Help for Grand Canyon’s Taciturn Buildings
The 5 million tourists who visit Grand Canyon National Park each year soon will be spared what the park superintendent acknowledges are moth-eaten exhibits in ancient buildings.
The Del E. Webb Foundation announced a $2.5-million donation to the Grand Canyon National Park Foundation for the renovation of the Community Building, built in 1935.
It’s one of five historic but outdated buildings at the South Rim that will be improved and transformed into a Heritage Education Campus, featuring the latest technological bells and whistles to showcase the canyon’s human, geological and natural history for children.
Park Supt. Robert Arnberger said Thursday that the new education complex marks the start of a dramatic shift in the way visitors experience the Grand Canyon.
Ground will be broken April 23 on the Canyon View Information Plaza, the hub of a mass-transit system designed to end automobile congestion at the rim.
The new education complex and light-rail system, which will whisk tourists to the rim from Tusayan, just south of the park, are “the most significant changes that man has marked on the Grand Canyon,” Arnberger said.
The light-rail system is scheduled to open in 2002, Arnberger said.
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