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Contact: Chris Mekow, 731-689-5696
"Effective this Saturday, October 1, 2011, the National Park Service will no longer charge an entrance fee to visit Shiloh Battlefield," Shiloh National Military Park superintendent Woody Harrell announced today. Since the 1970s, Shiloh Battlefield visitors have been required to pay a fee whenever entering park grounds. "Earlier this year, we undertook a thorough and comprehensive review of the fee program and its impact on both visitation and local tourism," said Harrell. Due to the open nature of the park, with multiple roads crossing the battlefield, equitable fee collection has always been difficult. "To keep the cost of collection as low as possible, we have always collected the fee at the Shiloh Visitor Center, rather than at the park entrances," Harrell explained, "and given the location of the visitor center, on the extreme northeastern part of the battlefield, all visitors pass through a large portion of the park before they even arrive at the fee collection point." "Because fees were being collected at the Visitor Center information desk, many people saw the fee as a charge just to enter the Visitor Center, which discouraged many park patrons from watching the orientation film, viewing exhibits, picking up driving tour maps, and asking questions of our park rangers," Harrell continued. "We were losing our best chance to interact with the public and also update them on current park information and ranger programs." As a result of the study, superintendent Harrell proposed ending the entrance fee program as the park prepares for the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Shiloh in April 2012. "We felt it was in the best interest of the park, especially in these uncertain economic times, to end fee collection and promote visitation to the park and the surrounding area." "I would hate to see an entrance fee discourage our citizens from making a trip to this important site," concluded Harrell. Shiloh Battlefield has several events being planned for the sesquicentennial commemoration, a tentative schedule of which can be found on the park website at www.nps.gov/shil. In addition to the elimination of entrance fees, Shiloh will no longer be participating in the America the Beautiful, National Park and Federal Recreation Lands Pass program. Anyone with questions about the America the Beautiful passes, or a list of facilities that sell passes, are encouraged to contact the Shiloh Visitor Center at 731-689-5696 or go to the Federal Recreation Pass website at https://www.nps.gov/findapark/passes.htm. ### |
Last updated: April 14, 2015