Positive trend for Interpretive Center

The Oregon Trail Interpretive Center seems to be enjoying a minor revival of sorts.

We hope this is the case.

The BLM center on Flagstaff Hill, about five miles east of Baker City, immediately joined the region’s roster of top visitor attractions upon its opening, May 23, 1992.

Deservedly so.

The Interpretive Center expertly blends entertainment and education. If you don’t own oxen and a prairie schooner, spending a few hours strolling through the Interpretive Center will give you as vivid a view of life on the Oregon Trail as you’re likely to get.

During its first 4fi months of operation, the Center attracted 201,000 visitors.

In its second full year (BLM visitor counts are by federal fiscal year, Oct. 1-Sept. 30, not by calendar year), the Center lured 348,000 people to Baker County.

The increase is not surprising: The Center was still almost new in 1993, and that year was the 150th anniversary of the first great migration along the Oregon Trail.

But the next year the visitor total plummeted to 197,000.

And interest in the Center continued to drop in each of the next dozen years, to a low of 49,000 in fiscal 2006 (Oct. 1, 2005 through Sept. 30, 2006).

This trend probably was due in part to the BLM’s decision to charge admission fees starting in 1997.

But since 2006 the declining trend has reversed, and visitor counts increased in each of the past three years.

The fiscal 2009 total of 58,302 was the highest since 2003.

And that happened despite the BLM boosting admission fees in August 2008, and despite the nation suffering through its worst economic recession in more than half a century.

The increases in visitor numbers are modest, to be sure.

But we’re optimistic anyway.

Tourism is now, and likely will remain, an important part of Baker County’s economy.

And the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center, as one of the more popular places to visit here, will continue to be a bellwether for how we’re doing.

Fortunately, the stimulus bill President Obama signed almost a year ago included $1 million to repave parking lots, trails and the access and exit roads at the Center.

That’s a minuscule investment by the standards of the federal government.

But it’s a significant one for Baker County.