Planning starts on new Don Pedro visitor center

Managers of Don Pedro Reservoir sketched out plans for replacing the visitor center that vanished in a May 25 fire.

The cost and design are not yet known for the project, scheduled for completion in 2018. It would provide information on boating, camping and other recreation while showcasing the human and natural history of the Don Pedro area.

“It’s a great opportunity to create a modern visitor center,” said Rob Santos, a board member with the Turlock Irrigation District, during a Tuesday evening meeting.

TID and the Modesto Irrigation District capture their Tuolumne River water in Don Pedro, and its hydropower is part of the supply for their electricity customers.

But the bulk of the rebuilding cost, 51.7 percent, falls on San Francisco under an agreement for the reservoir overall. The city diverts its supply far upstream but uses Don Pedro to hold water it is required to release for the districts.

TID would pay 33.1 percent of the visitor center cost; MID would cover 15.2 percent.

The cause of the fire remains unknown, said Chris Collett, director of the Don Pedro Recreation Agency.

A small modular office has served visitors with little interruption since the fire, including about 18,000 people over Memorial Day weekend, he said. A larger building of this type is expected to be ready this month and will remain until the permanent center is done.

The previous center was completed along with the reservoir in 1971, as a condition of a federal hydroelectric license. It was a two-story, circular building with 4,556 square feet of indoor space and a 3,142-square-foot deck overlooking the 585-foot-tall dam.

People on the deck could peer through spotting scopes across the water. Don Pedro has about 13,000 acres of water surface when full, providing 160 miles of shoreline along the main river canyon and tributaries.

The deck is gone, as are displays of baskets, beads and other artifacts of Me-Wuk life, and on gold miners and other people who came later.

“It was a tragic loss for all of us, as so much history was lost within a few hours,” said Tou Her, assistant general manager for water resources at TID.

A pair of pick heads used by miners survived, Collett said, and so did a folded American flag that will be cleaned up and displayed in the new building.

The old center, about 2 miles northeast of La Grange, also provided space for the agency’s eight full-time employees and one to two seasonal people.

Planners have looked at a few other reservoirs around California to see what might be built at Don Pedro, said Brad Koehn, Civil Engineering Department manager for TID. They have features such as interactive displays, movies on dam construction, science labs and nature trails, he said.

The planning will be overseen by the Don Pedro Board of Control, with one member each from TID, MID and San Francisco. A conceptual design could be done this year, followed by more detailed plans in 2017 and construction into 2018, Koehn said.

This story was originally published August 17, 2016 at 3:08 PM with the headline "Planning starts on new Don Pedro visitor center."