Presidential Libraries Pursue Visitors

[Rose Siding]

SIMI VALLEY, Calif. -- Mary McKnight calls herself Ronald Reagan's No. 1 fan. Gazing somberly at the 40th president's tomb, the retired nurse from Kansas murmured, "It's humbling to be here."

Nearby, a boy in a New York Yankees jersey seemed less impressed by Reagan's library and museum, muttering something about wanting to go to Disneyland.

The contrast illustrates the challenge facing the nation's 11 presidential libraries -- soon to be 12 with the opening of Bill Clinton's this fall -- as they compete for visitors at a time when many tourists would rather be riding a roller-coaster than sifting through presidential archives.
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The Johnson library in Austin, Texas, has drawn the most visitors in the last five years, averaging about 200,000 annual visitors. The John F. Kennedy library in Boston was next, averaging 192,213 visitors. The least visited presidential library is Herbert Hoover's in West Branch, Iowa, which attracts an average of 66,209 visitors.

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