Learning from the past to preserve the future of public lands
Welcome to the Public Lands History Center!
Established in 2007, the award-winning Public Lands History Center (PLHC) integrates research, education, and outreach in the best tradition of a land-grant university. Projects with National Parks and other public land management agencies enlist faculty, graduate students, and other researchers to conduct historical research that directly informs current resource management challenges. Our American West Program seeks to expose audiences to significant research, dynamic speakers, narratives of change and contestation, and the excitement of interdisciplinary dialogue on human-environment issues in the West. The PLHC gets students out of the classroom and into the field to get the experience and connections they need for fulfilling careers after graduation.
Recent News
PLHC Hosts Alumni Career Panel at History Day 2020
History Day 2020: Connecting college, career with CSU alumni On March 6th, the Public Lands History Center welcomed forty high school students from Rocky Mountain High School (RMHS) and Berthoud High School (BHS) to campus for History Day, a collaborative program that raises awareness of the history major and career options for historians. In 2018 […]
CSU Instructor, Douglas Sheflin, Receives Choice Designation for Legacies of Dust
Colorado State University History faculty member, Dr. Douglas Sheflin, was selected to receive the 2019 Choice Outstanding Academic Title designation for his book, Legacies of Dust: Land Use and Labor in the Colorado Plains. The award recognizes the top academic titles of the year, as reviewed by Choice. Dr. Sheflin has also participated on an American […]
Faculty Director Jared Orsi Published in The Conversation
Last Week, PLHC Faculty Director Dr. Jared Orsi published an article in The Conversation discussing Quitobaquito, an oasis in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. As Dr. Orsi points out, the oasis’s past is rich with connection. Over the course of its long human history, the oasis attracted a variety of different land users, each of […]