Roadside Heritage is a program designed to document and publicize the history, culture, and scientific background of the Eastern Sierra Nevada and the Owens Valley in the United States. It uses schoolchildren to interview scientists, Native Americans, and others and to record the interviews. These result in "audio stories" which can be downloaded from the website for use by travelers and others interested in the area.
Roadside Heritage is based in Bishop, California. It is a program of ESICE, the Eastern Sierra Institute for Collaborative education, a nonprofit organization incorporated in 1997. It is designed to connect rural youth with media professionals to create interpretive programs for scenic byway travelers, enriching the visitor's experience with a greater appreciation of the landscape and history along U.S. Route 395 in California.
Through after-school programs, middle school students interview a range of experts from knowledgeable citizens to scientific researchers, gathering material with the support of distant universities. Selections of the interviews are used to create traveling companion programs that explain the features of the landscape in the context of its human and natural history.