04.04.13

Hoeven: Park Service Will Open Painted Canyon Overlook for Season

WASHINGTON – Senator John Hoeven today said the U.S. Park Service has agreed to open the Painted Canyon Overlook in the North Dakota Badlands beginning May 25. The overlook will remain open through Labor Day.

Last week, Hoeven contacted U.S. Park Service Director Jonathan Jarvis and he agreed to work with the senator and the local community to come up with options to keep open the Painted Canyon Overlook.

Hoeven’s western North Dakota field representative, Jon Cameron, organized the Painted Canyon Overlook working group, which included National Park Service Superintendent Valerie Naylor, Medora Mayor Doug Ellison, Billings County Commission Chair Jim Arthaud and representatives from the Dickinson Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Theodore Roosevelt Medora Foundation, Medora Convention and Visitors Bureau, Theodore Roosevelt Nature and History Association, North Dakota Tourism Division, North Dakota Department of Parks and Recreation, North Dakota Highway Patrol and others.

The working group met yesterday to find solutions to open the overlook. At the meeting, the Park Service agreed to open the overlook from May 25 through Labor Day. Hoeven’s office is continuing to work with the group to provide additional assistance to open the overlook at the end of April or beginning of May and keep it open through October.

“Painted Canyon Overlook is beautiful site that attracts visitors from across the nation and the world to North Dakota,” said Hoeven. “We appreciate these federal, state and local partners working together to ensure that it will be open for the public to enjoy. Federal agencies need to be creative and work to minimize the impacts of the sequester on the public.”