Thompson announces $1 million grant for Yurok Tribe

North Coast Congressman Mike Thompson announced Monday that the U.S. Department of Transportation is awarding $1.08 million in grant funding to assist the Yurok Tribe of Del Norte County to build a visitor center. The 2,500-square-foot visitor center is slated to highlight the tribe's culture as a part of an overall management plan.

”The Yurok Scenic Byways Management Plan and visitor center will allow the Yurok Tribe a public way to showcase the cultural, natural, scenic and recreational quality of the region,” Thompson said in a press release.

”In many ways, the stories of local tribes have yet to be fully presented to visitors to the Klamath River area, stories which will be told through this visitor center.”

The management plan aims to identify scenic corridors in the region, lay out byway management practices and plan improvements for routes throughout the scenic byways system.

”For the first time, we will have our own venue to share our rich heritage with the world,” said Yurok Chairman Thomas O'Rourke Sr. in the release from Thompson's office. “We will be able to tell our story in our own words.”