Put Us on the Map

Every spring, a field below an old mansion in Vevay, Indiana, fills with 15,000 black tulips. Tattoo artist Kat Von D planted the idea after moving into the mansion, and the field is open to anyone who wants to come. Now people drive in from three states, grab lunch at a restaurant in town, and spread out blankets beside the flowers, and the crowds get bigger every year. The only rules are posted at the edge of the field. Do not pick the tulips, and do not walk up to the house.

Before the tulips, it was just a field. Nothing about Vevay changed except that someone looked at an empty space and saw something nobody else had tried. Now a town most people could not find on a map was just voted the best small town in the Midwest.

Your Task: Imagine you run tourism for your own town, and your job is to give people a reason to stop.

1. Your Black Tulips
Pick one place in your town that could be more than it is, like an empty lot, a blank wall, an old store, a strange hill, or a statue nobody looks at anymore. Then say what you would build, plant, paint, or start there that would make a stranger drive an hour to see it. (2 to 3 sentences.)

2. The Post
Write the town's official post that gets your idea noticed, the words that go under the photo. Then say who you want to see it and why they would share it. (The post, 30 words or fewer, plus 2 sentences.)

3. The Other Two Hours
It worked, and people come. But most of them take the photo and leave in ten minutes. Describe what you would add or change so a visitor stays in your town all afternoon instead, and which local place gets their money because of it. (3 to 4 sentences.)

Optional: add a drawing of your spot if you want to. You can link to it or describe it.