BLACK BIZ CANYON.

AuthorPETERSON, ERIC

WILL NATIONAL PARK STATUS BOOST AREA BUSINESS? LOCAL INDUSTRY IS SEEING THE FIRST SIGNS.

An agricultural center with about 9,000 residents, Montrose lacks the can't-miss cachet of Durango and Telluride. But last October, the decade-plus push to turn Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Monument into a national park finally paid off when the U.S. Congress bestowed the status on the Southwestern Colorado site.

Spearheaded and pursued for nearly 13 years by U.S. Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-Colo.), the park was designated in October 1999 as the country's 55th national park. With both congressional approval and a presidential signature, it's harder to revoke the status, which protects the park against such things as potential development (national monuments need only a presidential signature). It also acknowledges a park's multiple features of interest, as opposed to a monument's usually single feature. And it simply heightens the park's visibility -- potentially a boon for Montrose's nearly decade-long lag in tourism. The business community in Montrose, 15 miles southwest of the 33,000-plus-acre national park, is seeing the first effects.

"Everybody's a little tense and tight right now," said Nancy Rumburg, director of the city's Visitors and Convention Bureau (VCB). Montrose's tourism industry is "cautiously optimistic. What we've seen so far is that visitation has not necessarily skyrocketed, but awareness has."

The city's businesses hope the higher profile will translate into a vibrant tourism economy.

"We don't have figures yet as to the impact," said Marge Keehfuss, executive director of the Montrose Chamber of Commerce. "We're not seeing a huge increase in traffic so far, but we didn't anticipate it for a year or two." A healthy 5% growth in the first year would be best, she noted. The area should be able to control growth more than other Colorado national parks, because it's a little off the main track. Up north, Rocky Mountain National Park is close to populated areas, drawing heavy traffic, and, not that far from Montrose, Mesa Verde's unique ruins make it a destination. While Black Canyon has been compared to the Grand Canyon, she said, it isn't likely to draw the same crowds.

As to business relocations, Keehfuss said it would be difficult to connect the two since the community and government had worked 15 years toward designation. The main goal wasn't to attract business, she added, but to preserve the park more thoroughly. "Of course, we knew it wouldn't hurt the economy in the area," she said.

"Being part of a small club of 55 national parks, it really does change things," said Phil Zichterman, the park's chief of education and...

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