Quarry Visitor Center, in

Dinosaur National Monument Dinosaur National Monument is an American national monument located on the southeast flank of the Uinta Mountains on the border between Colorado and Utah at the confluence of the Green River (Colorado River tributary), Green and Yampa River, Y ...

Uintah County Uintah County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of Utah. As of the 2020 United States census the population was 35,620. Its county seat and largest city is Vernal. The county was named for the portion of the Ute Indian tribe that lived in t ...

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

, United States was built as part of the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, within the US Department of the Interior. The service manages all List ...

's (NPS)

Mission 66 Mission 66 was a United States National Park Service ten-year program that was intended to dramatically expand Park Service visitor services by 1966, in time for the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Park Service. When the National P ...

program of modern architectural design in the US

national park A national park is a nature park designated for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes because of unparalleled national natural, historic, or cultural significance. It is an area of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that is protecte ...

s. This

visitor center A visitor center or centre (see American and British English spelling differences), visitor information center or tourist information centre is a physical location that provides information to tourists. Types A visitor center may be a Civic c ...

exemplifies the philosophy of locating visitor facilities immediately at the resource being interpreted. The visitor center was closed from 2006 to 2011 due to structural damage from unstable soils. The rotunda structure was demolished and replaced with a new structure of different design, while the quarry section was being stabilized and repaired. The NPS now refers to the new visitor center (built in 2011 about to the southwest) as the "Quarry Visitor Center" and the historical building as the "Quarry Exhibit Hall".

Design

The visitor center was built in part to attract visitors to the little-visited monument, which had been threatened with flooding by the

Echo Park Dam Echo Park Dam was proposed in the 1950s by the United States Bureau of Reclamation as a central feature of the Colorado River Storage Project. Situated on the Green River, a major tributary of the Colorado River, the dam was proposed for the Ech ...

, as a means of guarding against renewed reservoir proposals. The visitor center's concept was first expressed in 1916 when

George Otis Smith George Otis Smith (February 22, 1871 – January 10, 1944) was an American geologist. Life and career Smith was born in Hodgdon, Maine. He graduated from Colby College in 1893 and earned a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in 1896. He ...

, the director of the

U.S. Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), founded as the Geological Survey, is an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geography, geology, and hydrology. The agency was founded on March ...

, suggested that the specimens be displayed in the northern canyon wall. Local citizens, including the dinosaur quarry's discoverer Earl Douglass, proposed a skylit shelter for the display. A temporary shelter for the bones and their excavators was finally built in 1936. A preliminary design in January 1937 was produced by a group including the Park Service Western Office of Design and Construction, the

American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Located in Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 21 interconn ...

and the directorate of the Park Service that closely resembled the eventual design by Anshen and Allen. A number of succeeding designs followed, becoming more elaborate and departing from this concept. No funding emerged for the design, but a new wood and corrugated sheet metal shelter was built in 1951, reminiscent of the 1916 proposal. The visitor center was completed in 1958, and the following engineers and contractor realized the final architectural design: Robert D. Dewell, Structural Engineer; Earl & Gropp, Mechanical and Electrical Engineers; R. K. McCullough Construction Co., General Contractors. The Quarry Visitor Center was declared a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a National Register of Historic Places property types, building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the Federal government of the United States, United States government f ...

in 2001. and

References

External links

Quarry Visitor Center
* {{authority control Mission 66 National Historic Landmarks in Utah Buildings and structures in Uintah County, Utah National Park Service visitor centers National Register of Historic Places in Dinosaur National Monument Tourist attractions in Uintah County, Utah Park buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Utah Historic American Buildings Survey in Utah National Register of Historic Places in Uintah County, Utah

Design

See also

References

External links