Joshua Tree National Park will celebrate the grand opening of a new visitor center on Saturday, May 7, with a free event that starts at 8:30 a.m. and features live music and prizes; a Thursday KESQ.com news release said.
The Oasis Visitor Center closed its doors permanently on Monday to make way for the significantly larger new center.
"Change is always difficult," park Superintendent David Smith told KESQ. "The Oasis Visitor Center has been there for 60 years. It's a challenge to leave that place. But there's so many more opportunities here to be able to serve the people."
The new center focuses on tribal stories from 15 different indigenous groups local to the area, including tribal groups who used to live there as well as the groups that now call it home, the release said. Located in Twentynine Palms, the new center was needed to accommodate the park's massive growth.
On average, the visitor center draws 1,000 to 3,000 people each day, and the old center was too small to handle those escalating numbers, Smith told KESQ.
The new visitor center was a $2 million project funded by the City of Twentynine Palms, the release said. It became evident approximately 10 years ago that the Oasis Visitor Center couldn't handle the crowds, so the new building was made significantly larger.