Suzanne Stewart
Staff Writer
During the COVID-19 pandemic, when travel was at a standstill and visitors were scarce, the Cranberry Mountain Nature Center was hard at work making changes to the main exhibit room. It was time to rearrange and upgrade the more than 20 year old exhibits.
Now, with touch screen kiosks, informative panels and a historical display, the exhibit room has new life and is ready for visitors to return.
Entering the center, to the left there is now a panoramic mural of a photograph taken at daybreak at the overlook at High Rocks. It acts as a great backdrop for a family photo or selfie, and is also an introduction to the Cranberry Wilderness.
On the wall is a touch screen with information about places of interest in the wilderness.
“We started with some basic stuff,” Nature Center Director Diana Stull said. “We’re going to add more [to the touch screen] later. There’s a QR code that takes you to websites and in some cases, there are more sites that you can get to, such as the Pocahontas County CVB website.”
As its name implies, the center is focused on nature, but Stull said it was important to include tourism and historical information, as well.
To the back of the exhibit room is a new multi-paneled display about wildflowers that are found in the Cranberry Wilderness. The panels are double sided and are changed throughout the year to display spring, early summer, late summer, autumn and winter specific flowers.
The panels also have a
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