Fort Pitt Museum will reopen April 17 with some updated long-term exhibits and a new director.

While the museum will continue to be owned by the state, it will be administered by the Senator John Heinz Regional History Center. Fort Pitt's new director is Alan Gutchess, a gunsmith and historian with special interest in eastern woodland Indians. Those were the Native American tribes that lived in southwestern Pennsylvania.

The museum at Pittsburgh's Point has been closed since Aug. 14, when it was shut down during a state budget crisis.

The April 17 grand reopening will be part of a Colonial Fair at the nearby history center that will feature craftspeople and re-enactors. Highlights will include a visit by Martha Washington. The fair will be the first of many efforts to do joint promotion of the history center, located in the city's Strip District, and the Fort Pitt Museum.

Plans call for shuttle buses to carry visitors between the two venues during the fair, Andrew Masich, president of the history center, said today. "The Fort Pitt Museum tells a story we have not been able to tell as fully," he said. "And it tells that story in situ -- at the spot where history happened."

Pittsburgh's Point was recognized as a key point for control of the Ohio Valley by both the French and the British. Both built forts there, with the British, under Gen. John Forbes, ultimately gaining control in 1758.

The history center also houses the Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum in its six-story building on Smallman Street. In addition, it operates the Meadowcroft Rock Shelter and Museum of Rural Life near Avella.

Visitors to the history center will get free same-day admission to the Fort Pitt Museum and its collection of artifacts and displays related to the French and Indian War. Admission to the history center is $10 for adults, $9 for seniors, and $5 for students. Visitors also will have the option of just visiting the Fort Pitt Museum. Admission to that site only will be $5 for adults, $4 for seniors and $3 for students.

The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission had proposed permanently shuttering the Fort Pitt Museum and several other state-run historic sites as part of a cost-cutting measure. Pittsburgh-area residents and political leaders protested, and two local groups came forward with plans to operate the museum independently. The museum commission chose the history center's proposal.

Mr. Masich estimated that it will cost about $500,000 to operate the Fort Pitt Museum, with the state contributing $172,000 this year.

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