Zion Canyon

“In an instant, there flashed before us a scene never to be forgotten. In coming time it will, I believe, take rank with a very small number of spectacles each of which will, in its own way, be regarded as the most exquisite of its kind which the world discloses. The scene before us was the Temples and Towers of the Virgin.” Thus prophetically wrote Captain Clarence E. Dutton of the U. S. Geological Survey in a report published in the year 1880.

Dutton was following up the geological work begun by Major J. W. Powell ten or twelve years earlier when the latter started out to explore the Colorado River and made his two memorable trips in boats down the river through the Grand Canyon. The geological problems encountered were so extraordinary that Dutton was detailed to further investigation and encountered problems that have engaged the attention of scientists to this day, particularly the eminent geologist, Dr. Herbert E. Gregory.

Following the line of Vermillion Cliffs from Kanab westward, Dutton came to the pass between Eagle Crags and Smithsonian Butte when suddenly, startlingly, there lay before him to the northward the valley of the Virgin River in all its grandeur.

Few have seen Zion as Clarence Dutton saw it. From a high pass, in late afternoon, with the sun on his left, he looked into that vast panorama of the Vermillion Cliffs of Zion and Parunuweap and those flanking the Great West Canyon as well—a twenty-mile stretch in one sweeping view. The setting sun cast shadows that made the turrets and towers stand out in bold relief, while the light reflected from one wall upon another intensified the tints and shades of the reds until they stood out in striking contrast with the vivid green of the vegetation and the higher cliffs. No wonder the cold scientist broke down and described in emotional terms this superb panorama.

Forerunners of Dutton had visited Zion, but none had penned such eloquent praise. Major J. W. Powell and two companions, Stephen V. Jones, one of his topographers, and Joseph W. Young, a Mormon, left Long Valley on September 10, 1872[90]and started down through the Parunuweap on foot. They came out next day before noon and spent another day visiting Zion Canyon. Of this trip, Powell says of the Parunuweap:

At noon, we are in a canyon 2500 feet deep and we come to a fall where the walls are broken down, and the huge rocks beset the channel, on which we obtain a foothold to reach a level two hundred feet below.Here the canyon is again wider and we find a floodplain on which we can walk.

Next day of the Mukuntuweap Canyon, he writes:

Entering this, we have to wade up the stream; often the water fills the entire channel, and although we travel many miles, we find no floodplain, talus, or broken piles of rock at the foot of the cliff. The walls have smooth, plain faces, and are everywhere very regular and vertical for a thousand feet or more, where they seem to break in shelving slopes to higher altitudes; and everywhere as we go along, we find springs bursting out at the foot of the walls.[91]

Jack Hillers, a photographer from Powell’s party, spent some time during the summer of 1873 taking pictures in Zion Canyon. These are on file in the U. S. Geological Survey Office and have been often used in publications. For a long time, however, this material and Zion Canyon were largely forgotten. The local course of development continued placidly for many years. Only occasionally a hardy traveler, hearing of the beauties of the region, had courage enough to brave the rocky, dusty roads to enjoy the scenic splendors. One was Frederick S. Dellenbaugh, who had accompanied Powell on his second trip down the Grand Canyon. In the summer of 1903 he found his way into Springdale, where he made his headquarters with Bishop O. D. Gifford, visited Zion Canyon, made some oil paintings to be exhibited at the World’s Fair in St. Louis the next year, and wrote an article, “A New Valley of Wonders,” which appeared inScribners’ Magazinefor January, 1904. In this article, describing his first view of the West Temple, he wrote:

One hardly knows just how to think of it. Never before has such a naked mountain of rock entered our minds. Without a shred of disguise its transcendent form rises pre-eminent. There is almost nothing to compare to it. Niagara has the beauty of energy; the Grand Canyon of immensity; the Yellowstone of singularity; the Yosemite of altitude; the ocean of power; this Great Temple of eternity—“The Titan fronted blowy steeps, that cradled Time.”Grafton has a situation that must some day make it famous, yet one dreads to think of this land being overrun by the ennuied tourist. But with an altitude of only 3,000 feet, a superb, dry climate, mild winters, magnificent environment, and a supply of delicious fruits itcannot long remain unvisited if a railway ever is built within easy reach.

Grafton has a situation that must some day make it famous, yet one dreads to think of this land being overrun by the ennuied tourist. But with an altitude of only 3,000 feet, a superb, dry climate, mild winters, magnificent environment, and a supply of delicious fruits itcannot long remain unvisited if a railway ever is built within easy reach.

