After being closed for more than 10 days due to the government shutdown, national parks could reopen if states have the money to fund operations themselves, ABC News reported.
The Obama administration announced onThursday it would consider offers from states to use their own money to reopen the parks, according to the Associated Press. All national parks, including the monuments along the National Mall and the Smithsonian museums, have been closed during since the shutdown began.
Numbers indicate that around 700,000 people per day would have been visiting the parks, making a loss of some $76 million in visitor spending a day for the surrounding areas, according to the AP.
The Interior Department agreed to allow states to reopen the parks under two conditions: states must bring back federal employees and reopen the parks partially, not completely, USA Today reported.
Tusayan, a 558-resident town in Arizona on the southern rim of the Grand Canyon, had $350,000 on Saturday to reopen Grand Canyon National Park, The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week.
The town contains 1,000 hotel rooms and heavily depends on visitor traffic from the park.
"The reason we exist is the Grand Canyon National Park. This closure is devastating," Greg Bryan, Tusayan's mayor and general manager of a Best Western hotel, told The Wall Street Journal.
Other visitor centers that have closed include the Statue of Liberty in New York, Independence Hall in Philadelphia and Alcatraz Island near San Francisco, according to the AP. National wildlife refuges have been closed off to hunters and fishermen just as hunting season was beginning in many states.
The only national park to remain open during the shutdown is New Jersey's Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park, The Washington Post reported.
In a strange real estate glitch, the National Park Service has not yet acquired the land, most of which is still owned by the Paterson Municipal Utilities Authority. Because the city technically controls the land, the park showcasing the area's industrial history and waterfalls has continued to operate in spite of the shutdown.
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