After much work, the visitor center at Fort Vancouver National Historic Site in Washington state is just about ready to reopen to the public.

Park staff have planned a grand opening event on November 14, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. There will be live music, refreshments, and special guests. In the meantime, curators are getting new exhibits ready, and the park's maintenance crew is focused on landscaping. 

"One of the great new attributes of the building is its refurbished exterior," says Superintendent Tracy Fortmann. "We've given the visitor center a beautiful new sage green color that evokes the beautiful Pacific Northwest. Overgrown plants, bushes, and foliage in the front of the building have been removed or groomed, making way for peaceful expanses of grass and other new plantings."

Near the visitor center stands a memorial donated by the people of Japan. It commemorates three Japanese sailors who, after a typhoon destroyed their boat and they spent 18 months adrift, washed ashore on the United States' northwest coast in 1833. After spending a winter in captivity, their release from the Makah Indians was negotiated, and they were brought to Fort Vancouver. As part of a project undertaken by the National Park Service and SEH America, the monument is being relocated this fall, and an accessible path, seating, and landscaping will be added to better honor this extraordinary story.