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Show 98 and improve the state's image was energetically supported by a press cager to boost the state. "If our visitors arc to gain that knowledge and understanding of the state which will most benefit both the state and newcomers, every citizen should constitute himself or herself a committee of one to know those things that are important to be told," the Tribune exhorted.289 Although most of the promotion focused on economic gain, the idea that the state could overcome its cultural anxiety and find legitimacy through its landscapes carried into news of Bryce Canyon. At a 1924 lccturc on Utah's natural attractions featuring Bryce Canyon, Governor Charles Mabey encouraged his audience to visit and promote scenic landscapes to improve the state's reputation. The Deseret News quoted the governor: "Utah has had plenty of advertising but of the wrong kind ... All that is mean and vile that could have been said of the state has been told to the world. It is up to us to see the state's scenic and industrial resources so that we can talk intelligently about them as loyal and united citizens of one of the greatest states on the face of the globe.'..290 The same assertions were reported in The Salt lake Tribune.291 An environmental component to the national park idea was weak, dominated by reports of dollars and cents. Themes of conservation, when they emerged, were tied to scenery, not ecosystems. Environmental preservation and other purposes of the national park unrelated to economics, when they seeped into the news, did so with religious language. For example, a Deseret News story describing rock formations and colors in m Salt lake Tribune, ..The Value of Tourists and Utah Ro ad Investment," June 24, 1923, sec. I, third part, 2. 290 Deseret Ne»s, ..Story of Utah Wonders," June 2, 1924. 291 Salt Lake Trib1m1•, "Utah' s Scenic Beauty Shown." June 2, 1924, 14. |
