Visitor center to open in fall 2009
A $12 million state-of-the-art conservation and education center is being built in Benezette Township. Many nature areas feature education centers, but the Elk Country Visitor Center will stand out because it's being designed with the help of a former Walt Disney imagineer who knows the best way to teach is to entertain.
Imperial Multi-Media, including a former senior imagineer of Walt Disney, has been charged with creating a fun, educational, interactive experience for visitors at the center.
The center, which is working to appeal to those who haven't experience elk in the wilds before, as well as those who have, will welcome visitors of all ages by having them walk down interpretive trails from the parking area through the natural settings.
Next, visitors will enter a great room with high ceilings and large wooden trusses and see a large natural stone hearth wood-burning fire place. It will also feature numerous windows looking out to the elk viewing areas and food plots. A story telling theater will feature a fire place and life cast figures, "What better way to tell the elk story than through a story teller setting by a campfire," Fred Lachner, founder of Imperial Multi-Media, said.
There will be high definition screens, surround sounds and special effects immersing the visitors. The theater will actually allow visitors to hear elk bugling, feel the mists of rain, smell the fire smoking and feel their seats shake as the elk "run" by. The ceiling will turn to stars and at the end of the show, the screen will open to allow visitors to observe the wilds.
An interactive observation deck will allow visitors to view elk outside in the wilds and learn at the same time through recorded facts in a panel.
There is no better way to learn about elk than to actually have the chance to feel its horns. The center will feature a discovery room where visitors can do just that.
An interactive station will allow visitors to print maps, download information to handheld devices and find other areas to visit in the Pennsylvania Wilds.
There are 46 million people within a six-hour driving distance of the center.
A groundbreaking ceremony was held for the center Thursday. The center is being built on a 245-acre piece of property that had been a farm on Winslow Hill in Benezette Township. It's adjacent to the Elk State Forest and State Game Lands.
The building will be built in a wooded area and be 8,400 square feet. It will be a "green" building that will use solar energy, be built of some wood and stone from the land, use rainwater to run its bathrooms and use low emitting materials like paints and carpets.
Seventy-five thousands visitors are drawn to Benezette annually looking for elk. The center will provide a destination where these visitors can go to learn more about the elk and the importance of caring for the land.
The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation has raised $9.3 million of its $12 million goal for the center so far, and will be responsible for the development of the exhibits, education programs and maintenance costs. The Department of Conservation and Natural Resources has provided $5 million for the design and construction of the building.
It is an unusual situation for the state to work wih conservation group like this, John Geissler of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, said.
The Dominion Foundation also announced a $250,000 gift to the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation for the new center. Dominion is one of the nation's largest producers and transporters of energy and continues to support elk conservation and education in Pennsylvania.
People want to be educated, to learn something and that's not available right now for visitors in Benezette, Rawley Cogan, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation lands program manager, said. The center will help people to know more about stewardship and conservation.
"I knew if we did it the way other ones have done it, it wouldn't be that successful. We want to take conservation education to a level above what other centers have done," Cogan said. "You may have a great story, but if you don't tell it in a compelling way, it won't be successful."
The center was the vision of many people for many years.
It has been on state Rep. Dan Surra's agenda for a long time. Surra, D-Kersey, said when he first went to Harrisburg after being sworn in in 1990, they probably didn't think he was such a nice guy. His fellow legislators would learn he was from Elk County and know about the elk herd, but trying to describe to them how to get there was a challenge.
"There is no more beautiful place in Pennsylvania. And the elk, the Clarion River, and the trees can't be moved to China," Surra said. "This is an opportunity to create jobs and bring people to the area."
When Gov. Ed Rendell took his first trip to the area, he said it wasn't enough to just do something with the elk, but it needed to be bigger and the Pennsylvania Wilds region was created.
DCNR Secretary Michael DiBerardinis said 100 years ago settlers had destroyed the land and there wasn't a tree left standing. Elected officials and founders of the DCNR had a vision to protect the land and today land like that which the center is being built on is a part of the country's legacy.
"The dream (of a conservation center) is being turned into a reality that others can touch and feel," he said.
The center is expected to open in the fall of 2009 and to bring in 180,000 visitors a year.