Marketing the Mountains
Effort begins to highlight Highway 190 corridor
Group launches Mighty 190
Most local residents know of what the local foothills and mountains have to offer, but officials still feel outside of the area, Porterville and the Giant Sequoia National Forest are not so well known.
Out of that has come an effort to be known as Mighty 190, by several groups and organizations to better market the area.
“I’m really excited we’ve gotten so many partners,” said former mayor Virginia Gurrola who is one of the catalysts behind the idea.
“We’re on our way,” she added.
The idea to better acquaint people with what the area has to offer came out of discussions more than a year ago by some in the mountains to have the Great Western Divide Highway cleared of snow and debris in the winter months to allow tourists to visit the Trail of the 100 Giants and other areas of the Sequoia National Forest and Giant Sequoia National Monument. However, those same people know a better effort informing people of what there is along Highway 190 is first needed.
“This is an initiative to start some branding of our area,” said Porterville City Manager John Lollis. “It starts with the city and ends with the Trail of 100 Giants,” he added.
The Trail of 100 Giants is a Giant Sequoia Grove most frequently visited by tourists. However, access to that is not available in the winter and people often take a route different
than Highway 190 to get there in the summer. The city, and folks in Springville and the mountains, would like to get people to use Highway 190.
Gurrola said the South County Tourism Committee has been formed from those discussions on the Great Western Divide Highway. It began small, but she said the committee has grown in size and Lollis said there is now “synergy” to move forward.
Included in the group is the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at Success Lake.
Calvin Foster, regional manger with the Crops, has long been touting what the lake has to offer and is encouraged to see an effort undertaken to better inform the public.
“Anything we can do to promote the lake plays into our mission,” said Foster, who for a while now has expressed an interest in turning the old Rustlers restaurant, which the Corps now owns, into a visitor center.
“One of the things we’ve looked at for a while now — we have this restaurant — my idea is to make that available as a visitor’s center,” said Foster.
Lollis said the city has been disappointed with the effort by those responsible for the Giant Sequoia National Monument over the lack of promotion and unkept promises. Gurrola said U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein promised a visitor center, but after the city making several requests for that to be done, they have given up.
Now, the group made up of a number of governmental and non-profits is rekindling that effort, and the first step will be to get some signage on both Highway 65 and Highway 99 directing visitors up Highway 190 to the monument. Presently, there are no such signs and the only sign along Highway 65 coming from Bakersfield directs travelers to the Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks. There is a sign along Highway 99 in Bakersfield which directs people to Highway 65 and the Sequoia National Forest, but that is it.
The group is in the process of obtaining the domain, Mighty 190, and then a website dedicated to all the attractions and amenities which can be found along Highway 190 and the Great Western Divide Highway.
“What milestones should we try to achieve? Signage on Highway 99 is one,” said Lollis, adding the city is working with the county and the state on that. He said Congressman Kevin Mccarthy is also supportive and one of his aides has attended some of the meetings.
Lollis said the effort is still in the beginning stages, but, “It’s starting to build some synergy.”
Gurrola said Visalia has done a good job marketing Highway 198 and she would like to see Porterville do the same with Highway 190.
“The vision would be from 99 there would be signage along 190,” she said.
“This is a real regional jewel we have here,” Gurrola said of the lake and mountains.