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  Home Page » News » Retiring Mesa Verde Chief Touts Visitors Center

Retiring Mesa Verde chief touts visitors center

by Hope Nealson
The Cortez Journal

The local impacts of the new Mesa Verde visitors center topped the Mesa Verde National Park superintendent's final speech.

The retiring Larry Wiese told the Cortez Chamber of Commerce he had come full circle since he delivered his first presentation as Mesa Verde's superintendent 16 years ago.

"It really does feel right to come full circle. The timing is right to hand things off," he said, adding the visitor center is a go as soon as the president signs this year's national budget bill.

Wiese said besides housing 3 million objects that have not had room to be displayed, the center will provide information designed to point tourists to Cortez, Dolores, Mancos and Montezuma County archeological attractions.

"It'll be seen from the highway, and it'll be a big draw," he said. "Any visitors center that has been constructed in the Park Service adds to the community." Besides providing "immediate contact" to travelers who otherwise might drive through, Wiese said tourists will be educated about their surrounding options such as the Anasazi Heritage Center or Cortez Cultural Center, with more reasons to stay overnight.

Wiese said visitation has increased by at least 10 percent in all other national parks that have built a center. This year, Mesa Verde drew 438,055 visitors from January to August.

Wiese said more jobs will become available in the region for construction crews to finish roadwork in the spring of 2010, when the visitor center also is scheduled to go up.

In 2007, the U.S. Census reported that the Department of Interior employed 128 people at Mesa Verde National Park, one of Montezuma County's top 10 employers. Judith Swain, director of sales and marketing at Aramark, the park's concessionaire, reported they hire 200 employees for peak staffing during the summer.

"Our reach is regional," Wiese said. "I think everybody realizes we are knitted together. We help employ inside the park and outside the park." Besides a benefit for Montezuma County businesses, Wiese said the center will provide an educational opportunity for schools like Southwestern Colorado Community College.

"There is a whole new solar field going in on the water-treatment facility at the entrance (of the center)," he said. "One of the sections teaching renewable energy could get over there and help maintain it. It becomes a classroom opportunity." Wiese said they have "doubled the budget since I've been here" at about $7 million. Being ready with shovel-ready projects is the reason for much of the federal aid the park has received, including $25 million from the Recovery and Reinvestment Act for roadwork, water-line repair and renewable-energy systems.