The Zion pictures at the fair created a great deal of interest. A young Mormon missionary, David Hirschi, who had been reared at Rockville and knew every foot of the Zion country, visited St. Louis on his way home from Europe and found them to be a center of attraction in the Utah section. He was surprised and delighted, but was put on his mettle when he heard skeptics remark that there couldn’t be such a place. He informed them that there certainly was, that he knew its every hill and cliff, and to prove it, he pointed to his buckskin shoelace and showed the hill in the picture where he had killed the deer from which they had been made. A great crowd gathered to listen and an interesting discussion followed. Undoubtedly the pictures and magazine article were important factors in arousing a widespread interest in Zion Canyon. The time was approaching when its superlative beauty would be recognized by the national government.

The national conservation program inaugurated by President Theodore Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot produced a bill (June 8, 1906) empowering the president to set aside certain lands particularly valuable for scenic, scientific or historic purposes, as national monuments. Many were created during the next few years and among them was the Mukuntuweap National Monument.

During the summer of 1908, Leo A. Snow of St. George, a United States Deputy Surveyor, was detailed to survey in southern Utah, Township 40 South, Range 10 West from Salt Lake City. The party, of which the present writer was a member, in executing the survey covered the upper part of the Zion gorge. Triangulation was used in measuring the gorge from the east to west. When the report and map were submitted that part of the canyon was described as unsurveyable. In his report, Snow stated that from a certain place (now Observation Point):

A view can be had of this canyon surpassed only by a similar view of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado. At intervals along the west side of the canyon streams of various sizes rush over the edge of the chasm forming water falls from 800 to 2000 feet high. The stream in the bottom of the canyon appears as a silver ribbon winding its way among the undergrowth and occasionally disappearing from view. In my opinion this canyon should be set apart by the government as a national park.

The report was dispatched to Washington, June 25, 1909. A little more than a month later, July 31, the Acting Secretary of the Interior recommended to the President the creation of the Mukuntuweap National Monument. President Taft signed the proclamation on the same day. This act was primarily a withdrawal from entry—a method of holding land for national purposes and preventing it from passing into private ownership. There was no active administration of the area at first. The farmers still cultivated the land, the stockmen continued to graze their cattle in the canyon and the sawmill owners to lower lumber over the cable. The canyon was still inaccessible to automobiles and the roadway for wagons or buggies was such that few people cared to drive over it for pleasure.

Wesley King, of the Salt Lake Commercial Club, was an early exception. Poor roads could not thwart his desire to see the scenic beauties of which he had heard from E. D. Woolley, a prominent leader of Kane County. He and his wife traveled by train to Marysvale where they obtained a team and buggy and started south. A report of this trip appeared inThe Salt Lake Tribune, November 12, 1911. King wrote:

We crossed the divide ... and began our descent into and upon one of the most scenic portions of America.... I do not believe there is anything on the globe like the canyon of the Rio Virgin, or to compare with the Vermillion cliffs....Our admiration for this people was aroused.... They can only market such products as can be driven across the mountains, while freighting of goods southward presents obstacles that would baffle the stoutest hearts. Here and over in the Dixie Land to the westward, the people live a simple, healthy life, unspoiled by the world and its vagaries. Children of the soil ... of one faith and with a singleness of purpose....We lost our way and our tempers getting over the Sahara bordering Kanab. A lone sheep herder saved us on the second morning out and we floundered into Kanab over twenty-four hours late, just as Uncle “D” Woolley was starting a posse of Indian Scouts after us.

Our admiration for this people was aroused.... They can only market such products as can be driven across the mountains, while freighting of goods southward presents obstacles that would baffle the stoutest hearts. Here and over in the Dixie Land to the westward, the people live a simple, healthy life, unspoiled by the world and its vagaries. Children of the soil ... of one faith and with a singleness of purpose....

We lost our way and our tempers getting over the Sahara bordering Kanab. A lone sheep herder saved us on the second morning out and we floundered into Kanab over twenty-four hours late, just as Uncle “D” Woolley was starting a posse of Indian Scouts after us.

