What is Ghosts of Gilmore?
Ghosts of Gilmore is a Virtual Reality Tour Experience of current day Gilmore, Idaho told through a fictional story by actors from Salmon, Idaho. Experience this tour via your desktop computer or be fully immersed in a virtual environment using a VR headset.
Tour Synopsis: It’s 2019, Gilmore has long been abandoned and left for dust, yet it’s haunted by it’s past. Listen to the stories of the past in order to heal these wailing ghosts and set them free.
The year was 1915. Gilmore Pacific railroad had a few years under its belt escorting in hopeful miners to buzzing silver mining scene. James a miner down on his luck was ready for a steady union gig. George Mayfield was there to give it to him, but not without a price.
Seek the truth through Ghosts of Gilmore (A Virtual Reality Experience)
How did this come about?
The Lemhi County Historical Museum received a grant in which they will be one of five communities in Idaho to host the traveling Smithsonian exhibit “Crossroads.” In doing so they were asked to partner with local organizations to both contribute to the scope of this exhibit through programs and activities, but also curating local historical content to the exhibit. This tour experience helps facilitate those grant requirements.
Why is the Salmon Public Library involved?
The goals and mission statements of the library align well with this project. Our goal is to utilize the technology at the library like Virtual Reality and 360 panoramic cameras in order to preserve historical sites around Lemhi County through the art of storytelling. By using this technology we hope to make local history both more accessible to patrons who can’t visit these sites, but also learn a more detailed history through the interactive medium of Virtual Reality.
Goals and Outcomes?
Salmon Public Library partnered with local High School students to help both develop the content & story along with participating in the acting & editing of this film experience. The hope is to showcase other career paths to youth that aren’t as easily accessible here in Salmon, Idaho, like filmmaking. The library hopes to share this experience with the Idaho State Historical Society along with other regional & national partners like the Idaho Commission for Libraries & Institute of Museum and Library Services in order to showcase new and innovative ways to engage a younger audience in history.
When will this be available?
We’re trying to have this ready for the exhibit opening on November 30th. From there we’ll run several 1 day events on weekends through the length of the time the exhibit is in Salmon, Idaho.
How do I experience it?
We’ll have more information on this as we get closer to the opening event. We’ll have a Virtual Reality station set up at the museum during the time the exhibit is open, but we’ll also try to make this available online at home via your computers.
Cool! So how’d you make it?
For those interested in the technical details our hope is to release a behind the scenes, “Making of Ghosts of Gilmore” short movie explaining all the wonderful trials and tribulations that came along with this 6-month process. Stay tuned for that.
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