People are not able to fully engage with places of interest, including historical sites. As William T. Alderson states, the main goal of historical site, and of any place of interest, is to "understand the important meanings and relationships of [the] site" 1. Alderson also states that the success of a site is determined by “the knowledge and understanding the average visitor brings to the site” as well as the kinds of activities that the visitor can engage in. He continues to note that “Visitors at today's sites no longer come with as much - or sometimes, with any – historical knowledge.” Thus, if the understanding brought to the site is low, the activities must be more effective in order to increase the understanding the individual walks away with.
It is not surprising that visitors today come in with little or no background of the sites they visit. For the most part they do not seek information that is of no interest to them, or does not impact their lives in some direct way. In Chawala's article 2; it is shown that there is a correlation between a childhood experience in the wild and an appreciation for nature in later years. Similarly, people are more likely to relate to and gather information on things that are important to them. For example, it would be more difficult for the average visitor to relate to a Gettysburg Memorial than say the September 11, 2001 Memorial. This is not to say that one event is more important than the other. There is simply a higher probability that the events of September 11, 2001, impacted their lives directly where as the Battle of Gettysburg did not.
Thus the problem becomes: what can we do so that these sites are more easily related to and, as a result, understood? Unfortunately, traditional methods are wanting. As William T. Alderson states “for all but a few sites the shrine presentation is inadequate.”1 This form of presentation does not encourage the visitor to interpret the site and what it may have meant historically. The presentation also tends to assume that the visitor connects with the site on some level. In either case, more work needs to be done to encourage the visitors to have a meaningful experience at the site.
1 Shirley Payne Low William T. Alderson. Interpretation of Historic Sites. Rowman Altamira, 1996.2 Louise Chawala. Childhood experiences associated with care for the natural world: A theoretical framework for empirical results. Children, Youth and Environments