New Minnesota Campsite Reservation System Crashes

Department of Natural Resources spokesman Chris Niskanen says the online system couldn't handle the flood of traffic when it went live Thursday morning. Officials expected to take 4,500 reservations in a day but the site got more than 4,500 visits in its first hour. He says the system took only about 60 reservations before it crashed.

Niskanen says it will be down indefinitely until the DNR and its vendor can figure out how to expand its capacity. A new call center for phone reservations will also remain closed until the problem is solved. The DNR hopes to have a timetable for bringing the system up and opening the call center sometime next week.