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
Marijuana on Public Lands: A Short History
Nick Johnson is a historian based in Longmont, Colorado. He holds a master’s degree in American History from Colorado State University and is the author of Grass Roots: A History of Cannabis in the American West(Corvallis: Oregon State University Press, 2017). Nick will be at Old Firehouse Books in Fort Collins this Friday 10/20 at 6 pm […]
Scotts Bluff National Monument Research Road Trip
This summer, the PLHC was working to wrap up a project for Scotts Bluff National Monument. Researcher and recent graduate, Poppie Gullett, has shared a bit about the project and her experience completing archival research during a summer road trip to Scotts Bluff National Monument, Agate Fossil Beds National Monument, and Legacy of the Plains Museum. Looming […]
PLHC in the news for completion of project on Japanese American Internment during WWII in New Mexico
History team finishes documenting N.M. Japanese-American confinement camps