History frequently is taught as a set of facts that must be memorized to either pass a test or become culturally literate (Whelan 1997). Such an approach to history instruction reduces content to a consumable, socially irrelevant product and strips meaning from the classroom. To alleviate the drudgery of typical history instruction, teachers can design activities that enable students to use authentic historical resources to pull engaging, meaningful, and useful content from the past. One of the best approaches to learning about the usefulness of the past is through the study of local history. This article describes one such project occurring in Cherokee County, Georgia as part of the Cherokee County Digital History Project. The project aims to demonstrate how current practices in the teaching and learning of history can be altered by applying the unique and dynamic characteristics of the Web to local historical education and research. A course structure was developed for teachers to use in their high school classrooms as well as a model for Web site designers, which facilitates digital historical inquiry as well as local and public history.