On June 27, 2023 staff, volunteers, friends, and partners all gathered at the High Falls Access Area to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of the Aleen Steinberg Visitor Center in DuPont State Recreational Forest.
Commissioner Steve Troxler and Bill Yarborough, who retired from the Dept. of Agriculture in 2021, addressed the crowd and shared their memories of the early days in DuPont State Forest. A common thread was an appreciation for Aleen Steinberg and everything she did to make the vision of the visitor center a reality.
Originally, the Visitor Center was built as the sales office for a private, gated community that would have been built all along waterfall corridor. Thanks to Aleen and the Friends of the Falls, the State declared imminent domain and the development never happened.
The abandoned sales office was slowly falling into disrepair when Aleen and the Friends of DuPont Forest championed the idea of turning the derelict building into a Visitor Center.
Today, the Visitor Center welcomes thousands of visitors from across the globe. Thank you to all of the volunteers who make the Aleen Steinberg Visitor Center such a welcoming space for our visitors.
