The people of the southern Appalachians have nurtured a rich culture in the beautiful mountains and valleys along the Blue Ridge Parkway -- from their traditional string band music to crafts, such as basket weaving and glassmaking, with roots centuries in the past.

Unfortunately, for many years lack of information about where to go and what to see meant many travelers on the parkway missed the opportunity to experience Appalachian culture even as they enjoyed the region's scenic overlooks and greenery. Local communities had some difficulty attracting tourists to their music festivals, craft events and other businesses.

This now has changed thanks to the Blue Ridge Heritage Initiative, a partnership among the North Carolina Arts Council, the Cherokee Tribe and other local groups and businesses to promote heritage tourism in the southern Appalachians. The initiative provides the public with elegantly detailed guidebooks and driving tours. Visitors, for example, can now travel the "Music Trail" to hear traditional mountain music, the "Cherokee Heritage Trail" to learn about the tribe's history and culture, or the "Crafts Tour" to shop for the region's handmade arts and crafts.

Last month, President George W. Bush and Laura Bush awarded the initiative one of four inaugural Preserve America Presidential Awards. The tours "take today's travelers eager for authentic experiences through centuries of human endeavor and local cultures," Laura Bush said in presenting the award.

The Blue Ridge Heritage Initiative is an excellent model of how communities can not only celebrate their heritage and culture but also turn them into economic engines that create tourism and jobs. Since the initiative began in 1997, for example, public and private investment in the southern Appalachian region has increased by $28 million. Local towns and villages have added 27 new shops and studios in many places where none previously existed.

President Bush has made it a priority to promote this kind of heritage tourism. Last year, he signed an executive order establishing the Preserve America initiative to provide recognition and resources to local communities and citizens eager to preserve and share their history and culture. The primary goal is to empower communities to capture what is unique in their heritage in an age of homogenization, where every mall guarantees the same fast food restaurants and clothing chain stores.

Given encouragement, we have found that many communities will rise to the challenge of telling the stories of the people who built America, including last month's three other winners of the Presidential Preserve America Award:

In Pennsylvania, the Lackawanna Heritage Valley Authority, a community organization, invested $42 million to capture the lives of the 19th-century men and women who mined and transported the coal that powered the Industrial Revolution.

Local entrepreneurs in Ouray, Colo., restored and reopened a historic hotel that had fallen into disrepair and was on the verge of being condemned.

More than 30 community partners in Montana transformed the 1906 Raven Ranger Station in the Kootenai National Forest into an educational center, where visitors can learn about the forest and the people who lived and worked there when it was the frontier.

Likewise, local groups are taking over ownership and operation of 300 historic lighthouses along our coasts. Recently, for example, I handed over the historic Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse to the City of Annapolis, Md., and a group of partners. The 1875 lighthouse will become a museum to tell the story of the watermen, merchants and other peoples of the Chesapeake Bay.

Every community has a story waiting to be told. What has become apparent in recent years is that history can be an economic boon. Spurred by federal preservation tax incentives, private groups pumped $3.2 billion into historic rehabilitation projects approved by the Interior Department last year. The cost to the Treasury was less than $520 million. Each project created an average of 42 jobs, or more than 50,000 jobs nationally.

The White House, in partnership with the Department of the Interior, the Department of Commerce and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, already has designated 80 Preserve America communities across the country that will be eligible to apply for grants if Congress approves the president's $10 million request to fund the Preserve America grants program.

We have a long list of communities awaiting designation and are expecting many more. Communities interested in applying for grants can go to www.PreserveAmerica.gov for information. We are eager to help Americans tap into the richness of our shared heritage. Our past is also our future.

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Gale Norton is secretary of the interior. Write her at the Department of the Interior, 1849 C St. NW, Washington, DC 20240.