Moorpark Joins the Bidding to Attract L.A.’s Southwest Museum : Arts: City cites proximity to freeways and the Reagan Library in bidding to attract the American Indian works.

In the battle to lure the Southwest Museum from Los Angeles, a Fillmore rancher is offering 20 acres for free, Thousand Oaks is offering a spot near the city’s ballyhooed cultural arts center and Ventura is offering a scenic bluff overlooking the Pacific and believed to be a former Chumash Indian settlement.

Now Moorpark has weighed in, offering quick access to two freeways and proximity to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

And that may be enough to qualify Moorpark as one of the contenders to attract the museum, which houses a collection of American Indian artifacts, photographs and manuscripts that currently draws 75,000 visitors each year.

Museum Executive Director Thomas Wilson, who is interested in moving from the crowded Los Angeles building where the museum opened in 1914, said Friday that easy freeway access and proximity to other tourist attractions are two of the key criteria he will consider while sifting through offers sent by cities from throughout Southern California.

Moorpark officials met with Wilson last week at the museum and formally entered the crowded field of candidates vying for the cultural and economic boon.

“I think we’re an ideal location,” Mayor Paul Lawrason said. “It’s more of a rural setting for their museum and probably more attractive, from their standpoint. It’s adjacent to the Reagan library, and I think there could be some synergism there, from a tourism standpoint.”

Francis Okyere, president of the Moorpark Chamber of Commerce and a member of the delegation sent to meet with Wilson, said Moorpark’s hometown feel and plans to revitalize High Street into a row of boutique-like shops should help attract the museum.

“We are fairly excited about it. We’re kind of cautiously optimistic,” Okyere said. “The museum seems to have a very quiet, settled atmosphere there, and we thought that fit very much into Moorpark’s rural, quiet atmosphere.”

Wilson said he and his staff will soon begin reviewing the letters that have arrived in response to the museum’s blanket request for interest among the 140 cities of Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura, San Bernardino and Riverside counties. Thousand Oaks, Camarillo, Oxnard, Ventura and Fillmore are Moorpark’s local rivals.

Municipalities favored in the initial screening will be asked to submit more detailed proposals by Nov. 1.

Although the museum has not made a final decision on whether to leave its Highland Park headquarters yet, Wilson said relocation is likely.

“Basically, we’re sort of out of space here,” he said. “We have a facility that’s about 45,000 square feet, and to be a thoroughly modern museum that can provide all of the services that we need to, we figure we need about a 100,000-square-foot facility.”

A day after meeting with Wilson, Moorpark Economic Development Manager Steve Hayes sent him a bound, 17-page, multicolored booklet containing statistical information on the city and three possible museum sites.

Properties identified in the booklet are two parcels of vacant land adjacent to California 23 and the former home of Litton Industries, which recently relocated out of the city.

Also included is a section on the Reagan library, estimating that 450,000 people will visit the library in its first two years of operation.

Library Director Ralph C. Bledsoe said he provided the city with the forecast and other statistical information and would welcome the museum as a neighbor, not as unwanted competition.

“In my view, our competition is ignorance,” he said. “All of us are in the business of educating people and enlightening them, in some cases entertaining them.”

The booklet also suggests museum officials call Bledsoe for further information on the library.

That’s easier said than done, because the phone number listed next to Bledsoe’s name accesses not the director, but the shrill of the Moorpark City Hall fax machine.

“People wouldn’t get me at that number,” Bledsoe said.