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The Interagency Visitor Center in Lone Pine will celebrate its grand opening next weekend, with dedications, speakers and time to explore the new building, though some exhibits are still under construction and won’t arrive at the visitor center for about three more weeks. Illustration courtesy savingsbydesign.com Years of work and planning leads up to dedication of two brand-new facilities for visitors to area
By Mike Gervais
Register Staff
Visitors traveling to or through Inyo and Mono counties will have new stops to make to gather information about the areas.
This month will
This month will see the grand openings and dedication of two new visitor centers in the Eastern Sierra. A celebration will take place in Mammoth for the new Mammoth Lakes Welcome Center on Friday, June 22, followed by a celebration in Lone Pine for the new Interagency Visitor Center, which will be held on Saturday, June 23.
The public is invited to attend both events.
Both visitor centers are the culmination of a lot of work done over many years by a number of partners. “These two visitor centers represent something that could never have been accomplished by one agency alone,” said retiring Forest Supervisor Jeff Bailey. “It has taken the dedication and commitment of all the partners to reach the point we are at today. It is a great thing to be able to celebrate the increased level of public services that is now available at both new visitor centers.”
“Neither of the two visitor centers is new to providing visitor information” states a press release from the U.S. Forest Service. The original Mammoth Visitor Center, located in the current Mammoth Ranger Station, first opened to the public in the 1960s, followed by the original Interagency Visitor Center, which opened in 1978. Those two facilities have now been replaced by a new and improved center right at the entrance to Mammoth Lakes.
All eight partner agencies at the interagency center, plus the Eastern Sierra Interpretive Association, have worked together at the former visitor center since its original opening, “whereas the partnership at the Mammoth Welcome Center goes back about one decade,” the press release states.
Visitation at both visitor centers sky-rocketed in the 1990s, leading to the search for grant funding to construct new facilities to accommodate the demand. That work has finally come to an end, and the new Mammoth Lakes Visitor Center is ready for the summer tourist season. Recreators will be able to learn about the community of Mammoth Lakes, learn about campsites and find all the safety information they need as they come into town for a summer weekend getaway.
The partners involved in the operations of the Mammoth Welcome Center include the Inyo National Forest, Town of Mammoth Lakes, the Eastern Sierra Interpretive Association and the National Park Service. Long-term partners who have managed the Interagency Visitor Center for nearly 30 years include the Inyo National Forest, the National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management, Caltrans, the California Department of Fish and Game, Mono County, Inyo County, the City of Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and the Eastern Sierra Interpretive Association.
During the grand opening celebrations there will be dedications to the memory of two people who spent a lot of time making the new visitor centers become reality.
Martha Miklaucic was executive director of the Eastern Sierra Interpretive Association and a partner at both visitor centers from 1996-2006. “During that time she tirelessly helped with securing grant funding, designing retail areas in both facilities and providing guidance in the pursuit of excellence in customer service,” the press release states.
Steve Addington was area manager for the Bishop Field Office of the BLM and served as chair of the Interagency Visitor Center Board of Directors during formative years of securing the grant funding and the initial facility and exhibit planning at the Interagency Visitor Center. “His leadership paved the path for the partner agencies to follow in their many years of planning and implementation of the new Interagency Center,” according to the press release.
The Interagency Visitor Center in Lone Pine will be dedicated to Addington, and a native plant garden will be dedicated to Miklaucic.
A plaque remembering both individuals will be placed at the Mammoth Welcome Center.
The public is encouraged to join in the celebration and dedication of both centers.
The Mammoth Welcome Center celebration will begin at 11 a.m. on Friday, June 22 on the lawn outside the new welcome center on Highway 203 at the entrance to Mammoth Lakes. Light refreshments will be served.
The Interagency Visitor Center celebration in Lone Pine will be held at 11 a.m. on Saturday, June 23 at the intersection of U.S. 395 and S.R. 136 just south of Lone Pine. Lunch will be served after the ceremony for $8 per person.
For more information, or to RSVP for lunch, call (760) 873-2481.
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