The Kings took Dave Rust for guide and went over to Zion Canyon. On the brink above Rockville, they “hesitated for awhile in an effort to comprehend the grandeur of the ‘Great Temple’ and its score of lesser temples and towers, brilliant in the glow of the setting sun.” King’s story continued:

We found the Parunuweap Canyon impassable, so we spent the day in the dark recesses of the Mukuntuweap, speechless with wonderment, except for an occasional “awe” or an “absolutely wonderful.” This panorama had a deeper, a more wonderful effect upon us than anything our eyes had ever beheld....Garfield, Wayne and Kane counties are sparsely settled, and until permanent roads are constructed into them, they will remain so. Washington and Iron counties have great natural resources and wonderful possibilities which will blossom into realities only when the transportation problem has been solved. Each county can do little by itself in road building. It is a state problem and must be worked out by our state officials.

Garfield, Wayne and Kane counties are sparsely settled, and until permanent roads are constructed into them, they will remain so. Washington and Iron counties have great natural resources and wonderful possibilities which will blossom into realities only when the transportation problem has been solved. Each county can do little by itself in road building. It is a state problem and must be worked out by our state officials.

Times, however, were rapidly changing. The automobile was displacing the horse and the demand for good roads for auto traffic was being met by ever larger road appropriations by the state and the nation. However, the opening of the scenic areas of southern Utah and northern Arizona to the touring public is largely a story of highways.

North of the Colorado River and south of the Utah line lies that variegated country known as the Arizona Strip. To the west lie the Parashont and Trumbull Mountains. To the east, the Kaibab Plateau, locally known as the Buckskin Mountains, rears its summit to 10,000 feet in a long level line that stretches southward to the north rim of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River. Information concerning this region began to seep in from outposts during the early 60’s. There is little doubt that Whitmore and McIntyre at Pipe Springs, L. W. Roundy at Kanab, and Peter Shurtz near Paria, all knew something about its general characteristics, for it could be observed from all three places.

The expedition led by James Andrus in the spring of 1866 to rescue Peter Shurtz must have explored the region south of Paria. Roundy said the expedition started south from Paria to investigate an Indian smoke and was gone fourteen days (February 23 to March 9), but no further record is available, except that Nate Adams, who moved to Kanab in 1871, stated the expedition went over the Kaibab.

Jacob Hamblin doubtless became well acquainted with the Kaibab after he went to Kanab in 1867 to live among the Indians. John D. Lee took up a ranch at Scutumpah (on the Andrus route of 1866) in 1869, explored the lower Paria, and located the site for a ferry at its mouth (later Lee’s Ferry). Lee and Hamblin must have explored a good deal of the region together for they built a six room adobe house with sod roof at Jacob’s Lake in north Kaibabsoon after. When they divided their property a little later, Lee took the ferry and Hamblin the pool and Kane Springs in Houserock Valley.

In 1870, Brigham Young sent a portable steam sawmill to Kanab and Levi Stewart installed it near Scutumpah and the next year moved it to Big Springs on the Kaibab. Many years later, it was moved farther south to Castle or Rigg Springs.

In 1872, Major Powell’s party centered its work around the Kaibab. Part of the time, this party camped near the Levi Stewart ranch and sawmill.[92]At that time Eight-Mile Spring, Jacob’s Well, Oak Spring, Pine Spring and Stewart’s ranch were all being used as grazing headquarters. During that summer, Powell and a friend of his from Illinois, Professor Harvey C. DeMotte, explored the roof of the Kaibab and bestowed the name DeMotte Park upon the main valley (sometimes called V T Park). In 1873, Thomas Moran, the well-known Western artist who had been commissioned by the Federal government to paint the Grand Canyon, made a trip by mule team from Salt Lake City to the Kaibab, where Major Powell suggested the vantage from which he produced the canvas of the Grand Canyon now hanging in the National Capitol.

The use of the Kaibab for grazing gradually increased. In 1877 the United Order of Orderville acquired most of the holdings on the northern Kaibab and controlled the range for about ten years, after which time lands and stock passed into private ownership.

During the late 80’s, John W. Young (son of the Mormon leader), representing the Mormon Church in England, conceived a grandiose scheme for interesting English aristocracy in the Kaibab as a private recreation area. He acquired the major holdings there and stocked it with cattle and horses. Dan Seegmiller of Kanab was placed in charge of operations. Young’s scheme fell through, but he was not discouraged. He enlarged his plan for making the Kaibab a great hunting ground and center of tourist travel with hotels and lodges for the English nobility. Some interest was shown, and several British sportsmen decided to investigate.

