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Show 53 preservation, including restrictions on grazing, mining, and logging. 132 His advocacy and his relationship with other conservation-minded politicians and administrators gave him considerable leverage in promo1ing federally-sponsored conscrva1ion measures in his own state. At Smoot's request, President William Howard Taft invoked the Antiquities Act in 1909 to create the Mukuntuweap National Monument, later changed to Zion National Monument and eventually designated a national park. Senator Smoot first introduced a bill to create Zion National Park in 1918, at the same time Utah's junior senator, William H. King, presented a competing park bill. The notable difference in the two bills was that King wanted park concessions such as lodging and transportation to be granted to the "best and most responsible bidder." 133 Essentially, King's bill would have allowed for competition in an area where certain business interests had already cornered the market. However, both bills were presented late in the legislative calendar and died with the session-ending gavel. The next session of Congress was preceded by a Republican takeover of the Senate, placing Smoot as chair of the Public Lands Committee, a position he had held before the Democratic Party takeover in the 1912 e\ection. 134 On May 20, 1919, one day into the congressional session, Smoot reintroduced his Zion National Park bill. Smoot rn ThomasG. Alexander, ··senator Reed Smoot and Western Land Policy, 1905-1920," Ari::onaand the Wes/, 13(1971):253 Dena S. Markoff, .. An Administrative History: Decision-Making That Shaped Zion National Park, 19091981," Unpublished Repon, Zion National Park Archives, 19 82 Ill Deseret Ev1ming News, '·Senator Smoot Gets Important Places on Committees of Senate," May 27, 1919,8. 134 |
