Mike Reynolds (above) spoke with Trailblazer editor Bernadette Powell
BP: You’ve now completed four projects with Fund grants. Do you have a favorite?
MR: When I got here I found we had 35 new waysides sitting in a warehouse ready to go. It was a problem due to the vast distances in Death Valley and travel required to install them, the maintenance staff being maxed out and everyone involved in the project having moved on to new positions. So, Chief of Interpretation Linda Slater and I told Bob “I really want to get these things in the ground.” And within a year, thanks to the Fund, we had shiny new signs out offering a direct benefit to the public.
I’m also very happy about the new museum display case the Fund provided. It allows secure display of rotating exhibits. For example, sometimes people bring objects to the park, and we had a display about closed Scotty’s Castle last year. It’s a project with great bang for the buck.
BP: The Dantes View restoration project is next. Why is it urgently needed?
MR: It’s one of the five most visited places in the park and inadequate to handle the crowds it is getting. It does not serve park visitors well. It is basically just a parking lot with broken sidewalks and trampled-out trails leading to every little local high point and view. Death Valley has to use all visitor fees for the foreseeable future to fix the 2015 flood damage at Scotty’s Castle. We were only able to use some visitor entrance fees for Dantes View because of the match from the Fund.. When the viewpoint has been re-landscaped, the view will be the centerpiece. And, as a really neat add-on, the Fund provided a bronze relief map of the terrain.