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Show 56 season tha1 year, the paper reported the actual number of visitors who had "poured in": "2,500 tourists, a much larger number than was anticipatcd." 141 It was not the first time Utahns had been enthusiastic about a national park. Before Zion Canyon became a national tourist destination, Utah newspapers referred to Sail Lake City as the "gateway to Yellowstone." Yellowstone National Park saw an increase in tourists arriving via railroad in the early part of the twentieth century, and later by private automobile. The Deseret Evening News explained Utah's relationship with Yellowstone: "Utah lays a sort of claim to the Yellowstone, for the reason that the most popular entrance to the park is that at Yellowstone, Mont., from which railroad and automobile road alike lead to Utah."142 In the months before the news broke that Zion could become a national park, accounts of record-breaking crowds of Yellowstone tourists ran in the newspapers. These numbers set the stage for an economic interpretation of the impact of a proposed Utah national park. 143 These tourist statistics were generally broken down with an estimate of how many reached the park via Utah: "Of this year's [Yellowstone] tourists, 22,685 entered by the western, or Salt Lake gateway."144 Both Utah papers carried stories of unprecedented waves of tourists hitting other national parks in the postwar economic boom that coincided with increasing popularity of automobile touring. Businesses associated with the parks advertised for employees in Salt 1• 1 Deserel 1• 2 Evenin[l. N(:l',s, "Canyon Camp to Close," October 22, 1919, sec. 2, 8. Deseret Ewming News, ''Utah- The Center or Scenic America," December 20, 1919, I. Deseret £\•ening News, ''Passenger Agent Says This Will Be Big Year in Yellowstone Park," July I, 1919, 3; Deserer Evening News, "Yellowstone Park May Set New Tourist Record This Year," July 23, 1919,3. 143 144 Deseret Evening News, "Attendance Records Broken in Yellowstone," September 8, 1919, 8. |
