Eastern Sierra Interpretive Association To Support Limited Visitor Services At Manzanar National Historic Site

Follow @manzanarcomm

The following is a press release from the Eastern Sierra Interpretive Association, a non-profit partner of the Manzanar National Historic Site.

RE-OPENING: Manzanar National Historic Site to re-open January 18-21 and January 25-27 only.

Manzanar National Historic Site’s non-profit partner, the Eastern Sierra Interpretive Association (ESIA), has generously donated funds to the National Park Service to allow a limited reopening of the Manzanar Visitor Center and Block 14 exhibits.

“As Americans we can’t forget about the 800,000 Federal employees personally affected by the Federal government shutdown.” said Jeff Gabriel, executive director for ESIA. “We must also realize the communities in which those Federal employees work are experiencing tremendous financial impacts as well.”

“When the chance for us to help our Federal agency partner during the Federal government shutdown to open for a very limited time Manzanar we were more than willing to help,” added Gabriel.

Eastern Sierra Interpretive Association’s mission is to “educate and inspire people about Eastern Sierra public lands through high quality interpretive products, exhibits, and programs.” Superintendent Bernadette Johnson noted, “We are very appreciative of our partnership with ESIA and their support to allow us to resume weekend operations at Manzanar.”

During the lapse in Federal appropriations, ESIA’s donation allows the Visitor Center and bookstore to resume regular hours of 9:00 am to 4:30 pm (9:00 am to 4:15 pm for Block 14 buildings) for Friday, January 18 through Monday, January 21 and Friday, January 25 through Sunday, January 27 only. The Visitor Center features extensive permanent exhibits and a 22-minute introductory film, Remembering Manzanar. Block 14 includes a World War II-era mess hall and two reconstructed barracks and a latrine which interpret the challenges of daily life.

All other days during the lapse in Federal appropriations, the site will revert to its current shutdown status. Exterior exhibits including fire station, rock gardens and ponds, orchard and cemetery along with the park’s 3.2-mile auto tour road, walking trails and parking lots remain accessible to the public. There are no restrooms facilities, water, or trash service. Please do your part to preserve Manzanar: do not disturb or collect anything and keep your vehicle on the designated tour road and pull-outs.

For more information about Eastern Sierra Interpretive Association, please visit https://esiaonline.org. Please visit the National Park Service web site at https://www.nps.gov/manz to learn more about Manzanar.

– END –

LEAD PHOTO: Looking east at the Visitor Center with the Eastern Sierras in the background, at Manzanar National Historic Site. Photo: Gann Matsuda/Manzanar Committee.

The Manzanar Committee’s Official web site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. You may copy, distribute and/or transmit any story or audio content published on this site under the terms of this license, but only if proper attribution is indicated. The full name of the author and a link back to the original article on this site are required. Photographs, graphic images, and other content not specified are subject to additional restrictions. Additional information is available at: Manzanar Committee Official web site – Licensing and Copyright Information.