A little town in northwest Colorado continues to dream big about a whitewater park — the “cornerstone” of a destination to proclaim a new economic destiny.

That’s how Melanie Kilpatrick describes the Yampa River Corridor Project’s significance to Craig and Moffat County. For three years, Kilpatrick has been managing the project on behalf of the town.

“We’re facing a transition away from a coal-focused economy,” she said. “This gives us a huge opportunity to diversify and expand our economy with more of a recreation focus.”

The project recently gained a $600,000 boost from lottery-funded Great Outdoors Colorado. Kilpatrick said the money would help realize some of the land-based features under the project’s plan, including trails, parking areas, picnic shelters and bathrooms.

The aim is to create a gathering place less than 2 miles from Craig’s business center. Families might come to watch rafts navigate through the Yampa River corridor in the early season and smaller crafts, such as stand-up paddleboards, later in the summer. A rock-made diversion structure will form the attraction for boaters as well as a passage for fish.

Meanwhile, a new road, boat ramp and other amenities will be established downstream at Loudy-Simpson Park. Kilpatrick explained an overall goal to create a more accessible zone close to town, enticing further adventure on to Little Yampa Canyon.

It’s been a goal for close to 10 years, she said. A local group called the Northwest Colorado Chapter of Parrotheads got the wheels turning on the idea before detailed, expensive designing and engineering reached the level of local government.

In 2020, the city of Craig and Moffat County partnered with other agencies to apply for a federal grant amounting to $3.3 million — a sum that Kilpatrick called “new territory” for her municipality and key to the nearly $5 million project. That was money through the Economic Development Administration’s Assistance to Coal Communities program, granted last summer.

Since then, Kilpatrick said the team has played the “waiting game” on various permits. During this time, she said collaborators have been analyzing what drought could mean for the whitewater park.

There has been talk of trying to secure water rights for recreation, though “it’s not something we’re pursuing right now,” Kilpatrick said. “But we need to know about it in case we need to protect the asset and make sure there’s sufficient flows to support it.”

She added: “We’ve been very cautious of designing a park considering what drought could look like going forward.”

She anticipated ground breaking on the project this fall, with a potential opening in 2024.

That day could symbolize something greater for the region, Kilpatrick said, alluding to the project’s dozen or so local, state and federal funders.

“It’s a massive collaboration of people wanting our community to succeed,” Kilpatrick said. “And so this is critical in the sense of, if we can execute this project successfully, I think it gives us hope that we can do the next project successfully in the same way, working together to create our new future.”