| OCR Text |
Show 69 writing continued in the early twentieth century. Although President Woodrow Wilson signed 1hc legislation creating Zion National Park on November 19, 1919, one month passed before the Times printed the news. It came with an apology of sorts for its timeliness - "for it was overshadowed by other news." 187 The New York Times 's coverage implied that the national parks created a space where the frontier still existed - or at least the frontier as an artifact was on display in a vast outdoor museum. Of Zion National Park, the Times reported: "There arc peaks of cream-white rock rising from the encircling blood-red cliffs which have never been climbed or christcncd." 18~ This area of unexplored land in the American West suggested that there was still a frontier in the national parks. Those who carried the spirit of early explorers could experience that frontier, while those intimidated by it could stick to wellworn paths. The report continued: "In other parts of the region taken in by the park boundaries are unsurveycd amphitheaters, huge natural bridges and lofty, level-topped plateaus, rich field for the tourist who wants to leave the traveled portion of the canyon and tum cxplorer." 189 The coverage of Zion National Park in The New York Times revealed the importance of the parks movement to the national psyche. As parks historian Alfred Runte observed, the parks movement during the late 1800s and early 1900s filled a social need as much as an environmental need. The parks created monumental ism, a sense of national identity for a new nation still defining itself against an established Europe known 117 lbid. 181 Jbid. 119 ]bid. |
