Minute Man National Historical Park has landed a three-year federal grant to overhaul how it counts and tracks the 1 million people who walk its trails each year.
The National Park Foundation (NPF) selected the park, which spans Lexington and Concord, for its inaugural Innovation Grant program. The NPF announced the cohort on July 22, choosing 18 projects from more than 200 proposals and awarding more than $10 million across 21 parks. Superintendent Simone Monteleone detailed the local project on the Friends of Minute Man National Park website on Monday, Sept. 14.
The grant funds a project called the Visitor Analytics Consortium, led by a Penn State University research team. The park has no entrance gates. That makes counting visitors difficult, a challenge shared by the three other parks in the consortium: Big Cypress National Preserve, the National Mall and Memorial Parks, and Point Reyes National Seashore.
Penn State researchers will analyze cell phone data to build new visitor-count models, customized management dashboards and regional predictions of visitor flow. The results are meant to help park managers make decisions about staffing, maintenance and safety.
"Better accuracy, along with additional data points, can assist park management in decision-making for resource distribution, planning for long-term maintenance needs, and visitor safety," Monteleone wrote in the announcement.
Monteleone called the Friends of Minute Man National Park "critical to the success of the grant application." The group's executive director is Kathleen D. Fahey. The specific dollar amount awarded to the Minute Man consortium has not been disclosed.
Accurate visitor data carries real dollar signs for Lexington and Concord. A National Park Service report released in August 2024 found that 1 million visitors to Minute Man in 2023 spent $67.1 million in nearby communities, supported 836 local jobs and generated $102 million in cumulative economic benefit. In that report, Monteleone noted the park's role ahead of the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, saying visitors "come to Minute Man National Historical Park to see sites including the North Bridge and end up supporting the U.S. and local economies along the way."
The consortium is designed to produce methods other national parks can adopt. Monteleone wrote that the goal over the three-year project is for the approach "to be replicated across the National Park System."
