Schuck, Skyler, authorThilmany, Dawn, advisorWeiler, Stephan, committee memberHill, Rebecca, committee memberBayham, Jude, committee member2023-08-282023-08-282023https://hdl.handle.net/10217/236815The recently christened Fishers Peak State Park offers great potential to give a much-needed boost to the economy of Las Animas County, specifically the town of Trinidad. State parks tend to draw tourism and may even improve the quality of life for current citizens or potential new workforce entrants (a benefit to employers), representing direct and spillover economic and societal benefits to the region. Yet, not all in the region may experience the same benefits. This paper seeks to estimate the overall and distributional income effect of the new state park through traditional empirical tourism expenditure modeling and input-output model analysis, with particular attention to and consideration for how different development approaches may affect outcomes. The framing and applied case study of this work is intended to serve as a toolkit for rural communities seeking to more holistically evaluate infrastructure development options to help them maximize the strength of key economic indicators that are keystones for economic resiliency. We seek to apply the same tourism and hospitality dependency methodology from Watson & Deller (2022) to assess resiliency in the region. But, to contribute to more nuanced understanding of the region's potential impacts, the analysis will apply a more focused lens by using refined location quotients for employment concentrations and data from the restricted QCEW, and by using both the Great Recession (2007-2009) and COVID-19 Pandemic (2019-2021) as shocks.born digitalmasters thesesengCopyright and other restrictions may apply. User is responsible for compliance with all applicable laws. For information about copyright law, please see https://libguides.colostate.edu/copyright.natural resource economicsresiliencytourism economicsregional developmentinput-output analysisstate parkText