Antelope Island State Park opened its new visitor center to the public on Friday after more than two years of construction, offering free park entry throughout the day to mark the occasion. The expanded facility incorporates and renovates the park's old visitor center and arrives as the island has seen visitation climb toward nearly one million people a year.
The project traces back further than the 2024 groundbreaking, however. As reported by ABC4 Utah, the new visitor center has been in the works for roughly 10 years and is now, according to park officials, over 33,000 square feet, expanding on the former 5,600-square-foot facility. Other outlets have cited different figures for the building's size: Utah Public Radio reported the original center was just over 5,000 square feet and that the expanded version is now more than 15,000 square feet, while KSL.com reported in 2024 that the facility was set to expand to 27,000 square feet from an existing 5,600-square-foot building. The discrepancies suggest the various figures may reflect different stages or portions of the project, though none of the sources reconcile the numbers directly.
Interactive Exhibits Built for School Groups
Inside, the center includes dedicated classrooms and what Utah Public Radio describes as a full education wing, designed to let more school groups visit at once. The station reported the exhibits weave together Indigenous history, ecological changes, ranching and modern-day conservation efforts, with displays that are tactile, visual and audible.
Doranne Pittz said the new center can accommodate multiple school groups simultaneously and let them interact directly with the exhibits, according to ABC4 Utah. The exhibits were also designed by the same firm responsible for the Natural History Museum, and ABC4 Utah describes them as interactive, kid-friendly and high-tech. The building also includes a learning lounge, a 3D map showing hiking trails and bison herd locations, and four rentable conference centers, per the same outlet's reporting.
A 3D Theater and a Decade of Planning
The centerpiece draws visitors in with scale: a giant-screen theater capable of seating 200 guests, according to ABC4 Utah, which will host hourly 3D screenings of the documentary series Secrets of Great Salt Lake. Utah Public Radio separately confirmed the theater is already running the film, describing it as a 3D experience exploring the lake and its surrounding watershed. The film is directed and produced by Tyler Mifflin and aims to engage more people with the Great Salt Lake and encourage protection of its watershed, per ABC4 Utah's reporting.
Construction on the new visitor center began on July 9, 2024, and Utah State Parks officials broke ground that month on what KSL.com called a massive expansion. That same report noted a $2.2 million donation from the Larry H. and Gail Miller Family Foundation, one of the local organizations ABC4 Utah says helped fund the new building. Utah State Parks has said the new center is meant to encourage learning and stewardship about the Great Salt Lake and the ecosystems surrounding it, according to ABC4 Utah.
Funding Years in the Making
The financial groundwork for the project stretches back further still. State officials and lawmakers secured $13 million in funding for renovating and expanding the visitor center, The Salt Lake Tribune reported in 2022, around the same time the park had more than a million visitors in 2021 and ranked as Utah's third most-visited state park. The Tribune's reporting also noted the expansion plan includes permanent research workspaces where scientists and students can gather to study the Great Salt Lake.
The new building also features wood decking extending most of the way around the structure, which ABC4 Utah reports is accessible for visitors with mobility issues, along with a gift shop offering an expanded assortment of goods compared with the old shop.
Visitation Has Nearly Doubled in Five Years
The push for a bigger facility followed a surge in crowds. Antelope Island surpassed 1 million visitors in 2024, only the third time the park had reached that level, according to KSL.com's reporting on rising visitation. The outlet also reported that visitation had nearly doubled over the five years leading up to March 2025, after the park recorded slightly more than 935,000 visitors in 2023 — an increase of nearly 250% over the previous two decades.
That growth marks a dramatic shift from a decade earlier, when the park welcomed about 200,000 people annually, according to ABC4 Utah's earlier coverage of the island's $13 million upgrade. Park officials told the outlet they are now looking toward two million visitors annually as numbers keep climbing.
