Geek Atlas

Finally got a chance to read John Graham-Cumming’s Geek Atlas. Its subtitle is 128 Places Where Science and Technology Come Alive.  Published by O’Reilly, it is a tour book of the world’s most interesting science tourist sites.

The most compelling? The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, Ukraine. There is actually a tour of it. It is proof that even the worst disasters and embarrassing things will attract tourists, if the tour is interesting enough. The Chernobyl tour leaves from Kiev, and visits some of the remaining folk who live in Chernobyl, as well as takes visitors close to plant itself. It also stops in the frozen town of Pripyat, where a Ferris wheel sits abandoned.

It is also proof that different people are interested in travel for different things; even obscure science can be an asset. As tourism officials chase conventions and resort hotels, sometimes the most useful tourism assets can be hidden.

The book is a travel tour of great places connected to science, including:

• Bletchley Park in the U.K., where the Enigma Code was broken
• The Horn Antenna in New Jersey, where the Big Bang was confirmed
• The National Cryptologic Museum in Fort Meade, Maryland
• The Joint Genome Institute in Walnut Creek, California.
• Atomic Testing Museum, Las Vegas
• White Sands Missile Range Museum, New Mexico
• NASA Glenn Research Center, Cleveland
• The Brunel Museum, London

There are not just grand sites. The Shot Tower Historical State Park in Austinville, Virginia is included. It is a place where molten lead was poured from heights to make lead shot.

Some sites are not even open to the public, but just knowing that they are there is a tourism lure sometimes.

The question for tourism and economic development officials? What interesting things happened in your area, and how can you build on those events?