Part 11

During the next winter in Washington, D.C., Albright toyed with the idea of changing the name of the monument from Mukuntuweap to Zion and was urged to do so by Douglas White. Secretary Lane approved and the Utah congressional delegation concurred. Albright prepared a proclamation changing the name and enlarging the monument to one hundred and twenty square miles, which President Wilson signed March 18, 1918.

Other Utah scenic areas, including Cedar Breaks, Bryce Canyon and Wayne Wonderland, all profited by the publicity accorded Zion and the Grand Canyon. S. A. Halterman of Parowan, Utah, took the first automobile to Cedar Breaks via the wagon road in Parowan Canyon. In 1920, he piloted Senator Smoot and others over the same route to see the Breaks. By 1921, he was planning regular weekly trips for tourists during the summer. Iron County spent about $12,000 that year to improve the road.

On August 25, 1918, Oliver J. Grimes of Salt Lake City, published an article in _The Salt Lake Tribune_, describing “Utah’s New Wonderland, Bryce’s Canyon,” which stimulated additional interest in southern Utah’s scenic wonderland. During that summer, LeRoy Jeffers, an eastern writer, visited Bryce Canyon and published an article entitled, “The Temple of the Gods in Utah” in the _Scientific American_ of October 5, 1918. He approached Bryce from North Rim of Grand Canyon, from which he says, “we made a rapid run through the yellow pine and aspen forest of the Kaibab Plateau—crossed the burning sands of the Kanab which nestles verdantly among the vermillion cliffs of southern Utah. We had come eighty to eighty-five miles before sundown and were ready for a similar trip to Panguitch on the following day.” He gave directions for reaching Bryce via Marysvale and Panguitch; described the wonders of the scenery and published four pictures.

When Albright read the article, he recalled that he had heard of Bryce Canyon when he was at Zion and made inquiries about the feasibility of establishing it as a national monument. He was temporarily blocked because it was a part of a national forest. However, it was placed on the agenda for later consideration. Albright later made up his mind that Bryce Canyon belonged in the National Park System, but Director Mather did not at first agree and toyed with the idea of a system of state parks to supplement the national system. Bryce, he considered, would make a keystone around which other state parks could be clustered. However, when the Utah governor and state legislature rejected his view and insisted that Bryce Canyon, Cedar Breaks and Wayne Wonderland were of national park caliber, he yielded and when later he saw these marvels, was delighted that he had done so.

Cedar City was preparing to cope with the growing traffic. It was apparent that the town was the strategic point for those wishing to visit southern Utah via the railroad and auxiliary bus lines. Randall L. Jones returned to his native Cedar City in 1912 as an architect, and drew plans for a modern hotel, later called El Escalante. The local chamber of commerce backed him and work was started in 1918. It was, however, a major undertaking for a small community and was not completed for several years. His wide travel experience and his realization of the necessity of good highways as well as good hotels in the development of scenic attractions, made him the logical choice at a later date as liaison officer for the Union Pacific Railroad.

Mather and Albright were both in the West during the summer of 1919, but neither had opportunity to visit southern Utah. However, Albright had conferred with Senator Smoot several times on the question of creating Zion Canyon a national park. Mather finally yielded to their persuasion even though he had not yet seen it. Albright went ahead with plans, drafted legislation, prepared reports and presented arguments to the congressional committees. Boundary lines of the park were based upon information furnished by Richard A. Thorley of Cedar City and Leo A. Snow of St. George.

Smoot had previously introduced a bill in the Senate (S. B. 8282) to change the name of Mukuntuweap National Monument to Little Zion National Park, but no action was taken. On May 20, 1919, he introduced another bill (S. B. 425, Vol. 58:9640) to establish the Zion National Park in the State of Utah. It passed the Senate a month later and was sent to the House Committee on Public Lands the next day. It was reported in the House, August 26, after which amendments delayed its passage until October 6. The bill was finally signed in the House, November 15, and in the Senate, November 19, 1919, and sent to the President, who signed it that same day.

Mather was in Denver at the time of its passage, attending a conference of national park superintendents, at which Walter Ruesch was also present as custodian of Zion National Monument. When word reached him, Mather immediately decided to make his long delayed visit to Zion. His enthusiasm was immediate and thereafter he gave personal attention to its affairs.

The dedication took place, September 15, 1920, in the presence of a large assembly. St. George and Cedar City bands furnished music. Speakers included Director Mather, Senator Reed Smoot, ex-Governor William Spry, C. Clarence Neslen, mayor of Salt Lake City, and Heber J. Grant, president of the Mormon Church, representing Governor Simon Bamberger. Mather reviewed the history of the Park, Mayor Neslen foretold its future, and other speakers promised support for its development.

