The project to build a Theodore Roosevelt Library and Museum at the entrance to the National Park in Medora could potentially mean more improvements at the Park.
The Legislature approved a $50 million state match to $100 million in private donations for the Library.
Gov. Doug Burgum says he’d also like to see some improvements to the Painted Canyon Visitors Center at the east end of the park.
"It's federally owned," Burgum said. "It's closed for six months a year."
Burgum said it's still the number one visited place in North Dakota.
"It's a 1960s rest stop, with a pop machine and no other facilities," Burgum said. "There's a big opportunity for us to turn that into a year-round facility."
Burgum said he's been in discussions with the National Park Service about that.
As far as the location of the TR Library and Museum, Burgum said what's been discussed with the Park Service is a reconstruction of the 1960s-era visitors center and entrance to the Park.
"It would be incorporated, so the visitors center and the Library would have a single campus," Burgum said. "If someone visits the park, this is essentially what would greet them."
