KEARNEY, Neb. (AP) — It took 15 years, but new numbers show that 1.5 million people have visited The Archway monument spanning Interstate 80 at Kearney.

The 1,500,000th visitor was a member of a fourth-grade group from Heartland Community Schools in Henderson.

Archway Marketing Coordinator Jace Robinson says that’s fitting, because students from Heartland were the first school group to tour the attraction when it opened in 2000.

Attendance has steadily climbed in recent months at the museum that features exhibits commemorating the Oregon, Mormon and California pioneer trails and the nation’s highway systems and railroads. The turnaround is welcomed after the monument was forced into bankruptcy in 2013 following years of disappointing attendance.