Latest / Ranger PamPaw's Park Report / The North Rim, Bent's Old Fort, and the Arch.

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The North Rim, Bent's Old Fort, and the Arch. · Ranger PamPaw's Park Report

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: This past Friday, the federal agency that advises on historic preservation sent his formal comments to Interior Secretary Doug Bergum about a triumphal arch.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: Plus, two chances to weigh in on the places you love, the Grand Canyon's North Rim and Bensold Fort.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: This is Ranger Pampos Park Report for Wednesday, October 14th, 2026.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: First up, the proposed Triumphal Arch in Washington, D.C.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: This past Friday, October 9th, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation sent its formal comments to the Interior Secretary of Doug Bergum.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: The Council is the independent federal agency that oversees the Section 106 review process.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: That letter follows September 24th, when the Park Service ended its Section 106 consultation on the project.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: That's the steps where federal agencies are required to consider effects on historic places and hear from consulting parties.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: On October 7th, the National Trust for Historic Preservation sent its own letter objecting to how the project has moved forward.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: The trust's position is that the review process was cut short.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: That's the trust claim, not a finding.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: On public input, the Park Service has reported about 107,000 comments.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: The Advisory Council says it received 7,200 of its own.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: Here's what happens next.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: Under the regulations, the Secretary has to take the Council's comments into account before deciding and then respond to the council.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: The Secretary is not bound by what the council says, and the decision should come soon, and I'll report on it when it does.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: Next, the Grand Canyon's North Rim.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: The Park Service is taking public comment on a long-term plan to recover and redevelop the North Rim.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: That plan is needed because of the Dragon Bravo fire, which swept through the North Rim in 2025 and destroyed the historic Grand Canyon Lodge and other buildings.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: Right now, the Park Service is sharing a vision and early draft concepts, covering visitor facilities, infrastructure, employee and operation needs, and how to protect the North Rim's historic and natural character.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: Those are early ideas, not final alternatives.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: Your input helps shape the alternatives that come next.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: The comment period runs through November 6th.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: There are four chances to talk with park staff in person or online.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: A virtual meeting was held yesterday, Tuesday, October 13th.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: Then in-person meetings, Monday, October 19th in Kenob, Utah, Tuesday, October 20th in Flagstaff, and Wednesday, October 21st in Tusian.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: If you've ever stood at the North Rim in the quiet of an October evening, you know why people care how it changes.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: You can find the project page and the comment form through the Park Service's planning site.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: I'll put the link in the show notes.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: And finally to Colorado, Bensold Fort National Historic Site near La Junta in eastern Colorado.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: The Park Service has put forward four early concepts for the future of the Fort's replica, and it wants to hear which directions you favor.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: Comments are open through October 23rd.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: Bensold Fort was a major trading post on the Santa Fe Trail.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: The fort visitors walk through today is a reconstruction, finished in 1976, and it's in trouble.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: The park says it is experiencing significant deterioration from moisture, erosion, and structural problems that began soon after it was built.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: It looks like Adobe, but its core includes concrete and cement stabilized masonry under the Adobe.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: And the park says those mismatched materials and design details contribute to the damage.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: The Park Service says it has spent more than$15 million over the past 30 years on maintenance and the condition keeps declining.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: The four concepts range from rebuilding or rehabilitating the full replica to keeping only parts of it to replacing it with a contemporary interpretive structure to removing the replica and marking the original footprint.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: Details on all four of the comment and the comment forms are in the show notes below.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: Some quick hits.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: Grand Canyon's North Rim begins its fall closure on October 15th.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: So if you've been planning a last visit, this week is it.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: At Alcatraz, a closure runs October 26th through November 18th.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: If you have tickets in that window, check with the concessioner.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: The Chiracallawa National Park Act.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: As of this recording, it's still awaiting the president's signature.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'll update you when that changes.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: And Fat Bear Week is over.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: The number 89 backpack took the crown at Katmai this year.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: Time for the Ranger's chair, where I share my own view.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: Everything you've heard so far was news.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: This part is opinion, and it's my opinion.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: Section 106 is easy to ignore because it doesn't ban anything.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't tell an agency what to decide, and what it does is slow the agency down, and that's on purpose.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: I'll be honest, many times in my career we would have liked to take shortcuts with the process, but Section 106 is designed to make the Park Service stop and deliberate about what it is about to do, and it gives the public a chance to be heard before it does it.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: That's why I believe ignoring public comment altogether would be a mistake.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: It undermines the public's trust in the process and in the agency itself.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: Trust is hard to earn and easy to lose.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: Bensold Fort shows what's at stake.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: The Fort Visitors Tour today was built in 1975 and 76 as a bicentennial project, about 15 years after it became a national park site.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: Inside the Park Service, the committee studying whether to rebuild it was split.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: According to the park's own history, there were two worries.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: First, rebuilding could destroy what was left of the original fort.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: And second, much of the new fort would be guesswork.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: By the park's own account, about 40% of the design was guesswork.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: In the end, the Park Service chose a full reconstruction.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: And as we heard earlier, that reconstruction is now in trouble.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: I can't tell you Section 106 would have stopped it.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: That's not how the law works.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: But the questions that committee argued over are the questions the process is built to ask.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: In the open.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: Do we know enough?
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: What will we lose?
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: Who else should be heard?
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: And here's one more.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: The fort was a bicentennial project with a date on the calendar.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: Was there pressure to finish by that date?
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: And did any of it cut the process short?
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not claiming there was, but it's the right question, and it's fair to wonder whether a fort planned that way might have been built differently.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: Now ask the same question about the Triumphal Arch.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: I believe there is real political pressure behind it, and when the goal is to finish, a review starts to look like an obstacle instead of a safeguard.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: In early September, the Secretary announced that excavation would begin within two weeks, before the Planning Commission's final approval and before the Section 106 review was complete.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: Then consultation ended on September 24th.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: I can't prove that pressure to finish it cut the process short, but that is my concern, and it's why the questions matter.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: Contrast that with Bensold Fort today.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: The park is asking the public what should come next before it decides.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's the process working.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: Reasonable people disagree about the arch itself.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: Reasonable people might disagree about Bensold Fort.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: My point is narrower.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever the outcome, the public should be able to see that the review was done and done well.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: That's what a process is for.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: What to watch this week?
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: October 15th, the North Rim Fall Closure starts.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: October 23rd, Bensold Fort comments are due.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: And November 6th, North Rim comments are due.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: And any word from Secretary Secretary Bergham on the Arch or from the White House on Shirakawa.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: Corrections.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: None this week, but if you spot an error, write to us at parknews at rangerpampall.com and we will correct anything we've misspoken about.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Ranger Pampall.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening today, and see you next Wednesday with more Park News.