Henry’s Fork Foundation Community Campus opens

The Henry’s Fork Foundation spent three years and raised $1.7 million to renovate the old Ashton hospital into its new community campus. The new facility houses labs, offices, and even a place for interns to stay. The space will help the foundation with its work.

“We want to find solutions when it comes to water and natural resource issues in Eastern Idaho,” said Brandon Hoffner, executive director of the Henry’s Fork Foundation. “To not only benefit fish and the folks who come here to fish for them, but also the people that live in our communities and the people that have been here a long, long time.”

The new campus has an interpretive center with an aquarium full of native and wild fish and a virtual reality center where visitors can sit in a boat, put their goggles on, and pretend they are on the river. There’s also a fly tying center. They wanted the campus to be a place everyone can visit.

“To have a place where, not only people traveling through the area maybe visiting Mesa Falls on Highway 47, but our own local community members to come in see and learn a little bit more about us which is very important to us,” Hoffner said.

With the community campus, the foundation can reach out to the community in ways it never could before.

“We’ve had people say I’ve read your newsletter, I know a little bit about you, but now coming and visiting this facility, I understand, I see the big picture,” Hoffner said. “I see what you’re trying to achieve and so that just makes everyone here really happy.”

The foundation was able to raise the money thanks to grants from the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust from Oregon and the CHC Foundation in Idaho Falls. The community campus is located at 801 Main Street in Ashton.