Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
VERNAL — After being closed for five years, the popular bone quarry building at Dinosaur National Monument is a week away from opening again.
Tourism, which pretty much became extinct when the quarry closed, should come back to life with those dinosaurs and the new building surrounding their bones.
A ceremony Wednesday showed off the new visitor center, and maybe more important to tourists, the new bone quarry building. Ken Salazar, the secretary of the Department of the Interior, also stopped by to see the progress for himself.
Visitation at the monument is down some 50 percent since it closed, but Salazar thinks now visitors will start coming again, which means more money to the area.
“It’s important we recognize that conservation and outdoor recreation are a huge pillar of our economy,” Salazar said.
Dan Chure, Dinosaur National Monument’s paleontologist, has been on staff for 32 years, but is as excited now as if it were his first year.
“It looks the best that it has probably looked in 15 years or more,” he said. “It’s just a spectacular place.”
With the new quarry set to open Tuesday, business owners hope it will bring the tourists back.
"Vernal is dinosaur land," business owner Kathy Mashburn said, "and we've always been dinosaur land."
Email:acabrero@ksl.com
