PIPE SPRING Cultures at a Crossroads: An Administrative History

Bryce Canyon Declared a National Monument

On June 4, 1923, the day after Governor Mabey's party returned to Salt Lake City, John T. Oldroyd announced Utah's decision to sell Union Pacific 21.61 of the 40 acres at Bryce Canyon's rim that UP had desired to purchase and to lease 138.39 acres to the company. [424] While UP had offered to pay $2.50 per acre, the state requested $25 per acre; UP had offered to lease land at 25 cents an acre, the state countered with a request for $1 an acre. Other stipulations were included, primarily that a road right-of-way (ranging from 100 to 200 feet in width) was reserved along the rim and that the company was not to charge the public for water. This counterproposal was put forth by the state as being more in the public's best interest. [425] Union Pacific was given 30 days to respond.

On the same day the state of Utah made its Bryce Canyon counterproposal to Union Pacific, the Salt Lake Tribune published an article entitled "Scenic Utah to Be Viewed." The article, whose main focus is an upcoming trip to the region by Mather and an influential U.S. Congressman, references the National Park Service Director's opposition to the selling of Bryce Canyon land to Union Pacific. Buried halfway through the piece was an announcement about the establishment of Pipe Spring National Monument. Excerpts are cited below:

Stephen T. Mather, director of national parks, and Representative L. C. Crampton [sic] of Michigan, chairman of the subcommittee on appropriations...will make an extended tour through the park region of southern Utah in about a month.... [426]

The visit is calculated to encourage greater liberality in congress toward Zion park and the north rim highway, and incidentally, may encourage the move to have Bryce Canyon made a national park.

Mr. Mather, seeing the possibility of having congress create the Bryce Canyon national park, is hopeful the state of Utah will not make an outright sale of its lands on the rim of Bryce Canyon to the Union Pacific, but, instead, lease those lands as lands are leased in national parks....

On the recommendation of the Secretary of the Interior, President Harding has established by proclamation the Pipe Springs [sic] national monument, containing forty acres. The monument was created primarily for the benefit of motorists traveling between Zion National Park and the north rim of the Grand Canyon, as it contains the only pure water along the road between Hurricane, Utah and Fredonia, Arizona, a distance of sixty-two miles. [427]

The article provided a brief history of the fort then added the following information:

At present there are two old stone buildings and it is planned to have the old fort restored as it was formerly, with a wall connecting the two buildings.

Pipe Springs is within the Kaibab Indian reservation and is involved in certain private claims. It is the intention of public-spirited citizens in Utah to recompense the present claimants for improvements made, in order that the Department of the Interior may take over the active administration of the monument. [428]

On June 1, 1923, Utah state officials (including Governor Mabey, Congressman E. O. Leatherwood, John T. Oldroyd and others), Union Pacific's Parks Engineer Samuel C. Lancaster, and reporters from four newspapers departed in three automobiles from Salt Lake City on a three-day, 600 mile driving trip to Bryce Canyon by way of Richfield and other Sevier County communities. It was reported that the trip was made for the purpose of conducting "a study of road conditions and of development of scenic resources of southern Utah, with particular reference to the plans of the Union Pacific railway in that direction..." [429] The trip's primary focus was to enable concerned parties to assess the situation at Bryce Canyon with regards to UP's request to buy land for its developments and to come to some mutually acceptable agreement. [430] They met on June 2 at Bryce Canyon with UP's solicitor George H. Smith, Randall Jones, and others to discuss the proposed land purchase and hotel site. Lancaster was later lauded as the engineer in charge of the Columbia River Highway, "the greatest scenic highway in the world, and who...may yet supervise construction of a still greater highway connecting the scenic wonderlands of southern Utah," proclaimed one Deseret News] reporter. [431]

On June 8, 1923, President Harding created Bryce Canyon National Monument by Executive Order No. 1664. Since the monument was located within Powell (formerly Sevier) National Forest, it was placed under the administration of the U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture. The Forest Service (unlike the Park Service) had funds available to build roads, reported the Salt Lake Tribune, which also reported that the monument could possibly be converted to national park status "within a few years." [432] Events leading up to and surrounding the establishment of Utah's Bryce Canyon National Monument appear to have been considerably more publicized than those connected to the establishment of Pipe Spring National Monument, perhaps because development plans for the entire region hinged so heavily on Bryce Canyon. At the time of its creation, provisions were made to elevate Bryce Canyon to national park status once 640 acres of land within its boundaries, owned by the state of Utah and Union Pacific, were turned over to the federal government in exchange for other public lands. Years would pass before Union Pacific was willing to give up its holdings. [433]

