Homestead National Monument of America - Heritage Center Celebrates One Year Anniversary (U.S. National Park Service)

Date: May 17, 2008
Contact: Merrith Baughman, 402-223-3514

NPS

Heritage Center

Tuesday, May 20 was the one-year anniversary of the opening of the Homestead Heritage Center at Homestead National Monument of America. Since opening its doors on May 20, 2007 - the 145 ^th anniversary of the Homestead Act - tens of thousands of visitors have made their way to the site to learn from the facility’s outstanding interpretive exhibits and marvel at its unique architecture. Due in large part to the Heritage Center, visitation to Homestead National Monument of America in 2007 exceeded 70,000, by far the busiest year in the monument’s 72-year history. People from all 50 states and dozens of foreign nations have visited the Heritage Center, and reactions to the building have been overwhelmingly positive. One visitor from London, England, wrote in the monument’s guest register that the Heritage Center makes Homestead National Monument of America a "must-see U.S.A. destination!" The building has already won several major design and tourism awards.

Visitation recently jumped again due to the April 2008 premiere of the monument’s new film, Land of Dreams: Homesteading America . The film is a sweeping account of the Homestead Act’s vast impacts on the United States and the world. It features interviews with living homesteaders, American Indians, women, African Americans, and homesteader descendants, all of whom provide their own perspectives and interpretations of homesteading history.

"Our staff couldn’t be happier with the impact the Heritage Center has had on the monument," said Mark Engler, Superintendent of Homestead National Monument of America. "The building, exhibits, and film really help us do our job of explaining and interpreting homesteading history for our visitors. The many years of work and planning on the building were very much worth it."