CODY - As a Heart Mountain preservation group prepares to launch a major fundraising campaign later this month, a high-ranking National Park Service official said that the site could eventually become part of the Park Service system.

NPS Regional Director Mike Snyder, in Cody on another matter, said the former internment camp site was a good candidate for adoption by the Park Service, and praised the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation for its work.

"Personally, I think it ought to be a Park Service unit, but my personal opinion doesn't matter. Professionally, I think Heart Mountain definitely deserves a look," Snyder said.

The Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation "is an incredibly great group, and of all the groups working on projects like this at other sites, they're right there at the top," he said.

Snyder said the Foundation, which plans to build a $5.4 million interpretive learning center on 50 acres it owns at the site, has worked closely with the Park Service on planning the project and is "doing a great job."

"Our partnership with the Park Service goes back a long way. They've been very supportive of what we're doing and a tremendous partner in helping us accomplish our goals," said Dave Reetz, president of the Foundation's board.

Reetz said the Foundation has always made plans for the site based on the possibility that it might eventually be adopted by the Park Service.

"We believe the Park Service would be the best long-term steward of what is going to happen at Heart Mountain and what is already there." Reetz said.

"We have always wanted to do everything in accordance with National Park Service protocols," he said.

With Heart Mountain located between Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area and Yellowstone National Park, it would offer the Park Service some operational efficiencies, Reetz said.

It would also allow visitors a chance to see three very different Park Service sites in a 100-mile stretch of highway, he said.

"The field of heritage tourism, which is one of the fastest-growing types of tourism and would include Heart Mountain, also involves clustering or bringing units together so tourists can seamlessly move between them," he said.

Reetz said the Foundation will present plans for the interpretive learning center at a reunion of about 550 former internees scheduled for Sept. 10-11 in Las Vegas.

The move marks the formal launch of a major fundraising campaign aimed at allowing groundbreaking for the project in fall 2008.

Reetz said Congress has authorized up to $38 million in funding for preservation and interpretation at 10 former internment camp sites across the West, providing a 2-1 match for funds raised by private groups.

The Foundation already has raised $784,000, Reetz said.

Reetz said any steps toward turning the site over to the Park Service would probably not begin for a few years, at least until the center is completed, but Snyder said it could start at any time.

He said Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo., successfully sponsored legislation to designate the site of the Sand Creek Massacre as a National Historic Site before any interpretive improvements were made there.

Snyder said the process includes authorization by Congress for the Park Service to study a site; establishment of a site's national significance, which Heart Mountain has already done by being designated a National Historic Landmark; an assessment of a site's suitability for inclusion in the system; and a final decision by Congress.

The process starts with Congress and involves a number of complex steps, "but for Heart Mountain, it could start today," Snyder said.