On June 27, 1923, President Warren G. Harding paid an official visit to Zion National Park. The stop was one of several scheduled during his trip to the West and to Alaska. His entourage included Secretary of the Interior Hubert Work, Secretary of Agriculture Henry C. Wallace, Secretary of Commerce Herbert C. Hoover, and all of their wives. Speaker of the House of Representatives Frederick H. Gillett and U.S. Navy Admiral Hugh Rodman were also in attendance, along with about 70 other public officials and newspaper reporters. Utah officials included Governor Mabey, President Heber J. Grant, and Senator Reed Smoot. On the same day, the Union Pacific officially opened its 33-mile spur line from Lund to Cedar City with President Harding's special train. The spur line created a new railhead for tourists visiting southern Utah's scenic attractions. In bidding farewell to a group of original Latter-day Saint settlers gathered in Cedar City, Harding made the following speech:

I have today viewed the greatest creations of the Almighty in the majestic natural wonders of Zion National Park. It has inspired me with a deeper religious conviction.

I am acquainted with pioneer stock. It has made the United States. By the difference between the arid and cultivated sections I can read the story of your work. To you men and women who came with your families in covered wagons into this country when the water still flowed through its natural gorges, the nation owes a debt of gratitude. I am the first President of the United States to come and express that gratitude but I feel sure when I tell of this trip to my successors all future Presidents will come to visit this country of wonders. [434]

25. President Warren G. Harding at Angel's Landing, Zion National Park, June 1923
(Courtesy Union Pacific Museum, image 3321).

In fact, Harding had just recently demonstrated his appreciation for Utah's "pioneer stock" less than one month prior to this speech by authorizing the establishment of Pipe Spring National Monument. It is unknown if he made public reference to Pipe Spring during his whirlwind tour through southern Utah. In addition to Zion, Harding also visited Yellowstone and Yosemite on his tour. President Harding never returned home from this trip. On his way back from Alaska, he died suddenly in San Francisco on August 2, 1923. In a June 30, 1923, Salt Lake Tribune article entitled, "Bryce is Made U.S. Monument," it was reported that the U.S. State Department made public the proclamation establishing Bryce Canyon National Monument on June 29, only two days after Harding's stop in southern Utah. (One can only speculate that the announcement was held off so that Harding could have the pleasure of personally announcing the historic event during his trip to southern Utah.) The article references the impact Bryce Canyon's new status would have on road development in the area:

Unlike other national monuments, which are under jurisdiction of the Interior Department, Bryce Canyon is placed under control of the Department of Agriculture, which in effect, means under the Bureau of Forestry. And in view of the limited appropriations available for the National Park Service, this is a fortunate move, for the Forest Service has on hand a lump sum for the building of roads, and now that it had been given full jurisdiction over Bryce Canyon, will at once begin the construction of both roads and trails... [435]

In another article of the same date, the Salt Lake Tribune reported that the cutting of timber for construction of a $300,000 hotel at Zion National Park had begun. During 1923 the National Park Service granted the Utah Parks Company the concession for touring accommodations in Zion, Bryce Canyon, and the Grand Canyon's North Rim. [436] Engineer Samuel C. Lancaster was placed in charge of Union Pacific's development program in southern Utah. [437]

On July 2, 1923, the Deseret Evening News reported that an agreement had been reached between Union Pacific and the state of Utah on the terms of sale at Bryce Canyon. Forty acres was to be sold to UP "with the reservation that the company will deed back the original reservation along the rim desired by the state." [438] Union Pacific was to pay $25 acre, with the remainder of state section lands it wanted leased for 25 years at 50 cents an acre. The company was also granted a 25-year renewal option. The next day's Salt Lake Tribune reported that the agreement between the state and Union Pacific assured UP's commitment to development of hotel and water there. [439] Nineteen of the 40 acres sold to UP were deeded back to the state. On September 25 the Utah Parks Company purchased Ruby S. Syrett's improvements at Bryce Canyon, along with water rights for $10,000. [440]