PIPE SPRING Cultures at a Crossroads: An Administrative History

The Railroad Comes to Cedar City

The year 1923 was quite an eventful one in the history of tourism in southern Utah. The first step in Union Pacific's development program at Zion and Bryce Canyon was the completion of the Lund-Cedar City line. In 1922 the Interstate Commerce Commission had granted a certificate of necessity and convenience to Union Pacific allowing them to build the spur line from Lund to Cedar City. The new line was justified on the basis of anticipated traffic from livestock, agriculture, iron ore, and tourist travel. Cedar City residents had raised $57,000 to purchase a right-of-way for the new branch line. On March 12, 1923, the Salt Lake Tribune announced construction on the Union Pacific's Lund-Cedar City line would begin on March 15 and reported extensively on related southern Utah developments. [382] The UP had already taken over the El Escalante Hotel in Cedar City, repaying its citizens for the $80,000 already invested in a cooperative plan for the building's construction. (Union Pacific completed its construction by the summer of 1923. [383]) In addition, it was reported that Union Pacific would invest $250,000 to construct a 100-room hotel in Zion, with plans to invest another $200,000 in constructing a second hotel at the rim of Bryce Canyon.

In March 1923 a federal appropriation of $133,000 for Zion National Park was allocated for survey and specifications of park roads. The appropriation included $40,000 for the construction of a bridge on public land outside the park boundary, crossing the Virgin River near Springdale, Utah. The bridge was to be used to permit a shortcut into Arizona (later known as the Rockville shortcut or Rockville cutoff) with work undertaken during the winter of 1923-1924. The U.S. Forest Service, both in southern Utah and northern Arizona, continued its program of improving roads on lands under its jurisdiction. Not all improvements were the result of state and federal governments, however. In Washington County citizens raised $27,000 in subscriptions for road improvements in their area. Union Pacific's Parks Engineer Samuel C. Lancaster and NPS Chief Civil Engineer George E. Goodwin were reportedly in the process of going over the southern Utah territory. In anticipation of road improvements, Union Pacific planned to invest $750,000 in motor buses in 1924.

In early March 1923, Utah passed legislation allowing the leasing of state school lands at Bryce Canyon for hotel and tourist camp purposes for up to 25 years, with the option of a 25-year renewal. John T. Oldroyd had drafted the bill with the approval of Governor Mabey. It went into effect on March 26 when the governor signed it. On March 29, 1923, the Deseret News announced the incorporation of the Utah Parks Company, a subsidiary of the Union Pacific System. (Carl Gray and H. M. Adams headed both as president and vice-president, respectively.) The corporation was formed, reported the newspaper,

...for a period of 100 years for the purpose of building, buying, owning and operating practically every conceivable convenience for tourists visiting the park section including hotels, chatels, inns, restaurants, garage and livery stables, stage and truck lines, skating rinks, tennis courts, golf links, swimming pools, bowling alleys and billiard rooms, power lines and plants, water systems, real estate and concessions of various descriptions. [384]

By this time, the federal government had already given Union Pacific approval to construct visitor accommodations at Bryce Canyon. They and their subsidiary, the Utah Parks Company, were not interested, however, in investing huge sums in building tourist accommodations on land leased from the state. Rather, they sought to purchase sufficient land on which to site primary developments and to lease additional land. On May 4 Oldroyd announced that the former action withdrawing the entire school section of Bryce Canyon land from sale had been revoked. [385] The very same day UP's solicitor George H. Smith filed application to purchase a 40-acre tract of a state school land section located on the rim of Bryce Canyon and to lease an adjoining 600 acres. [386] The proposed sale was opposed by some on the grounds that scenic resources were the property of all the people and future generations. The Chamber of Commerce voted on May 12 to refuse endorsement of UP's application to purchase land at Bryce. [387]

Meanwhile, President Gray set about garnering support for Union Pacific's plans among the state's businessmen. On May 20, 1923, a large delegation of Los Angeles UP officials and Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce businessmen arrived in Utah to conduct a three-day inspection of the Delta-Fillmore agricultural area, to which UP had just completed building a spur line. [388] Gray traveled from New York City, arriving in Delta on May 21, to meet with the delegation and to present addresses at Delta's Chamber of Commerce. The following day, Gray and his party inspected Fillmore with Gray making another presentation at Fillmore's Commercial Club. Gray announced his intention to assist the community in growth and progress, and spoke of UP's $15 million campaign then underway "for the betterment of Utah." [389] On May 23 Gray made a third presentation at a luncheon held at Salt Lake City's Chamber of Commerce. Mayor Clarence C. Neslen and 61 retail merchants attended the event from six states. At the gathering Gray disclosed UP's plans to develop the economic and scenic resources of Utah. Gray and vice-president Adams then met with high-ranking members of the Chamber of Commerce to inform them that the company was willing to build a $200,000 hotel at Bryce Canyon only if the state would sell them the land or if it were owned by the federal government and then leased to them.

