BIG PLANS FOR OLD FAITHFUL Corporate gift kicks off fund-raising for new visitor center By MICHAEL MILSTEIN Gazette Wyoming Bureau YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK -Superintendent Mike Finley on Wednesday announced plans for a spacious new $10 million visitor center overlooking Old Faithful Geyser and said a corporate donor has already contributed $1.25 million toward the new building. Built in 1971, the current park visitor center lacks space for exhibits and for the growing crowds that visit Old Faithful every summer. More than 85 percent of the some 3.1 million annual visitors to Yellowstone stop at Old Faithful, also home to the historic Old Faithful Inn. "When it was built, I don't think anyone envisioned the number of people we have today," said park spokeswoman Marsha Karle. Park officials said they have no target date for construction because they do not know how quickly they and park fundraising groups including the National Park Foundation and the Yellowstone Park Foundation can raise the full $10 million necessary. Unilever previously donated recycled plastic material to build new geyser basin boardwalks in Yellowstone. The company plans to make Yellowstone the centerpiece of an upcoming marketing campaign that will include store displays and coupons that, when used, will direct a share of the purchase price to Yellowstone, said Melinda Sweet, a senior vice president at the company. "We think it's a good way for the business community to give back to the national parks," she said. Unilever Home and Personal Care, a worldwide manufacturer of consumer goods from Q-tips to Wisk laundry detergent, provided a head-start, however. The multinational company with 1997 annual sales of $48 billion on Wednesday announced a $1.25 million contribution toward the new visitor center. Although the specific location has not yet been decided, it will sit within sight of the current visitor center, which will later be removed. The new building will look out upon Yellowstone's Upper Geyser Basin, the greatest concentration of geysers anywhere in the world. Among the planned features of the new building: Electronic readouts of predicted geyser eruption times and computerized kiosks that provide information about Yellowstone, geysers, lodging reservations. A 10,000-square-foot exhibit hall with displays on the inner workings of geysers, geology and the microbiology of park hot springs. A 300-seat theater that will feature a new film on the geology of Yellowstone funded by the non-profit Yellowstone Association. A geothermal research library with computer stations that lets visitors electronically browse books and articles about geysers. Classrooms for visiting school groups and researchers who could use them to present talks about their research in Yellowstone. Initial concepts for displays include: Video monitors that will show real-time eruptions of lesser-known and backcountry geysers. A computer simulation of the Yellowstone "hot spot" and the Earth's gradual movement over the subterranean magma chamber. A fiber-optic model of the Upper Geyser Basin that recreates the previous day's geyser activity in compressed time so visitors can watch the pattern of eruptions throughout the basin. Videotape images captured by a tiny camera lowered into Old Faithful Geyser. Interactive displays illustrating different thermal features in Yellowstone, from geysers to mud pots. Park officials also plan to place photographs of the visitor center's exhibits on Yellowstone Park's Internet Website, where they will provide a "virtual tour" of the new building. During 1998, the park Website registered 396,000 visits, a number officials expect to increase as they add similar "virtual tours" of geyser basins during the coming year. The new visitor center will be fully accessible to disabled visitors, energy efficient and will be built to fit with other historic structures in the Old Faithful area. Unilever previously donated recycled plastic material to build new geyser basin boardwalks in Yellowstone. The company plans to make Yellowstone the centerpiece of an upcoming marketing campaign that will include store displays and coupons that, when used, will direct a share of the purchase price to Yellowstone, said Melinda Sweet, a senior vice president at the company. "We think it's a good way for the business community to give back to the national parks," she said.

Updated: Thursday, April 15, 1999
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