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Show 88 publications since the early 191 Os and had spent thousands of dollars on road improvements to bring tourists to the canyon. The Agriculture Department would not easily give up that investment, but Smoot persisted. Before reintroducing the Utah National Park bill, Smoot and Mather wanted to muster support from interior Secretary Ralph Payne. However, Payne rejected the proposal as premature and suggested that they first work to make it a national monument. A year later, after President Warren G. Harding appointed Albert Fall as Interior secretary, Smoot reintroduced the national park legislation, hoping to get more support from Fall and a Republican Congrcss.2 s4 Fall supported creating a park but opposed the bill. He suspected that areas surrounding Bryce Canyon were also worthy of national park status and wanted to wait for a full assessment from the National Park Service and later create a larger park. As a result of his opposition, the bill failed. The intensity of the debates between two federal departments received considerable attention from the local press - attention that was absent in newspapers examined from outside the state. A particularly detailed account of the stakes in the debate was published in the Deserer News. The article described the jurisdictional dispute and the claims of the state and railroad companies in and around the canyon.255 The Union Pacific and the state saw national parks as economically promising and wanted to attract tourists to the area. The Deseret News outlined how these groups would capitalize on the park while allowing both entities to maintain financial interests. "Reserving the 154 Smoot's bill was S487 and introduced on April 12, 1921. m Deseret News, "State Agrees to Sell Bryce Canyon Land to Railroad for Hotel Site," June 4, 1923, sec. 2,1. |
