The North Platte River boils in man-made riffles in the White Water Park, and the sun coming up over the walking bridge by the old pumphouse casts long shadows from the benches along the banks. The path is quiet, and in the fall morning chill there are few people out walking dogs and drinking coffee.

But on Wednesday morning, on the north bank of the river, there is the rumble of heavy machinery and the calls of workers as they scramble to lay paving stones and hang gutters on the old pumphouse in Casper on First Street just west of Poplar.

The building, now called the Tate Pumphouse Trail Center, will host a grand opening on Saturday. The center has been in the works for years, and this weekend the public will get their first look at the newly remodeled building.

"We're all just really excited to see what this place ends up being," said Gary Van Zandt, the owner of Platte River Outfitters and a board member for the Platte River Parkway Trust. The Parkway Trust manages the trail system on the North Platte and is responsible for planning the construction of the trail center.

The building will be home to the Parkway Trust offices, a conference room, the new location of Gigi's Restaurant and a kayak and bike rental vendor. But the question is what the community will do with all that.

"Hopefully people will see the North Platte as a destination and this will be a place for people to come and play on the river," Van Zandt said.

Van Zandt walked the path near the pumphouse on Wednesday morning, as he does many mornings. This stretch of the river -- and the pathway -- has an unadorned beauty with scrub brush and reddish brown western gravel lining the banks. But it hasn't always been that way. Twenty years ago, the area around the pumphouse was a graveyard for old oil tanks and the river was polluted and littered with trash and remains of refrigerators and old cars. Thanks to extensive cleanup efforts and some development along the river, it's now a cleaner and prettier part of Casper.

It's been the goal of the Parkway Trust to develop the North Platte in Casper into an asset for the community since the early 1980s. They built the trail system that runs through town and built the pedestrian bridge by the pumphouse. For the last two years, they've worked to convert the pumphouse into a central location for people using the trails.

"It's going to be a place for people to stop, rest, get off their bikes," said Angela Emery, Executive Director of the Parkway Trust. "We think a lot of people will come down here to eat their lunch and take a break."

Along with an outdoor patio and full views of the river and Casper Mountain, Gigi's Restaurant is moving from their location in the Atrium Plaza in downtown Casper and is expected to open early next year. The conference room will be available to the public. And just as importantly, there will be indoor public restrooms.

Right now, portable toilets sit along the trails. The indoor restrooms at the pumphouse will be open "as long as there's someone in the building," Emery said.

With the restaurant hours 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. Tuesday to Saturday and the Parkway Trust offices in the building, that should pretty well cover the needs of people using the path, Emery said.

The Parkway Trust wants to see the North Platte in Casper become a jewel for the city. Van Zandt said he's seen other communities with rivers being put to much better use.

He was driving a load of canoes back to Casper a few years ago, and stopped in Valentine, Neb. The Niobrara River runs through Valentine, and that stretch is designated as a wild and scenic river.

"I stopped because I wanted to see what that meant," Van Zandt said. "It's a gorgeous stretch of river running through a little canyon and there were a lot of people out and playing in the river. There were probably a half dozen outfitters renting boats and kayaks in that little community and I'd like to see Casper encourage the same kind of thing on the North Platte."

-- Reach outdoors reporter Samuel J. Baldwin at 307-266-0524 or samuel.baldwin@trib.com

Paying for a pumphouse

The Tate Pumphouse Trail Center, celebrating its grand opening on Saturday, has been in active planning and construction for almost two years. A cornerstone donation to the Platte River Parkway Trust from the Tate Foundation in 2002 helped kick-start the process. The Tate foundation gave $500,000 towards the project, which cost the Parkway Trust almost $1.5 million. The rest of the funding came from donations and government grants.

Much of that money went into the utilities. Water, sewer and electrical lines had to be run to the building, which had almost no facilities at the start of the project. Those lines will now be available for any future project along the North Platte west of downtown.

If you go:

* What: The Tate Pumphouse Trail Center Grand Opening. Coffee and cookies will be served.

* When: 9 a.m to noon Saturday

* Where: On the south side of First Street, just west of Poplar

* Info: Call the Parkway Trust at 307-577-1206 or online at www.platteriverparkway.org