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Show 186 Although public approval overshadowed any animosity when Utah's first national parks were created, a seed of public displeasure with federal control of land inside state boundaries was present, if not prominent, from before Zion became a park. In the weeks before President Woodrow Wilson signed the legislation creating Zion National Park, a group of governors debated a resolution that the federal government cede unreserved lands to the individual states. However, the governors found little public support for their efforts. Furthermore, although the governors' conference was held in Salt Lake City while the state anticipated the president's signature establishing Zion, the governors did not address national parks. Evidence that support for the governors' position had grown came with Bryce and the reluctance of the state to cede to the federal government land inside the park. The governors' frustration spread and intensified over the years. The reactions of ranchers and miners after the 1969 expansion of Arches and Capitol Reef illustrated tbe disdain many held for federal land regulations. Furthermore, the governors' arguments in 1919 were similar to those tha1 drove the Sagebrush Rebellion in the 1970s and '&Os when Western states, beginning with Nevada, declared state control of federal land. The rebellion was a protest against the growing number of environmental regulations and the perception that the federal government was restricting grazing, mining, and other land uses in favor of preservation. The rebels saw the land policies of the 1960s and 1970s as a "concerted effort to exclude development activity from the public lands" - a sentiment that emerged and defined opposition to the establishment of Utah's most recent national parks.ss8 sss Cawley, Federal Lund, Wn·fern Anger, 42. |