On the same day that Gray made his presentation to Salt Lake City's Chamber of Commerce (May 23, 1923), Governor Mabey returned from a 10-day trip to Washington, D.C. There, a federal road project was discussed that had a bearing on southern Utah's Arrowhead Trail. At a May 14 hearing concerning road projects before Department of Agriculture Secretary Henry C. Wallace, Lincoln Highway Association representatives argued against development of the Arrowhead Trail due to its poor "scenery." [390] Mabey also conferred with NPS officials in Washington, D.C., on how to handle the Bryce Canyon situation. Park Service officials favored a leasing system. "They are against the sale of any land except a very small area upon which a hotel resort is to be built," Mabey later reported. [391]

In response to Gray's firm position on Bryce Canyon development, the Salt Lake City Chamber of Commerce board of governors voted on May 24, 1923, to endorse UP's application to purchase 40 acres at Bryce and to lease the remainder of section to the company. [392] Negotiations were not yet over. Mabey and Oldroyd put off action on UP's application in order to reinspect the school section at Bryce with UP officials. Meanwhile, NPS and UP architects and engineers began surveying building sites and sketching preliminary plans. Confident that the Park Service would approve its developments in Zion and Bryce Canyon, Union Pacific started cutting timber and quarrying stone for its Zion and Bryce Canyon hotels in late May. Major construction efforts on the hotels at Zion and Bryce Canyon (as well as completion of Cedar City's El Escalante Hotel) hinged on the completion of the Lund-Cedar City branch line, which was projected for June. [393] All developments were planned to be ready for the 1924 tourist season. Meanwhile, campgrounds at Zion and Bryce Canyon were available in the 1923 season.

In the fall of 1923, Union Pacific's General Solicitor George H. Smith wrote Carl Gray a letter concerning federal aid for highway construction. Certain roads had already been selected by the State Road Commission for expenditure of federal funds with the approval of Secretary Wallace; others had been designated by the Commission, but still needed Wallace's approval. The total mileage of these roads equaled seven percent of all the roads in the state (1,612.7 miles out of 24,000 miles). The vast majority of funding was to come from the federal government either through the Federal Aid Law or the U.S. Forest Service. In the meantime, the State of Utah began to assume some of the road maintenance tasks formerly poorly performed by local counties in the area of Zion National Park, in order to assure better maintenance of approach roads to the park. Near year's end, Randall L. Jones assured UP's Vice-president H. M. Adams, "The roads next season should be in very good shape and with the maintenance being in the hands of the State Road Commission, there will be not only a decided improvement by the addition of many miles of new construction, but they will undoubtedly be kept in good repair." [394]

Shortly after this communiqué, Jones informed Adams that the Cedar City-Cedar Breaks road was financed in mid-November, and that he now would turn his attention to the Cedar City-Zion road. He later wrote to H. M. Adams,

With no road funds in the State Treasury and very little prospect of getting any in the near future, with the southern counties bonded to capacity and assessing for road purposes the legal limit, it became necessary to look to other sources for funds to build Utah's parks. There was only one source - liberal subscriptions from those interested in the development of the parks - Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, and the towns in the park district. [395]

Toward that end, the State of Utah looked beyond its borders to southern California. In early December 1923, a series of meetings took place in Utah and in Los Angeles to raise funds for road development, particularly for the beleaguered Arrowhead Trail. A party consisting of Randall L. Jones, Governor Mabey, Preston G. Peterson (Chairman, Utah State Road Commission), F. D. B. Gay (Secretary, Scenic Highway Association) and reporters from the Salt Lake Tribune and Deseret News first met with citizens of Parowan, Cedar City, and St. George. Then the whole entourage headed by auto for Las Vegas except for Governor Mabey, who took the train from Las Vegas. At the Los Angeles station he was met by Union Pacific official, M. de Brabant. Also in Los Angeles for the meeting were UP officials H. M. Adams and W. S. Basinger. On December 7, 1923, Mabey and Peterson presented Utah's road problem to the Auto Club of Southern California's Board of Governors. The following day, at the Auto Club's suggestion, they repeated their presentation to the officers of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce. By the end of the two meetings, the two organizations had promised Mabey they would raise $100,000 toward the completion of the Arrowhead Trail through Utah. [396]

There was a very good reason why Randall Jones appeared so eager to assure UP officials that road improvements in southern Utah would take place at a rapid pace. President Carl Gray's commitment to building hotels at Zion and Bryce Canyon had always been contingent on Utah improving the transportation network that served the region. The company was not willing to make a tremendous outlay of capital on hotels - not to mention a new fleet of motor coaches - if it wasn't convinced its concerns about safe and comfortable road travel would be addressed. [397] At the same time, UP had their own headaches: construction of a dependable water supply for developments at Bryce Canyon was proving to be more costly than anticipated, and the company's rights to offer motor transport service between Cedar Breaks, Zion National Park, and Bryce Canyon had yet to be secured. [398] Meanwhile, Director Stephen T. Mather had managed to line up a delightful place for tour buses to stop for lunch, once Union Pacific actually got its tour operations underway.