Travel into Zion was slowly increasing. The number of people entering in 1920 nearly doubled that of the previous year (from 1914 to 3692). By 1930 it had increased to more than 55,000 and for a decade thereafter registered proportionate gains. Governor Bamberger in 1920 sent Randall Jones to Denver as Utah’s delegate to the Park-to-Park Highway conference, where plans were laid to coordinate the local movements for good roads into a park-to park system.

Among the interesting parties that came in 1921 was a tour sponsored by the _Brooklyn Eagle_, which took in the scenic loop to Bryce Canyon as a side trip. Mather came again, bringing with him Emerson Hough, eminent novelist, and Edmund Heller, naturalist. During that year a road passable for autos was built from Cedar City up Cedar Canyon to the Breaks, but it was excessively steep and dangerous.

In response to pressure from Utah to undertake development of the scenic south, in 1921 Carl R. Gray, president of the Union Pacific Railroad Company, determined to investigate personally the agricultural possibilities of contributing areas. His party left Lund and examined the farming areas around Cedar, Parowan and Fillmore and interviewed farmers and livestock men. Mr. Gray was favorably impressed with the stability of the communities and the quality of the people. As a result, a railroad spur was built to Fillmore a year later.

The following summer Gray and his party made the rounds of the scenic areas. The Union Pacific was preparing to take over the Salt Lake Route and was further investigating the resources of the area. According to Randall Jones, Gray offered to buy the El Escalante Hotel in Cedar City and the next year a spur of the railroad was run from Lund to Cedar City, justified on the basis of anticipated traffic from livestock, agriculture, iron ore and tourist travel.

With a rail-head at Cedar City, June 27, 1923, the Union Pacific organized a subsidiary Utah Parks Company, took over the El Escalante Hotel, set up a large bus station at Cedar City, purchased the Wylie tourist camp interests in Zion Canyon and the Parry transportation route from Cedar City to Zion. In 1917 under National Park permit to the National Park Transportation and Camping Company, W. W. Wylie, who formerly operated in Yellowstone Park, had set up a tent camp in Zion Canyon and North Rim in cooperation with two of the Parry Brothers, Gronway and Chauncey, who had undertaken to provide transportation for visitors. The Parry Brothers closed in 1918 at the time of World War I, resumed business in 1920 and worked out a ten-day round trip for visitors from Cedar City via Zion, Kaibab, North Rim, Bryce and Panguitch back to Cedar City. This round trip with variations was maintained until 1923, when the Utah Parks Company acquired part, and in 1927, all of the Parry and Wylie interests.

Southern Utah scenic attractions were spotlighted with the visit of President Warren G. Harding to Zion Canyon, June 27, 1923, en route across country toward Alaska, a journey from which the President was not to return alive. The report of his trip was spread throughout the nation. Everything had been planned in advance. A group of seventy-five local Paiute Indians in gaudy attire was conspicuously at hand. The party was transferred from the station to twenty-four automobiles and started south over the newly smoothed earth and gravel roads leading to Zion Canyon. The caravan, including the cars of many local leaders, stretched out at least five miles and the dust much farther.

A stop was made at Anderson’s Ranch where the best of the Dixie peaches and other fruits were sampled. At Toquerville hundreds had congregated to honor the first President of the United States to visit their section of the country. Harding spoke from a flag-draped platform and then the procession went on, passed through Rockville, where the streets were lined with onlookers, to Springdale where it was welcomed by a fife and drum corps led by John Dennett and O. D. Gifford playing many of the tunes they had once used to welcome Brigham Young on his journeys.

At the entrance to the Park, they were welcomed by mounted rangers and by an orchestra and chorus from Dixie College at St. George. At the Wylie Camp, they were cheered by five hundred local people and tourists and serenaded by the college musicians during lunch. After the meal, the caravan proceeded to the end of the road at the Grotto campground, and twenty-four men, including the President, went horseback two miles farther to the foot of the cable. The caravan then retraced its route to Cedar City, where in the evening, both President and Mrs. Harding gave short talks to the assembled multitude before bidding farewell and boarding their train. The trip had been unmarred by trouble of any kind and seemed to have been immensely enjoyed.

Before leaving Washington, President Harding had signed a proclamation making Bryce Canyon a national monument, but had left it under the direction of the U. S. Forest Service in the Department of Agriculture. The transfer to the Department of Interior was to come later. The Forest Service went ahead with plans for its development.

By 1923, passable auto roads reached Zion, Kaibab, North Rim, Bryce Canyon, and Cedar Breaks, but some of the routes were circuitous and it required a great deal of extra travel to make the loop. Thus the road from La Verkin to Zion had to be retraced in order to go from Hurricane to Pipe Springs, while to reach Cedar Breaks a special side trip was necessary from either Parowan or Cedar City, and to get back to Cedar City from Bryce required a routing through Panguitch and Paragonah. Popular demand was growing for shorter and more direct routes as well as for better roads.