“Buffalo Bill” Cody was in England at the time with his wild west show, and was anxious to dispose of his animals there and recruit his stock in the United States. Young induced him to replenish in the Kaibab and to act as guide for the English representatives. Junius Wells went as Young’s agent. The trip was made in the summer of 1891. Dan Seegmiller took wagons to Flagstaff, Arizona, on the railroad, to meet Buffalo Bill and the Englishmen. He had with him Bill Crosby, Nate and Orza Adams and Brig Young (son of John W. Young). They returned via Lee’s Ferry to Houserock Valley and the Kaibab.

“Buffalo Bill” and cowboys at Kaibab, left to right. Ed Lamb, Nate Adams, George Adams, Orza Adams, Wm. F. Cody (Buffalo Bill), Walter Hamblin, Eb Brown. They helped him replenish his depleted stock.Courtesy Walter Hamblin.

Buffalo Bill, the Englishmen and local American christening McKinnon Point on North Rim in the fall of 1882. Their names on a paper tucked away in a tin can were found (about 1928) by a Park Ranger.Courtesy Walter Hamblin.

The party included Junius Wells, Buffalo Bill and his crack rifle-shot, John Baker and the Englishmen, Major McKinnon, Lord Ingram and Lord Milmey. They were entertained by the local cattlemen, including Anthony W. Ivins, E. D. Woolley, Ed Lamb, Jr., Walter Hamblin, Alex Cram, Ebenezer Brown and Al Huntington. The British agents, however, decided the Kaibab was too far away and too hard to reach. The party went out through Kanab where the presence of English lords and Buffalo Bill proved almost too much for the inhabitants.

The failure of the deal left John W. Young in difficulties. To clear the situation, the Kaibab Land and Cattle Company was organized and money borrowed from New York bankers. A little later, Cannon, Grant and Company of Salt Lake City took over the mortgage and Anthony W. Ivins became field manager. By skillful husbandry, Ivins redeemed the mortgage and tax sale. In 1896 he moved to Mexico and the Kaibab holdings and property were sold to Murdock and Fotheringham of Beaver, who soon sold out to the B. F. Saunders cattle outfit. He in turn, later sold to the Grand Canyon Cattle Company (E. J. Marshall Co.), still in control at the time the Kaibab National Forest was established (1908). It had been set aside as a national forest reserve in 1893.

Dan Seegmiller’s close association with the Kaibab and North Rim impressed him with its outstanding importance as a national vacation-land, a view shared by many. He continued, as long as he lived, to advertise its merits. About 1896, three years before his death, he drove a white top buggy from Kanab to Milford, picked up a New York party and escorted it over the Kaibab to the North Rim and back. After his partner’s death, E. D. Woolley began taking parties into the Kaibab and North Rim. He was the most prominent man of the Kanab region and logically the one to take the lead in its development from the north side of the Colorado River.

Despite his zealous interest, difficulties of transportation, poor roads, distance from the railroad, slow method of travel, all conspired to prevent significant development. Woolley finally conceived the idea of making a trail from the South Rim (rail terminal) across the Grand Canyon via Bright Angel Creek. For this purpose, he organized the Grand Canyon Transportation Company. The members included himself, T. C. Hoyt, Thomas Chamberlain, Jim Emett, E. S. Clark, and later (1906) D. D. Rust. A permit was obtained from Arizona to construct a toll trail across the canyon. Governmental regulations forebade tolls, however, and they had to limit their revenue to charges for transportation and guide services.

E. D. Woolley and Jim Emett began the trail in 1901. It provedan expensive undertaking and in 1908 Jesse Knight invested $5,000 to help it along. A cable car was installed for crossing the river. The car was suspended from the cable track by pulleys and pulled back and forth by a propeller cable wound on drums. This route proved to be an important inlet to the North Rim and Kaibab. The total traffic, however, was relatively small and remained so until better transportation facilities became available.

One of the chief events of those days was an expedition engineered by E. D. Woolley in September, 1905, in which a party consisting of Senator Reed Smoot, T. C. Hoyt, E. D. Woolley, E. G. Woolley (nephew), Graham McDonald, James Clove, Lewis T. Cannon and Congressman Joseph Howell traveled leisurely by team from Salt Lake City through the state, holding political rallies as they went. At Kanab (September 26), schools were dismissed and a gala holiday declared. The expedition moved on to the Kaibab and North Rim where the distinguished visitors enjoyed the scenery and hunted deer on Greenland Peninsula. The trip provided conspicuous advertising for the Grand Canyon.

