Tonopah Main Street shows ARPA-funded websites and cemetery documentation to commissioners

Tonopah, Nev.

Tonopah Main Street representatives presented two ARPA-funded public websites on March 5 that aim to boost heritage tourism and preserve local history. The initiative, funded through county ARPA allocations, produced a downtown Main Street site and a cemetery documentation site to give visitors context, photos and archival material and to encourage longer stays in town.

Cat Galley, speaking on behalf of Tonopah Main Street, said both websites are volunteer-created tools to extend visits, attract spending and preserve historical assets. "We got ARPA funding to develop two websites — one for the cemetery and one for our downtown Main Street — and the whole point is to not get them to stop five minutes and just use a porta but to spend more time because more time equals more money," Galley said during the presentation.

The group showed sample pages, QR-code plans for on-site plaques, and noted challenges including scanning faded historical documents and finding a plaque fabricator who can install markers without damaging historic structures. Commissioners praised the volunteer work and asked county staff to coordinate linkages between the county website and the new pages.

What's next: Tonopah Main Street will continue content uploads and social-media promotion; county staff may add a link from the county website to the new pages.