The National Park Service and the Forest Service have taken the first step toward building a joint visitors center at the mouth of American Fork Canyon.
The Park Service has been using a double-wide trailer as a visitors center for the Timpanogos Cave National Monument since the original center was destroyed by fire in 1991. Six large rocks have recently fallen from the 400-foot cliff onto the building and a few went clean through the roof, said monument superintendent Kit Mullen. The building is also too small and is inappropriate for expansion, she said.The Forest Service office for the Uinta National Forest is planted in the middle of what is now a residential area in Pleasant Grove. The office does not belong among the surrounding homes, said Tim Garcia, ranger district recreation forester.
Both agencies are ready to move and want to build a facility for both at one of three or four sites near the mouth of the canyon.
A design team from the National Park Service's regional office in Denver spent this week in Utah County to come up with a design plan for the unusual interagency center. The plan they created late Thursday includes informal building blueprints and landscape architecture. The information was presented Friday to officials from Highland, Alpine, Cedar Hills, the Utah Department of Transportation, the Department of Natural Resources and the Alpine School District.
The next step is to secure land, Mullen said. But that has already proven difficult. Highland city spent two years trying to work out an agreement with a private property owner, but that deal fell apart a year ago.
And the possibility of the federal government stepping in to pay for something is remote, Mullen said. "The federal government is reluctant to appropriate money to purchase private property," she said.
So, instead, the Park Service is commissioning a feasibility study into fund raising. If that turns out positive, then land will be pur-chased with donated money.
After that, Sen. Bob Bennett hopes to secure federal funding to build the visitors center. Mullen had no estimates on the cost.