For the past five years, students and community members have uncovered little known history across southern Illinois through “Preservation Summer,” a course offered at SIUC.

These discoveries include a nearly forgotten blues network in Cairo, the historic Civil War location of Fort Defiance, Massac County’s connection to the Underground Railroad and others.

The course instructors are now looking for interested students and community members for this summer’s group.

Mary McGuire, former SIUC history professor who helped teach the course last summer, said this gives participants a great opportunity to tour southern Illinois communities and uncover historical sites and facts that can help enhance area tourism and historical preservation.

Teaching research skills and preservation through activities, such as sorting through records and visiting new areas, can make the class a rare experience, McGuire said.

“This is the kind of course that is unique and has something more to offer than just a classroom experience,” McGuire said. “Southern Illinois is the best kept secret in the country. I’m convinced of that.”

The research groups present their final projects in open public forums, which is where community members can discuss the findings with the researchers for future projects.

“Possibly the most important lesson I’ve learned from this course is how much we owe the local communities and how much they’ve given to us and what we do would not be possible without them,” McGuire said.

The students’ research has helped forge bonds between the University and area communities, said Bob Swenson, associate professor in architecture.

“There’s a strong push to make the people feel like the University belongs to them,” Swenson said. “One of the goals of this is to have SIU be really useful to the future and the outcome of what happens to Southern Illinois in the next few years.”

Students, such as Joel Taddei, said they liked the course’s interdisciplinary approach.

“I thought it was a great class. We met twice a week, and I really felt that wasn’t enough,” said Taddei, a senior from Aurora studying architecture, who took the course last summer. “There was just a lot about southern Illinois that I didn’t know going into it.”

Participants from the summer 2005 class recently held an open forum in the Faner Hall Museum Auditorium to showcase their work in the course through a program that featured a roundtable discussion. A short film by Richard Kuenneke premiered to document the people and projects of “Preservation Summer” 2005. The event sparked excited discussion in regards to the projects and expectations for next summer’s course, McGuire said.

“This is such a beautiful way of making SIU a positive force in the communities of southern Illinois,” McGuire said.

Reporter Katie Pennell can be reached at [email protected]