After 11 years of planning, a modern museum repository for artifacts and archival material of early Mormon settlers and the Paiute Tribe has opened in Northern Arizona.
Pipe Spring National Monument superintendent John W. Hiscock said the weekend opening of the $2 million facility is the result of a joint venture between the monument and the Kaibab Band of Paiutes.
The two already share museum space at the park's visitor center, but the facility will now have a new, separate repository to preserve materials vital to understanding the area's culture and heritage.
"We made a 25-year partnership agreement with the Paiutes that we (the monument) will provide the building if they provide the land," Hiscock said.
The new facility is environmentally controlled and solar powered and has high security, Hiscock said.
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The 87-year-old monument's collection consists of archaeological and ethnological items, and Mormon pioneer culture items, many donated by pioneer descendants throughout southern Utah and Northern Arizona.
The facility, in the Arizona Strip north of the Grand Canyon, also provides opportunities for the Kaibab Band in protecting cultural and natural history items as well as tribal archives.
Items from the collection will be available to scholars and local residents by special arrangement.
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