During Governor Bamberger’s administration, (1917-1921), a bond issue of $6,000,000 was earmarked to build a concrete highway south to St. George, but funds were exhausted before Provo was reached. Under Governor Charles R. Mabey (1921-1925), gravel roads were stressed in place of the more expensive concrete, and a gasoline tax to replace state and county road taxes was enacted into law, but the road to St. George had never been completed. A solution was proposed in 1924 at a meeting attended by G. G. Armstrong, Lafayette Hanchett, A. W. Ivins. George A. Smith, W. J. Halloran and Randall Jones, altruistic Utah citizens. The scheme proposed that each of the southern counties be given a quota of $5,000 and Salt Lake City, $10,000, to be raised through the chambers of commerce. This money was used by the State Road Commission to match federal funds for building the road over the black ridge between Ash Creek and Pintura in Washington County.

Federal aid for roads had been available since 1916, but complications between state and federal rights and prerogatives delayed cooperation. By 1923, the Federal Bureau of Public Roads and the State Road Commission were both studying the problem of linking the scenic points of southern Utah and northern Arizona. B. J. Finch of the Bureau of Public Roads and Howard C. Means, Utah State Road Engineer, investigated the possibilities of a short-cut from Zion eastward toward Mt. Carmel or Kanab. In early June, 1923, they arrived at Orderville and rode horseback with two local guides along the east rim of Zion seeking a possible outlet. From study of topographic sheets, they had already conceived a possible route up Parunuweap Canyon. Failing here, they drove around to Zion Canyon via Kanab, Pipe Springs and Hurricane. Walter Ruesch, acting Superintendent of Zion, suggested that they confer with John Winder, the man best acquainted with the “lay of the land” who already had ideas on the subject.

In 1880, when only ten years old, Winder had climbed the old Indian trail out of Zion where he later (1896) built the first East Rim Trail. He remembered that “old man Newman” of Rockville had always contended that timber could be brought down from Cedar Mountain if a road could be bored through the cliffs of Zion. Winder had explored every outlet and was convinced that there was only one possibility: a road up Pine Creek to the cliff and a tunnel opening in the Great Arch and coming out into the canyon above the cliff.

Means and Finch found Winder running logs down the cable. He immediately suggested the Pine Creek route and tunnel. The next day, the three men studied Pine Creek and the possible route up to the Arch. Winder then took them horseback to his ranch on the East Rim, via East Rim Trail. They walked down Pine Creek afoot to the top of the cliff. Encountering difficulties of grade and outlet at the top, they studied alternative possibilities and finally evolved the route now followed by the present road and tunnel.

_The Salt Lake Tribune_ (June 25 and 26, 1923) published a sensational report of their investigations, but there was much skepticism in and out of official circles. In the end, however, the Pine Creek route was finally selected because it traversed the National Park, where federal funds would be available without being matched by the state.

Congressman Louis C. Crampton of Michigan, chairman of the House Committee for the National Park Service, took a personal interest in the route and tunnel and sponsored the appropriations that made it possible. During the planning and construction of this superb highway, which was to become an attraction second only to the canyon itself, Crampton made several trips to the park to watch its progress.

Since it was realized that the Pine Creek route would be years in building, several short-cuts were provided. A road connecting Cedar Breaks with Highway 89 on the summit between Hatch and Glendale was opened in 1923 so that parties making the loop could return to Cedar City via Cedar Breaks instead of Panguitch and Paragonah. In 1924, another cutoff was made from Rockville to the plains leading to Pipe Springs, thus eliminating the long trip down river to Hurricane and back. This road was firmly financed by a contribution of $5,000 from Stephen T. Mather.

In the Park itself, a road was surveyed from the cable up-canyon and was finished to the Temple of Sinawava in the spring of 1925. From that point on to the Narrows where the walls close in to leave room only for the river, a foot path, one mile in length, was constructed. Simultaneously three other trails were constructed: one to the West Rim, one to the top of Lady Mountain (Mount Zion) and one along the east bench under the cliffs from Wylie Grove in both directions. The next year, a trail to the top of Angel Landing was constructed and two suspension bridges across the river were installed and the trails opened to Emerald Pool.

