Ukraine to revive unique forest industry museum

KIEV, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- The Ukrainian government has allocated about 1.88 million U.S. dollars to revive the unique forest industry museum in the Carpathian Mountains in the country's western Zakarpattya region, regional authorities said on Wednesday.

The Forestry and Timber Rafting Museum, which is believed to be the only one of its kind in Europe and one of the two wood rafting museums in the world, is set to undergo a major overhaul this year, said the press service of Zakarpattya regional administration.

The repair works will be carried out at the dam of the museum and at the neighboring buildings. In addition, the road heading to the museum will be paved with asphalt.

According to the regional administration, the modernization is aimed at restoring the open-air museum with beautiful scenery as a major tourist attraction.

Founded in 1976, the museum, which is located in the forestry area in the Carpathian Mountains, had been showing its visitors the history of industrial wood rafting through the rivers in Europe.

The museum had been attracting thousands of tourists each year before the massive floods in 1998 and in 2001 damaged its dam. Enditem