Cultural routes and U.S. preservation policy

Cultural routes represent an amalgamation of tangible and intangible heritage. Routes guide culture, societies, movements, peoples, and the individual through changes in character, morals, ethics, and experiences. Cultural routes move people in waves of social developments. Additionally, routes interlace history and stories intentionally to express and teach these concepts to the viewer. Interpreting routes in this manner broadens the interpretation beyond typical trade, communication, and migration routes to a modern interpretation of American history, which includes minorities and social movements in the United States. Cultural routes express modern American history through a combination of tangible and intangible resources shaping the lives of its people. Although world cultures recognize cultural routes through a variety of designation mechanisms, the United States has not. The research here defines the potential of U.S. cultural route designation, a process of such designation and the tangible benefits of such designation through economics and tourism.