Park Service drops Little Bighorn visitor center expansion

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By The Associated Press

Story Published: Aug 19, 2008 at 11:32 AM MDT

Story Updated: Aug 19, 2008 at 11:32 AM MDT

BILLINGS - The National Park Service is dropping its plans for an expanded visitor center at Little Bighorn Battlefield, saying the $1.1 million project would have encroached on the historic Last Stand Hill.

The expansion was slated for the base of the hill where Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer and other members of the U.S. Army 7th Calvary were killed by Sioux Indians in 1876. Park Service Regional Director Mike Snyder says the Park Service will come up with another way to accommodate more visitors without adding a new 200-seat theater and waiting area. Historians and former National Park Service employees had filed suit over the project last month. They said its approval defied the Park Service's own long-term plans to move the visitor center farther away.

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