Thousands of curious visitors helped open the new Thornton Anythink Nature Library on Saturday.
The 33,000-square-foot library, which took $43.4 million and two years of construction to bring to fruition, is intended to connect the people of Adams County to the natural world, said Anythink Libraries Executive Director Mark Fink.
“We did a lot of research around what people in Adams County felt like they were lacking, and a lot of folks in Adams County live in apartment complexes and don’t have access to nature,” he said. “We knew that there was room to have more places for people to go to experience nature. … We want to make people feel smart. We want to empower people.”
The Nature Library, at the intersection of East 136th Avenue and Newport Street in Thornton, is one of eight locations run by Anythink, an independent public library system that serves the residents of Adams County. The Anythink system is funded primarily via property tax revenue and secondarily by the entity’s 501(c)(3), the Anythink Foundation…