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Show 185 the popular press. However, by the 1960s, when the two state newspapers had Washington bureaus, the politics behind the national parks was more apparent. The Antiquities Act of 1906 illustrates how the political coverage and antipark sentiment intensified in later years. Much of the political news associated with Arches and Capitol Reef stemmed from President Johnson's last-minute order using his authority under the Antiquities Act to enlarge what were then national monuments. In the historical context of this executive power, Johnson had merely followed in the path of his predecessors. However, the political climate elicited a much more vocal response in the 1960s. While not considered as prestigious as a national park - or as controversial, depending on the perspective - monument designation was a clearly established step on the road to national park status. All of Utah's national parks, with the exception of Canyonlands, were first designated national monuments under the Antiquities Act. At Senator Smoot's request, President William Howard Taft invoked the Antiquities Act in 1909 to create the Mukuntuweap National Monument, later changed to Zion National Monument and eventually designated a national park. Smoot also instigated President Warren G. Harding's executive order creating a national monument of Bryce Canyon in 1923. President I lerbcrt lloovcr established Arches National Monument in 1929, and in 1937 Franklin D. Roosevch created Capitol Reef National Monument. None of those presidential proclamations met with opposition like that against the 1969 expansion of Arches and Capitol Reef. ln fact, none of the papers examined in this research reported the establishment of Bryce Canyon National Monument. |
