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Show 110 A Press Conference by Flashlight In March 1961, The Salt lake Tribune reported that Secretary Udall had "picked out southern Utah as the place most likely to sec the birth of a new na1ional park.',3 19 This was not the first time someone had pushed the land surrounding the confluence of the Green and Colorado rivers into the land-use-debate spotlight. 1n 1936, Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes proposed a 7,000-square-mile Escalante National Monument about 8 percent of the land in the state. Economic opposition and World War II killed the proposal. In the 1950s, Bates Wilson, superintendent of nearby Arches National Monument, advocated a national park in the area. Udall, in declaring his intentions for the future of the land, acknowledged that members of Utah's congressional delegation had also recommended the area as a national parkcandidate. 320 Udall's 1961 proposal brought immediate opposition. Unanswered questionsprimarily the park's size and how it would be managed - brought speculation and rumors that intensified the debate. Udall said the National Park Service had previously surveyed 72,000 acres in the Needles area - which he would include in his planned park - but he refused to give specific acreage. " It would be a very large park- one of the largest in the area," The Salt lake Tribune quoted Udall.321 As soon as Udall announced his plans for a national park in the Canyonlands, state newspapers reported opposing views, coming primarily from Utah Governor George D. Clyde and the state's senior senator, Wallace F. Bennett. Governor Clyde explained 119 Saft Lake Tribune, "Udall Hints New Park in Utah," March 29, 1961 , 7. llO lbid )ll Ibid. |
