Small Town Showcase award presented to Marble Hill

Earlier this month, Sheila Porter of the Bollinger County University of Missouri Extension Office’s “Building Local Prosperity” group went to Jefferson City to accept an award from Lt. Gov. David Wasinger on behalf of Marble Hill.

Porter was part of an effort earlier this decade assisting with Marble Hill’s “Small Town Showcase", a pilot promote that led to other video features on rural Missouri communities.

There were several other towns given participation awards, too.

“We were the pilot project,” Porter said. “(From there), then the other towns actually had to compete for the video grant. It was over the past few years.”

“When we did it, they called and asked us to consider being the pilot program, because we had a few local groups that were working together to do something here, the building local prosperity (group) through the extension, museum and the library. They were all trying to work together to do some stuff.

It was in 2022 when the project started, Porter said.

“It took us a few months (to get started),” Porter said. “I contacted the people here that worked on it. People from the (Missouri) Humanities (Council) came down and filmed a few areas, talked to people, put the video together and it went from there and they started doing other towns. It was kind of neat at the time.”

Porter said the Missouri Humanities created the videos as a way to promote local interest in rural communities within the state.

“They were using it as a PR (tool) through the (Missouri) Humanities,” Porter said. “A lot of towns don’t have money (for tourism) and that kind of stuff, so it was limited with what we could do. We could use it for anything we wanted to."

The short video was distributed by the Missouri Humanities to the state’s Division of Tourism and it was used statewide.

“You see more of this around St. Louis or Kansas City, Columbia or Springfield,” Porter said. “Southeast Missouri is kind of a lost part of the state.”

“It was a really good way to get some PR (public relations) out in the communities but now for us to do something local, those groups that were involved in that need to do something again,” Porter said.

The one significant change from the video is the county museum was closed and has been relocated. Now, that building houses the Bollinger County Library.

Porter sees the potential for adding or updating the short video, perhaps focusing the county’s recreation or camping opportunities, or even positive aspects of the local school districts.

“Other things have come into the county (since then),” Porter said. “Part of it is we need more of the local people to help more with this.

There are places in which organizers could add to the video, according to Porter.

“We could expand out to more of the county, this last one was just the town of Marble Hill,” Porter noted. “It’d be neat to update this.”

The Missouri Humanities will work with groups to do the videos, provided there is a designated 501(c)3 group or fund, or local businesses that are willing to pay for it, Porter said.

“From what I’ve seen of what they’ve done in the different rural communities they’ve worked with, I think they’ve really helped them out and (allowed them) to realize they can do these types of things,” Porter said.

Other organizations that often assist with local tourism include the Missouri State Historical Society. That isn’t always the case across the board, though.

“Here, it’s the local chamber and the business people, is how Bollinger County gets promoted, unless you get ahold of your congressmen or your representatives, although I’m one of those who really wishes it didn’t have to do with politics, I wish it was more of the local people, but that’s where the money is and that’s want you have to use," Porter said.

A collaborative effort with a variety of the local stakeholders is needed, Porter said.

“It has to be everybody working together,” she said. “We’re too rural and too small, there’s not local money there, so then it goes down to volunteers.”

The promotional and marketing events have an impact, Porter noted. Porter certainly sees the benefit of finding unique, local attractions in a rural setting.

“It does work, in a lot of the smaller towns it has helped,” she said. “Some of our stuff was kind of going on at the tail end of the COVID (pandemic), and people did get out in the little towns more because they were afraid of all the germs in the big towns.”

The groups and local individuals helping with the initial video the late Dr. Frank Nickell, the Mayfield Heritage Foundation, Bollinger County Historical Society, Bollinger County Farmer’s Market, Everett and Christy Reed, Stan Crader of Crader Distributing, Eva Dunn of the Bollinger County Library, Kris Skinner, Barbie McFarland, Barb Bailey and Misty Dowd Davis.

“There’s nobody like the people here,” said Everett Reed, in the short video. He operates EC Mercantile in Marble Hill with his wife, Christy. “It’s a wonderful community. The one thing that’s a rare jewel is the people…if you’re bored, it’s because you want to be bored.”

To view the entire video, go to YouTube and search: "Small Town Showcase: Marble Hill, MO."

The entire video can be viewed online by clicking here.