New signs at Point State Park can't take the place of a live person telling the story of Pittsburgh's founding, Louise Sturgess said.

Ms. Sturgess, executive director of the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, has led third-graders on field trips that include a stop at the Fort Pitt Museum.

That state-run institution is one of several at risk of closing as Pennsylvania struggles to reduce a budget gap of more than $2 billion.

"If your goal is to teach people about early frontier life, there is no other place like it in the region," Ms. Sturgess said of the Fort Pitt Museum.

"Control of this site was the whole point of the French and Indian War," she said. "When you come to the museum, you are standing where Fort Pitt stood. You can take a seat in replica of a fur trader's cabin. When students see the Pitt family coat of arms in the museum floor, they find out where the black-and-gold colors used by our sports teams came from."

Just as important as the model of old Fort Pitt and other displays at the museum are staff members like Doug MacGregor, Jessica Cox and Fred Threlfall, she said. They tell children stories about 18th-century life at the Forks of the Ohio.

"New signage will never replace the ability of a human being to interact, answer questions, provide feedback and draw out students," she said. "A sign is a passive way of presenting a very dramatic series of events."

Facing big cuts in its budget for 2009-10, the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission is studying recommendations to discontinue staffing of the Fort Pitt Museum, the Bushy Run Battlefield visitors center in Westmoreland County and four other state-owned historic sites.

Those recommendations were included in a sustainability report released Wednesday in Harrisburg.

Among its other conclusions was that new signs in Point State Park, where the Fort Pitt Museum is located, could tell visitors the story of Pittsburgh's founding. The museum and its programs were "pleasant add-ons" but not essential, according to the report.

Commission members have promised to take no action on the proposals until the public can comment at a series of hearings around the state. No dates or locations have been announced for them.

Release of the study has supporters of the museums talking about greater use of volunteers and forming partnerships with other state agencies or private organizations.

While the Fort Pitt Museum is housed in a reproduction of one of the bastions of the 18th-century fortress, the nearby blockhouse is an original structure. Built it 1764, it is owned and operated by the Fort Pitt Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

Curator Kelly Linn pledged that it will remain open to the public, no matter what decision is made about the future of its larger neighbor.

Visits to the block house and the Fort Pitt museum have declined while Point State Park has undergone a multi-year renovation, she said, but those numbers are likely to turn around. Interest in the 1764 blockhouse and in Bushy Run -- the site of a 1763 battle between Native American and British forces -- will increase as the 250th anniversaries of those events approach, she predicted.

Donn Neal, president of the Friends of Fort Pitt, a museum support organization, also predicted big jumps in attendance now that renovation work at Point State Park is almost complete.

"It was faulty analysis to look at the number of visitors during a time when the museum was almost inaccessible because of park construction," he said.

The Friends of Fort Pitt will continue to raise funds for museum acquisitions and provide volunteers to help staff the museum during special events and on holidays, he said.

State Sen. Jim Ferlo, a member of the museum commission, said the agency faces the problem of meeting greater needs with fewer resources.

The Highland Park Democrat said federal economic stimulus money will help pay for state health and public safety programs. Receipt of that federal aid will, in turn, free up additional money for the museum commission and other agencies next year, he predicted.

Nevertheless, commission Executive Director Barbara Franco has to prepare for possible cutbacks and closings as soon as July 1, the start of the new budget year, he said.

Other options include converting a portion of the museum into a visitors center, run by the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, or forming a partnership with private institutions such as the Senator John Heinz History Center, Mr. Ferlo said.

Andrew Masich, president of the history center, "has been a premier advocate for all things historical," he said.

Mr. Ferlo pledged that no decisions would be made until after the public hearings.

"We need to hear from people on what programs and facilities they think are important," he said.