Yesterday (Sunday January 14) was the final day to visit the Oasis of Mara Park Store. The now former visitors center for the National Park shut its doors to the public yesterday, as a new visitors center has been in Twentynine Palms at Freedom Plaza.
The National Park Association made the bittersweet announcement on social media. Park Superintendent Jane Rodgers appeared on Z107.7’s Up Close Show last year, during which she told Gary Daigneault that the facility at the Oasis of Mara would be closing to the public.
“Our visitor center is now at Freedom Plaza, and we definitely had some bumps in the road in regards to redirecting traffic. The visitor center had been at the Oasis of Mara for 50 years, so it’s hard to change old habits. Some key things that have helped redirect traffic are that the City of Twentynine Palms has helped us with improved signage to funnel people to the center. We put up a gigantic arrowhead on the building.
“And critically, Google Maps and Apple Maps, the applications folks use to navigate, finally have transitioned the location to the new visitor center. It’s pretty phenomenal that just these changes alone have shifted everything”
Rodgers also discussed future plans for the previous visitor center in the next few months:
“We are actually relocating our library. You may not know that the park has its own library of research material, and that’s what our rangers use to develop their interpretive programs. We’re actually moving that from one building to the old visitor center, and creating a place for our rangers to work.”
You can hear their full conversation by listening to the up close show as a podcast at our website, Z1077fm.com, or wherever you get your podcasts.
