BIG BEND NATIONAL PARK — On Friday, Big Bend National Park leadership announced that major construction planned for the Chisos Basin would be delayed until July. Originally slated to start May 1, the project includes a complete revamp of the beloved lodge and an overhaul of the system that provides safe drinking water to a rapidly-growing visitor population. Both the lodge project and the water system project are being funded through the Great American Outdoors Act, which supports infrastructure projects in the national parks.
The road to a brand new Basin has already had plenty of twists and turns. Back in 2022, when the project was first announced, officials had explored the prospect of closing the lodge temporarily for renovations, but further investigation revealed that the structure had been built on unstable ground and would need to be completely torn down.
Park leadership had also initially explored the possibility of keeping the Basin open to a limited number of guests via a permitting and shuttle system but opted for a total shut down to allow crews to work as swiftly as possible.
Tom VandenBerg, the park’s chief of interpretation, said that the Basin Visitor Center and campground will be open through the end of June. The store and restaurant are operated by Aramark, but the concessionaire indicated that they were going to see if they had adequate staffing to keep some services open past the original May 1 date.
The schedule could still shift around — the project has not gone out for contractor bids yet, but the park plans to stick to the original agenda and select one in March.
Amid the uncertainty, park administration has been collaborating with Brewster County officials to get out an important message: while the Basin will be closed for two years, the rest of the 800,000 acre park will remain open for business. Figuring out how to market alternate park destinations remains a top priority.
Park Superintendent Anjna O’Connor was the guest of honor at last month’s Brewster County Tourism Council meeting. Apart from coordinating “consistent messaging” between the park, the county and local outfitters, she thought it was important to promote some of Big Bend’s other highlights — for example, promoting Castolon as a prime location to learn more about local human history. “We’re going to be open, the park’s not closed!” she said.
Council President Bill Ivey said that he and others in the local tourism industry were cautiously optimistic about how the project would unfold. “We’re all going into this a little bit nervous,” he said. “All of our communities depend on Big Bend National Park.”