The Verkamp’s Visitor Center is a historic building in the Grand Canyon’s Village District on the South Rim. It was originally the earliest structured gift shop ran by the Verkamp family, it now is operated by the park’s non-profit; the Grand Canyon Association. They’ve made the building to be divided internally between a walking history museum and a gift shop. All the while maintaining the historic flair of yesteryear, i.e. you will find historic decorum sprinkled around the nooks, crannies, and fireplace, keep an eye peeled!
Verkamp’s has been around so long, that one of its earliest financial ledgers reads: “made four dollars and ninety-eight cents, a good day!”, the date was January 31, 1906. The history exhibits inside are centered around what life and work was like here for the community, and the walking timeline exhibits important moments in Grand Canyon, National Park, American, and global, history. Volunteers, National Park Rangers, and Grand Canyon Association staff, can all be found behind the center counter to assist you, and answer visitor’s questions as well, this is a visitor center after all.
As the Grand Canyon was made into a National Park, and thereby federal land, the Verkamps continued to operate their curios store, though now as official concessions of the National Park Service. After which they served the visitors and community for over a hundred years. Eventually, however, the Verkamps decided not to renew their contract in 2008, and transferred ownership to the NPS, though with one stipulation: that decedents of the Verkamps could always return to stay in the apartments above where the families of old would stay.
Author
Common Jones
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