News Release

Winter Film Festival Cancelled at Effigy Mounds

Date: December 18, 2017
Contact: Jim Nepstad, 563-873-3491 ext 101

Effigy Mounds News Release

 

Release Date: Immediate

Contact: Jim Nepstad

Phone Number: [phone], extension 101

Date: December 11, 2017

 

Winter Film Festival at Effigy Mounds Cancelled

 

Visitor Center to remain open for winter, however

 

A long tradition – the Winter Film Festival held at Effigy Mounds National Monument – will experience a one-year interruption this winter due to a failed septic system at the park Visitor Center, located three miles north of Marquette, Iowa. The park and the Visitor Center will remain open through the winter, however.

 

“I really hate having to do this, because the Winter Film Festival it is a wonderful multi-generational tradition here,” said Effigy Mounds superintendent Jim Nepstad. “It brings in extra visitors during the winter months, which are otherwise fairly slow here. But with a failed septic system, we can’t accommodate the extra visitors. We made it through the fall with a line of portable toilets outside, but that isn’t a very desirable solution during the deep winter months.”

 

The failed septic system, constructed in 1959, has just enough capacity to handle the sharply reduced staff and the usual number of visitors that stop by during the winter, so the Visitor Center will remain open to the public during this time. No special events will be planned until the new system is constructed in the spring or summer of next year.

 

“We may not be hosting special events like the Film Festival until we get the system replaced, but I want to emphasize that the park and the Visitor Center will remain open for our visitors,” Nepstad continued. “And we certainly plan on bringing the Winter Film Festival back next year.”

 

Visitor Center hours through the winter are from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm, seven days a week except for major holidays. For more information, visit the park’s Facebook page or website at www.nps.gov/effigymounds. For more information call [phone], extension 123.