ANTELOPE ISLAND -- Hardtack candy, salt water taffy, cookies, souvenirs and books are just a few of the items to be sold out of the new historic Fielding Garr Ranch House General Mercantile store.
Friends of Antelope Island recently approved a $15,000 request to convert a separate standing ranch house tool shed, often referred to by island staff as the "palace," into an information/gift shop.
Antelope Island Park Manager Jeremy Shaw asked the board on May 2 to fund the project that is part of his annual summer to-do list.
Shaw said he hopes to have the space-conversion project complete before Labor Day weekend.
"To me, right now it is kind of a waste of space," Shaw said of the shed. Visitors on occasion will peek in to see what 's inside, but don't venture in.
"This would allow for a nice place to sell some relevant retail items at the ranch," Shaw said of the shop he envisions generating up to $40,000 a year in additional revenue for the park.
"It also gives us a sort of central contact point and a public area to host our visitors," he said of those who make the drive to the southern portion of the island where the ranch house is.
"It will not effect the operation of the ranch house at all," Shaw said of the work.
The ranch house will remain open to the public while the work proceeds, he said.
"I like that," Friends board member Spence Kinard said of the project.
Kinard said he favors Shaw receiving the full amount of funding he requested for the project.
The Friends group, which meets monthly at the Memorial Davis County Courthouse in downtown Farmington, is a nonprofit organization that raises funds to enhance the island.
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