By Gail Binkly

A $1 million visitor center and related improvements are in the works for Hovenweep National Monument.

The scenic, low-key National Park Service unit on the Utah-Colorado border is scheduled to receive the necessary monies for the new center and improvements as part of the park service’s funding in the omnibus spending bill. Once President Clinton signs the bill, the project can proceed, said Paul Henderson, chief of interpretation for the NPS Southeast Utah group.

"I hate to say we’re moving ahead till I know the money is in the bank," he said.

The project, which will be constructed at the Square Tower Ruins site, will include a building of probably 2,400 to 2,600 square feet, a new parking lot, and exhibits and furnishings for the center. The building will replace the tiny ranger station with its one-seat, unisex bathroom that has served visitors for many years.

"It’s a major visitors center for Hovenweep," Henderson said, "especially since the building there was a surplus building from Mesa Verde moved there as a temporary measure in the late 1950s.

"It will be relatively humble compared to some other national-park visitors centers."

Sen. Bob Bennett of Utah approached monument officials a little more than a year ago and asked whether they could construct a new center for $1 million, considering the site’s septic and water situation, Henderson said. After some thought, they told him they could.

"We looked at Hovenweep’s current visitation and visitation in the Four Corners area," he said, "and we hope to be constructing a facility that will meet our needs today and into the immediate future."

Funding for planning was included in the Fiscal Year 1999 budget, enabling officials to do some preparatory work. If all goes well, the project may get under way next summer.

"We do anticipate the money will be in the 2000 budget for the actual construction," Henderson said. "If the time lines work out, we would be looking at probably late summer before construction starts. We don’t even have the drawings done yet."

The new center will offer exhibits, but what sort has not been decided.

"We’re working on refining the interpretive themes for Hovenweep," Henderson said. "What stories do we want to tell there? Where’s the best place to tell those stories?

"Until we refine that a little bit, we won’t know what kind of exhibitry we’ll put into the facility.

"Hovenweep does a wonderful job of letting the park resource speak for itself. We’re looking at this as more of an orientation and information center than an in-depth museum treatment."

Planned improvements included a parking lot with approximately 18 spaces, something that was badly needed, he said.

"There are a lot of days the little parking lot there is filled up pretty quickly," he said.

In addition, a new leach field is being constructed for the park’s septic system, something that needed to be done anyway, Henderson said, and new power lines will be laid to the site of the new visitors center.

"When we come into the new site, we’ll be able to take down a lot of existing lines and have things underground," he said. "We’re very cognizant of trying to protect the historic scene there."

The new building will be constructed not where the old station is, but on a site toward the housing area, he said, and will be "real low-profile."

When the new building is completed, the old contact station will be removed and the area will be rehabilitated, he said.