On November 28, 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt established the Grand Canyon National Game Preserve and thereafter deer were protected and predatory animals hunted. Government hunters of the U. S. Biological survey were employed for that purpose from 1906 to 1923. During that period, more than eight hundred cougars, thirty wolves, nearly five thousand coyotes and more than five hundred bobcats were removed.

One of the interesting characters among these hunters was “Uncle” Jim Owen, who with his hounds took about six hundred cougars from the Kaibab and one hundred and thirty from regions to the north and west. He had previously been a member of the Jesse James gang and when intoxicated was a man to be avoided. At El Tovar, one night, he took a dislike to the clerk, tried to shoot him, and filled the room so full of holes it cost the party $100 to settle the damages.

D. D. Rust was a school teacher at Fredonia during the winter of 1905-6. During the following summer, he joined the Grand Canyon Transportation Company and was employed for many years thereafter as a guide for tourist parties. Zane Grey, the famous Western novelist, came in April, 1907, and Rust took him over to the North Rim to hunt mountain lions (cougars). Zane was then a tenderfoot who slept with a six-shooter under his pillow, a practice he abandoned as he became hardened. He returned later in the season to hunt with Col. C. J. Jones (Buffalo Jones), Grant Wallace, a journalist, and Jim Emett, local cattleman. On this hunt, Wallace captured alive the big king lion of Bright Angel Canyon. Incidentally, Zane Grey built his novelThe Heritage of the Desertaround Emett’s trial at Flagstaff in April, 1907. Emett,whose headquarters were at Lee’s Ferry, had been accused of rustling by the B. F. Saunders’ outfit.

On January 11, 1908, the President issued a proclamation creating the Grand Canyon National Monument and separating it from the Kaibab National Forest. During the summer of 1908, Rust took Nathan Galloway, a trapper from the Uintah Basin, from whom he had learned the Canadian method of shooting rapids, into the Markagunt Plateau to hunt grizzly bears.

Buffalo Jones came back again in early August, 1909, with a party of Bostonians to hunt cougars with Jim Owen. After five days, Buffalo Jones bagged a live lion to take home with him. On that day, the hounds struck another cougar trail and led the party backward six or seven miles until the trail got cold. Then it was discovered that “Old Pot,” the reliable hound, was missing. They retraced their trail and found him with a “treed” cougar about a half mile in the opposite direction from where they had started. Buffalo Jones went up the tree with a rope and a stick. The lion saw Jones coming and started down the tree toward him. Jones backed down slowly and stopped. The cougar stopped, too, glared at the man and backed up on his limb. Jones crept slowly up again until he could reach the cougar with his stick and poked a noose over the lion’s head. When the rope was pulled, the beast jumped the wrong way and crashed through the limbs chewing at the rope. On the ground the dogs pounced on him and Jones roped the hind legs while others manned the rope around the neck. They stretched him out, tied him alive on the back of a burro, and carried him across the Grand Canyon to the railroad. Motion pictures of this hunt were taken by Jones.

It was in June, 1909, that the first automobiles were driven through the Kaibab to the North Rim. This was a stunt engineered by Edwin Gordon Woolley, Jr., of Salt Lake City. With his wife and brother-in-law, D. A. Affleck, he took two autos, a Locomobile and Thomas Flyer, and arrived at Kanab on the fifth day. Here they were joined by E. D. Woolley and Graham McDonald from Kane County. It took three days more to reach the North Rim at Bright Angel. At the time this was a real feat. Gasoline had been distributed in advance by team, ten gallons every thirty miles. They carried with them tools and equipment for car repairs and road making, as well as canvas for use in sand and extra water for overheated engines. They had to remove high road centers, fill up washes, level off sideling dugways and cut timber falls out of the wagon roads. Indians came to Kaibab from miles around to see their first “devil wagons,” which they were loath to believe could run. At the end of the trip, it was found that nine new tires valued at $80 each had been worn out. These were exhibited by the US. Rubber Company to demonstrate the wonderful performance of their product.

The advent of automobiles on the Kaibab and North Rim opened up new vistas of development. Woolley began to envision the time when the construction of good roads would permit easy access to visitors and when the scenic features of the Grand Canyon and the deer herds of the Kaibab would attract attention and induce many to come. His vision was to be realized before many years had passed.

