Dunbar Cave State Park Virtual Cave Tour
Friends of Dunbar State Park
Grant Amount: $12,000
The Dunbar Cave Tour Film and Virtual Reality (VR) experience have changed the availability of the park’s mission. People can learn about the park online, and they can experience what it’s like to go into the cave without any fear of traversing the uneven, and sometimes slick, flooring of the cave as well as the dark conditions of the interior space. The park rangers have started a docent program to train Friends of Dunbar Cave members in the VR programming so that volunteers can help with that experience, and hopefully, allow the park to reach more people in the community and beyond. The VR headsets are mobile, and VR allows the park rangers and the Friends of Dunbar Cave to take the VR experience anywhere we want to go (into schools and into the community).
The Montgomery County Veterans Coalition and the United Way of Clarksville have reached out to work with us and provide access to this new technology and the sacred nature of the cave to veteran communities, children, and people with disabilities. This will be part of the continuous programming of the park, as the in-person cave tours only take place during the touring season, and the 2D video and VR experience are available all year round. There can be nonstop educational programming about the cave where it was once limited in so many ways. This allows many groups to work together with the park rangers and the Friends group.