Bearizona celebrates one-year anniversary in Williams

By Ryan Williams, Williams News | Posted: Tuesday, May 24, 2011 11:00 pm

Hundreds of local residents turn out for event featuring free-flight raptor show, food, drinks and fun

Photo/Jan Shirley
An owl lands after flying above a crowd assembled for a High Country Raptors free-flight show Sunday during Bearizona's one-year anniversary celebration.

In just over one year, Bearizona, a drive-through wildlife park located in Williams, has become a thriving destination for visitors to northern Arizona as well as those living just down the street.

The park celebrated its first birthday on Sunday and local residents turned out in large numbers to eat cake, walk the grounds and take in the debut of a free-flight raptor show.

The High Country Raptors, which lost their home at the Flagstaff Arboretum due to budget shortfalls, made their first official free-flight show at 2 p.m. Sunday afternoon.

Ryan Williams/WGCN
Tristan Heisley and daughter Zoey enjoy the petting zoo area in the walk through portion of Bearizona.

Bearizona CEO Sean Casey said when the park opened one year ago, 40 cars passed through the entrance gates. A year later, 200 paying vehicles entered the park with 200 more season pass holders enjoying the sunny afternoon.

Casey said to date, there are approximately 650 season pass holders. He said those numbers are encouraging.

"We've been pleasantly surprised with both the quantity of visitors and the building progress," Casey said, adding that construction will likely slow down at the park as the focus shifts to cleaning up much of the remnants of a busy construction schedule.

New Canadian lynx and badger exhibits will open in the next few weeks after which loose ends around the park will get park staff attention. Entrance signs on Route 66 will be completed with frames, waterfalls in he big horn sheep exhibit will be completed and, in the fall, Casey hopes to begin working on a permanent gift shop and restaurant facility in the walk through area.

The walk through area will likely take five years to complete, but Casey said, in reality, progress at the park has been phenomenal.

"I'd say we're going to slow down but compared to most places and cities, it's going to be lightening fast," he said. "We'll take the foot off the gas pedal a little bit but we'll still look like we're speeding."

Casey said he attributes much of the success of the park in its first year to the support of city of Williams staff and residents.

"We're thankful that city staff and council shared our vision and allowed us to move as quickly as we have," Casey said. "And, we're extremely excited with our season pass sales and support from within the community. The season pass is kind o a two-sided deal. It's our way of saying thanks to the community by extending what turns out to be an extremely low rate if you visit multiple times with carloads of people. And, it's valuable to us because they are exposing more and more people and they tell tourists about us."

As tourist season ramps up, Casey said he continues to work on forging relationships with neighboring communities in an effort to build a regional tourism market. Relationships with the Tusayan Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Bureau as well as with Sedona are developing.

"Tusayan is a great partner," Casey said. "I'm very happy with Tusayan and that fact that they came down for their first ever mixer in Williams, I was really proud of Williams for the attendance and the relationship building there. I hope someday we're all sitting in the same room trying to bring more tourists to the region."

Bearizona moved from concept to construction in just short of one year. City officials reviewed the park concept during a departmental review team meeting July 17, 2009. Casey then presented Williams City Council members with the concept for the park during their regular meeting July 23, 2009.

Council members went on to approve an agreement with Bearizona officials during their regular meeting Jan. 14 giving Bearizona credit against impact fees for improvements the developers planned to make that benefit the city of Williams. One such project was the re-alignment of Mountain Man Trail estimated to cost approximately $387,000.