When the Utah Parks Company took over the Wylie camp in Zion, it was planned to construct a large hotel, but Director Mather firmly refused permission. He finally agreed to the lodge and cabin system, now serving the Park tourists. El Escalante Hotel in Cedar City was ready by the season of 1924. New accommodations were under construction in Bryce Canyon and Cedar Breaks. Reports from elated visitors, improvement of roads and accommodations and consistent advertising all resulted in vastly increased travel. The tourist traffic jumped from 8400 in 1924 to 16,817 in 1925. About half that number visited North Rim and presumably Bryce and Cedar Breaks. The tide was in full flow. For the season of 1925 new tourist busses with demountable tops for viewing the spectacular canyon walls were purchased. Busses, however, served only a small part of the traveling public, for America was on wheels and the roads were now such that auto traffic could roll in easily. The Grotto Campground was enlarged, equipped, and supplied with water. The survey of the Pine Creek road and tunnel was completed and Wayne Wonderland was dedicated.

Richard Evans was borrowed from the U.S. Geological Survey and served as acting superintendent during the tourist season for two years, while Walter Ruesch remained in charge during the balance of the year. Two permanent park rangers assisted Ruesch, Donald J. Jolley, appointed August 1, 1920, and Harold Russell, who had worked summers from 1920 to 1923 and who received permanent appointment in October of the latter year. All three were closely associated with developments and improvements in the canyon. In 1927, E. T. Scoyen was appointed permanent superintendent.

The Nature Guide Service in Yosemite and Yellowstone had proved so successful that it was decided to extend such services to other parks. It was initiated in Zion by the writer, June 19, 1925, and continued to mid-September. There was no precedent to follow, but the work gradually grew through succeeding summers into the Naturalist Service. During the next five summers, museum collections of natural history specimens, pioneer relics, and library books gradually accumulated and a museum was established in 1928. Information concerning the history, flora, fauna and geology of the canyon was collated. Lectures at the camp ground, at the Lodge, and the guided trips along the Narrows trail were developed and pictures and lantern slides were shown. In 1929, a mimeographed publication, the _Zion-Bryce Nature Notes_, was undertaken and a Natural History Association was organized to handle publications.

In 1926, daily bus service was established from Cedar City around the loop to Zion, North Rim and Bryce. The East and West Rim trails were reconstructed with better grades and locations. The West Rim Trail was dedicated at a ceremony held at the time of the visit of Crown Prince Gustavus and Princess Louise of Sweden, on July 11. A new road was constructed between Rockville and the Park boundary and the proposed Parunuweap road was surveyed.

In 1927, the Utah Parks Company took over the Wylie Camps at North Rim and the bus service from the Parry Brothers, and a lodge and cabins were constructed on the brink of North Rim at Bright Angel Point, so arranged that the Great View into Grand Canyon could be seen from the windows. This was completed in 1928.

In the meantime, Bryce Canyon was being developed by the Utah Parks Company under the direction of the Forest Service, in the expectation that eventually it would be transferred to the Park Service. The lodge and cabins were built some distance from the rim so that the beauties of the canyon could be preserved to best advantage. When Mather yielded to pressure to allow Bryce Canyon to become a national park if all private holdings were eliminated, Congress passed a bill, June 7, 1924, providing for the establishment of a Utah National Park upon the fulfillment of Mather’s conditions. The principal difficulty was that the State of Utah owned a section of land at a strategic point on the rim of the canyon. It took four years to fulfill the conditions, and before they were arranged Congress passed a revised bill. February 25, 1928, nearly doubling the size of the area and changing its name to Bryce Canyon.

When it became certain that the conditions would be fulfilled, the Union Pacific arranged for a large excursion (September 14-17, 1928). The party included: Carl R. Gray, president of the railroad; Stephen T. Mather, Director of the U. S. National Park Service, and Horace M. Albright, his assistant; Henry H. Blood, Chairman of the Utah State Road Commission (later Governor of Utah, 1933-1941); Congressmen Don B. Colton from Utah, and Philip D. Swing of California; Mayor John F. Bowman of Salt Lake City; Charles F. Burke, U. S. Commissioner of Indian Affairs; Thomas H. McDonald, Chief of the U. S. Bureau of Public Roads; Heber J. Grant, President of the Mormon Church, and his counselor, Anthony W. Ivins; representatives of the press, chambers of commerce and other organizations, and a host of lesser officials and advisers, including the writer.

After spending the first night in Zion, the party journeyed via Pipe Springs to the Kaibab and North Rim, where on September 15, 1928, the new Kaibab Trail and the Grand Canyon Lodge were dedicated. The next day the visitors reached Bryce Canyon where similar services were held in the evening. Congressman Don B. Colton formally presented deeds of the private land to Director Mather, who declared that the conditions having been fulfilled, Bryce Canyon had become a National Park.

Thus the great scenic areas of southern Utah had finally been established as national parks and monuments, adequate roads and travel accommodations had been provided, and efforts had been made to give the casual tourist a deeper appreciation of the natural treasures at his disposal. Within the next few years many of the immediate projects for facilitating travel through the Park area were completed. The bridge across the Marble Gorge of Grand Canyon, a few miles below Lee’s Ferry, was dedicated June 15, 1929.