Visitors to This Is The Place Heritage Park will welcome next spring will ride trains around the park, and will be able to entertain their children at a new playground and petting zoo.

Additionally, a new visitor's center will open during the 2007 season.

The park, which began as only a wooden marker on the side of the road over 75 years ago, is now a "multi-million dollar living history operation," according to the park's official Web site.

The park's change in management last spring spurred the plans for the new park program, said park spokesman Rod Clifford.

Clifford said the park's new management wants "to make it as accessible as possible to as many people as possible." At the same time, he said, the park must rely on philanthropic donations, because "gate receipts and the number of visitors probably will never make the place break even."

"We experimented several weekends this summer with a train just to take people around the park," Clifford said. "The terrain up here is difficult for some people. It's pretty much uphill both directions."

Visitors who once had to climb uphill from parking areas to the visitor's center will be able to ride trains up, Clifford said.

The train was a hit with both children and adults, Clifford said, and these experimental weekends ultimately influenced the park's board of trustees to decide to install two trains in the park.

The new playground will be like a miniature village, made up of child-sized replicas of buildings found in other parts of the Park. The playground will be located by the Roberts home, where adults can keep an eye on their kids and observe a basket weaver's trade at the same time. Next to the playground will be a petting area, with farm animals typical of an early pioneer farmstead.

According to the 2007 plan, the building where Mormon Handicraft is located will be "returned to its original function as a visitors' center with Village ticket sales, a gift shop and a bistro-style café," according to a press release.

The new attractions will hopefully spark more interest for park visitors heralding from both inside and outside Utah, Clifford said. "We could handle a lot more people through the gate than have been coming. People who come all the way to Utah can come up and take a look at the heritage of the state. The initial story of Utah is the Mormon migration here, [but] the history of Utah involves a lot more people than that, so that's everybody's heritage whether they're LDS or not. We want people to come up and see...a glimpse of a day in the life of the early pioneers."

The park's official Web site can be found at www.thisistheplace.org.

Copyright Brigham Young University 20 Sep 2006