ABSTRACT
Dude ranches, roadside attractions like Historyland, and larger theme parks like Knott's Berry Farm and Disneyland all offered some representation of Native Americans. When author first stumbled on the Historyland archives, his professor told him to stay away from the 'Great Man Myth'. But he wasn't interested in Great Men. He was interested in Great Discourses. And Tony Wise, like all good marketers, was a purveyor of powerful discourses. Wise argued that an economically healthy community depended not on financial or natural resources, it depended on hard work and pride in one's past-not just lumbering history but fur trade and Native American history as well. Historyland was a commercial enterprise, yet it assumed the guise of a heritage museum, with the expressed purpose of collecting, preserving and disseminating Indian, fur trade and lumbering history. Wise also had a well-developed understanding of the importance of tourism markers.
