A group from the region took a brief trip back in time this weekend when they visited “Ticket to the Past – Unforgettable Journeys” in Gettysburg to learn more about virtual reality experience.

Summit Hill Borough along with its historical society want to site a similar immersive attraction and create a visitors’ hub in the borough.

The borough has sought letters of support for a grant to come up with a conceptual design and plan for the center and attraction.

On Saturday, Councilman Dave Wargo took 28 people on a bus trip to Gettysburg to view the inspiration for what they hope to create in the borough.

“It went really well,” he said Monday afternoon.

Gettysburg’s attraction takes visitors inside the Gettysburg Lincoln Railroad Station, where they virtually meet with and hear stories of people who lived through the Civil War battle in July 1863.

Visitors are then immersed in the arrival of President Abraham Lincoln for the dedication of a national cemetery and the delivery of the Gettysburg Address.

“The virtual experience was really cool. You could almost reach out and touch the people,” said Kathy Henderson, executive director of the Carbon Chamber and Economic Development Corp.

Historical exhibition boards greeted visitors when they first arrived and they then chose to follow one of three storylines of historical figures featured – all actual people, a soldier caregiver and heroine; a teenage soldier and musician who assisted surgeons; and a free black man who collected supplies to exhume bodies of the fallen.

Henderson chose the story of the young soldier, Eli Blanchard, who had written letters to his Michigan home every day about this experiences, she said.

Eli helped with amputations and Henderson could see the room with patients and nurses working through the virtual reality goggles, she said. The teen also played music to soothe the patients, she said.

He and his brother survived the war and returned home, but died before his 21st birthday from the mumps.

The other experience was immersive, Henderson said. Visitors sat in a room, and through images around them were transported to a train station as Lincoln arrived – peering out the windows and through open doors.

“Everyone I talked to was mesmerized by the experience,” said Henderson, who has visited Gettysburg several times.

The history of battle hasn’t changed, but the attraction tells the story in a different way, from everyday people who were there and it really takes people back to the past, she said.

In Summit Hill, the visitors’ center and virtual attraction would similarly tell the story of anthracite mining through the eyes of those who were here, Henderson said.

“This adds another level,” she said.

Maybe show the discovery of coal in Summit Hill by Philip Ginder, or the story of a coal miner or a young breaker boy - putting people there through the advanced technology, Henderson said.

Often people who visit the area, especially the tourist-centric town of Jim Thorpe, seek other things to do beyond the town, train, rafting and trails, she said. They want to do and see more of what the area has to offer, she said.

Both Henderson and Wargo believe this type of visitors’ hub and attraction would bring more people into Summit Hill and lend support to other mining attractions, such as the No. 9 Mine or Eckley Miners Village.

The center would also allow historians to tell the area’s story like it’s never been told before, in addition to adding jobs and attracting new businesses, Wargo said.

“This has never been done before,” he said. “You let them go back in time and experience what it was like. This is a different way of telling the story. The sky is the limit as to what we can do.”

Carbon County Commissioner Rocky Ahner was among those on the Gettysburg trip, and believes this kind of attraction would be great for the county and bring people into the Panther Valley.

“It was like you were in the train station,” he said of the experience, and how that could translate into an attraction here.

Ahner believe the visitor center and attraction would be another draw for the region, he said.