In fall 2007, the Department of History at Fort Hays State University (FHSU) began offering an undergraduate certificate of emphasis as well as a Master's degree in the field of Public History. Now entering the third year of existence, the program has a small but enthusiastic group of students involved and is continuing to build to the future. Currently, two full-time faculty members offer Public History courses in addition to fulfilling their other departmental duties. This article discusses how FHSU has been able to effectively fulfill its educational mission by focusing on local history. The Public History Program at FHSU was originally developed to train graduate students for careers in the public history field. However, as teachers began developing courses to this end, they discovered that traditional history undergraduate students were attracted to these public history courses with a local emphasis. By broadening the traditional scope of the FHSU History Department, teachers were able to use local history to engage students in original research and introduce new technology into the classroom. The authors describe how the Public History Program was developed and discuss two innovative projects that encouraged students to cultivate methodological skills and computer literacy and provided opportunities for interaction with the general public and historians within the community. (Contains 20 notes.)