The Great Basin National Heritage Area Partnership is a grass roots organization incorporated as a non-profit 501 (c)3 organization in the States of Nevada and Utah. It is designated as the local coordinating body for the Great Basin National Heritage Area. It works toward preserving the heritage of that central area of the Great Basin which includes Millard County, Utah; White Pine County, Nevada; the Duckwater Shoshone Reservation; the Ely Shoshone Tribe; the Goshute Indian Reservation; and the Kanosh Indian Reservation.

We are a group of local people who believe that the stories of our area have national significance, and who also recognize that those of us who live here need to have easier access to the history and stories around us. We hope to serve as a catalyst for coordinated study of the Great Basin National Heritage Area. This includes providing recognition and dissemination of the scholarly work which has already been done. We have been in the process of compiling a preliminary bibliography, which will help indicate the weaker and stronger areas in current research.

A 1998 Nevada Commission on Tourism study brought to our attention the existence of a program of Congressional designation of historically cohesive areas known as "National Heritage Areas." We worked towards the designation of our area as the "Great Basin National Heritage Route" ever since that program was suggested to us and we achieved national designation October 13, 2006. The Partnership guides heritage area activities and is charged with carrying out the purposes of the authorizing legislation including preparation and implementation of a comprehensive management plan in consultation with local communities, tribal, local, state and federal government entities and the general public.

The heritage area program provides resources towards the preservation of local heritage, and also fits well with local efforts to increase heritage tourism within our area. This has become a strategy of economic development in our isolated and economically depressed counties.

The Great Basin Heritage Area Partnership's endeavors are based upon our belief that preserving and interpreting for the public the archeology, history, geology, and natural history of this area will have great benefits not only for the intellectual enrichment of those who live here, but for sustainable economic development of this economically depressed area through increasing heritage and cultural tourism. Designation by Congress of a Great Basin National Heritage Route is a healthy intellectual and economic development for the people of the area.

Great Basin National Heritage Partnership Board of Directors