Preserving historical heritage was a central theme at the recent Mancos Valley Community Summit, and now a task force is in the works to identify the town's legacy sites.

Organized by Bob Seney, professor emeritus at Mississippi University for Women and vicar of St. Paul's Episcopal Church, the task force holds an informational and organizational meeting on Thursday, Nov. 21. Seney said the public, especially the town's history buffs, are invited to the 7 p.m. meeting at the Mancos Public Library.

"One of the actions from the community summit was to create a task force to inventory the historical structures in Mancos," said Seney.

At last month's summit, each of the five focus groups discussed the historical heritage of the town. Seney believes the towns historical structures could potentially help strengthen and grow local tourism.

"Our historical structures play an important role in this heritage, yet we do not have a complete inventory of our historical structures," Seney said. "This task force will seek to fill that omission."

The task force could subsequently lead to revitalizing the Mancos Historical Society, Seney added, saying the group would focus on researching and gathering information and artifacts from Mancos and Mancos Valley.

The Mancos Valley Community Summit was held to brainstorm how to build a stronger community by using available resources in collaborative ways.

Founded in 1987, Mancos Valley Resources is a community-based nonprofit charitable organization dedicated to preserving and enhancing the cultural, historical, recreational, educational and charitable assets of the Mancos Valley through grants and other funding sources.

tbaker@cortezjournal.com