "Where Texas Began."  Six years ago,
as a member of a south county tourism development committee, I elected to
initiate a visitor attraction magazine.  We did one issue, using the slogan
"cradle of Texas History."  It was a widely used expression.  Not long
after publication, I received a call from another city chamber of commerce
informing me that they had adopted that slogan a hundred years ago and that
I would be well-advised not to use it again.  So, I went back to the
committee and told them we were changing the title of the magazine to
"Where Texas Began."

The county rallied behind the new slogan.  The City of Pearland, in the
northern part of the county now claims in its literature to be the place
where "Brazoria County Begins."  Recently, a local refinery celebrated its
fortieth year and in its literature, claimed to be located at the site
"Where Texas Began."  Two years ago the major newspaper in the county
adopted the slogan in its masthead.

We also intiated legislation to have a state highway that runs through
Brazoria County renamed the "Stephen F. Austin Memorial Highway."  Austin
is considered to be the Father of Texas.  His sister's plantation was here,
he died and was buried here, although his remains were taken to the state
cemetary in Austin in 1916.

Our award winning Internet website includes a map of the county with all
cities and significant visitor destinations (parks too) linked to
descriptive pages.

In short, we play a coninuing role as part of the economic development
infrastructure of the county as appropriate to the nature of our mission.
 Needless to say, this is self-serving.  We receive local hotel-motel tax
funds.  We rely heavily on industry support and on the County for our
salaries.  By working to attract visitors to the county we get more people
through our doors and bring money into the local economy.

That's it in brief.


------
Robert Handy
Brazoria County Historical Museum
100 East Cedar
Angleton, Texas  77515
(409) 864-1208
museum_bob
[log in to unmask]
http://www.bchm.org

----------
From:   Donna Miller[SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
Sent:   Tuesday, January 26, 1999 11:24 AM
To:     [log in to unmask]
Subject:        community development

I am looking for information on instances in which community museums
played significant roles in community or local economic development.
Anyone have anything they can share?

Bill Clarke
Director
Restigouche Regional Museum
P.O.Box 1717
Dalhousie, N.B.
Canada
E0K 1B0
e-mail: [log in to unmask]