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Show 65 automobile and rail tourists offer one of the best commercial propositions which has ever been placed before you." 173 The Deserer Evening News led its story by quoting a rhetorical question Mather had posed: "Do the business men [sic] of Salt Lake and Utah realize the tremendous worth, from a commercial standpoint, that the creating of Zion National park [sic] by Congress will mean to this city and state?"174 Environmental preservation, or conservation, was not a focus of local or national coverage in the newspapers examined. Although reporters acknowledged that the canyon held scientific value, they rarely made a connection between creating the park and protecting or exploring that value. The legislation outlining the purpose of national parks set 1he s1age for a power play between environmental protection and recreation, which often meant development. The mission of the parks was "to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life [sic] therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.''m The tension between preserving nature and promoting tourism was engrained in the park legislation. It carried into the press coverage, where the preservation aspects of the national park mission were overridden by news of tourism's economic impact. ln the 191 Os, the push for tourism and development in the national parks was the environmental community's primary approach to preservation, a tactic embraced by the National Park Service. The idea was that if tourists saw the land, they would be converted 171 Sult lake Tribune, "Park Is Reality," November 25, 191 9 . 114 /Jeseret £11ening Netts, ··Park Is Big A sset," No\•cmber 25, 19 19 m U.S. StalUICS at Large, 39 (1916): 535. |
