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Contact: Wade Vagias
IDAHO, Craters of the Moon National Monument & Preserve, Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument, and Minidoka National Historic Site will receive over $9 million in funding from the Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA) to update and repair infrastructure, improve employee safety, and expand visitor opportunities in the South Idaho Parks. GAOA is a significant investment that is reducing the burden of backlogged maintenance and repair projects in national parks.Craters of the Moon National Monument & Preserve features lava flows, spatter cones, and lava tube caves along the Great Rift of Idaho. GAOA funding at Craters of the Moon will rehabilitate the park’s historic Mission 66 utility building and construct a new building to house snow removal equipment and a summer-use vehicle wash bay. This project will improve staff safety and comfort, prolong equipment life, reduce operating costs, protect a historic building, and help the park adapt to the growing demands of increased visitation on park programs.
Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument offers a glimpse into the ancient Pliocene past, when this region was home to a variety of fascinating, now-extinct creatures. The scientific study of Pliocene fossils is the key to Hagerman. GAOA funding at Hagerman Fossil Beds will provide a fire suppression system in the combined Maintenance Shop-Paleontology Laboratory building to improve safety and protect irreplaceable, one-of-a-kind fossil specimens.
Minidoka National Historic Site provides opportunities for public education and interpretation of the exclusion and unjust incarceration of over 13,000 Japanese Americans in the Idaho desert during World War II. GAOA funding at Minidoka will demolish a non-historic building and construct a purpose-built maintenance and resource management facility. These improvements will support the park workforce, encourage collaboration by enabling equipment sharing between park divisions, and provide a workspace to complete preservation projects on the site’s historic buildings and landscapes.
Find out more about the three South Idaho Park projects.
Last updated: August 9, 2023