Record number of James River Park users this summer

Four full time employees oversee a park that saw 500,000+ between May and July.

September 5, 2014; 10:51 AM • by Richard Hayes

It is fast becoming apparent that the citizen’s of Richmond like their James River. They like it so much that hundreds of thousands of visitors are going every month in the summer.

According to Richmond.Outside.com and their interview with head of the Park Nathan Burrell there have been over 500,000 between May and July and that is only with counters (seen above) at seven locations. August while not as busy as July is looking at over 100,000.

To put these numbers in perspective, in February the Times-Dispatch reported that Maymont was the “most-visited place in the Richmond area,” with 527,153 visitors in 2013. The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts was second in the region with 479,907 visitors. Rounding out the top five were the Children’s Museum of Richmond with 393,529 visitors; Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden with 339,139 visitors; and Three Lakes Nature Center and Aquarium with 304,621 visitors.

The Washington Redskins training camp brought in 164,789 visitors this year.

Total number of full time employees that are in charge of overseeing the park comes in at a whooping four. Those four do get help from two seasonal employees, one part-timer, and the many volunteer groups in Richmond.

Now if we can just get these thousands of visitors to take their trash out with them. We went Belle Isle a couple weeks ago and filled two bags of garbage, mainly beer cans and bottles, in an amazingly quick time. I’ll never understand why folks come to a spot because it’s so beautiful and then leave their trash. Another quick fact, your beer cans and bottle weigh less on the way out so it should be easier to carry or stumble back to your car.

Image: Richmond Outside.com