At the beginning of the second decade of the 20th century, a few individuals here and there in the state were beginning to grasp the potentialities of southern Utah as a scenic mecca. Throughout the United States, agitation for better roads gained ground as the automobile assumed a larger place in our national consciousness. The first transcontinental auto trip was made about 1900 and much difficulty was experienced in finding passable routes. The old pioneer wagon roads, disused since the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869, had fallen into disrepair and were obliterated or washed by erosion in many of the desert and mountainous areas so that they were often forgotten and nearly impassable.

After the first trip, however, other autoists quickly followed and there was a loud demand for logs and guide materials during the next decade—a demand which leading Utah newspapers attempted to supply. The first quarter of the century may be characterized as transitional from wagon and train to automobile. Roads had to be redesigned on the basis of alignment instead of grade control and reconstructed into highways, destined to become not only supplemental feeders of railroads but also competitors.

This movement led to the establishment in 1909 of the Utah State Road Commission, empowered to develop state roads and with the avowed intention to build a two million dollar highway through the entire state from Logan to St. George. It took several years for this program to reach southern Utah and by that time road building was beginning to be affected by modern methods of highway construction.

Occasional trips into the scenic southland continued, some primarily for enjoyment, others for publicity or promotional purposes, all of which served to focus public attention more and more on the area. Public pressure was brought to bear not only on the road commission, but also on the governor and eventually on the Federal government.

Governor William Spry of Utah (1908-1916) made at least three trips into the region (1912, 1913, 1916). During September, 1912, he visited the Dixie Fruit Festival at St. George, then went to Kanab and northward through the State prospecting the route now followed by highway 89.

A view of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River.Courtesy Union Pacific Railroad.

How earlier generations explored the Kaibab: horseback, buggies, and automobiles.

Self-service on the Kaibab.

Visitors at “Uncle Jim” Owen’s cabin.

Camping party on the march.Courtesy D. D. Rust.

Theodore Roosevelt (center, holding rope), Jim Owen (next right), and party on Kaibab (1913) that captured ...

... a live cougar ...

... that was taken across the Colorado River in “the cage”.Courtesy D. D. Rust.

Waterfall after rain in Temple of Sinewava.

A guided party along the Narrows Trail (author at right).

Naturalists in Zion Canyon (1928), left to right, Harold Russell, J. W. Thornton and A. M. Woodbury.

During the following winter, a group of convicts from the Utah State Penitentiary was put to work building roads in Washington County between Cedar City and Toquerville. They improved the bad roads of the time, but the route was poorly chosen and was replaced several years later by a well-planned highway. The convicts continued to be employed in Washington County for several winters.

During the summer of 1913, E. D. Woolley and others urged the State Road Commission to take over the task of building an auto road southward from Salina to the state line on the route to North Rim. That fall, the U. S. Forest Service started construction of a permanent boulevard (?) from Jacob’s Lake to North Rim with a total allotment of $2750! The result was a road which when compared with highways of today, illustrates the revolutionary changes in standards of road making.

In July and August, 1913, ex-President Theodore Roosevelt took a party into the Kaibab from South Rim and spent three weeks hunting lions. They captured three and took one alive across the canyon. Roosevelt reported the trip in an article in theOutlook.[93]

During that same summer, J. Cecil Alter, director of the U. S. Weather Bureau at Salt Lake City and editor of this Quarterly, made a leisurely trip southward with his wife and two companions in a white top spring wagon, via Marysvale, Panguitch, Kanab and Jacob’s Lake to the Kaibab, North Rim and over the Cable Crossing to El Tovar. Returning, he traveled via Ryan, Pipe Springs and Rockville to Zion, then out via Toquerville, Parowan, Circleville and Marysvale. He reported the interesting aspects of his trip inThe Salt Lake Tribuneon August 31, 1913, and January 4, 1914. The enthusiasm of theTribunewas aroused and the paper sponsored a “pathfinder” tour under the leadership of W. D. Rishel to log the road to Grand Canyon. It left Salt Lake City on September 6, visited the canyon and paused a day at Kanab on the return trip.

On the occasion of Governor Spry’s first visit to Zion in October, 1913, the people along the Virgin River declared a holiday and accompanied his party almost en masse into Zion, where a picnic was enjoyed at the foot of the cable. To thrill the governor, a man was lifted to the top of the cliffs on the cable and brought back a few minutes later. The party rode horseback into the Narrows and was much impressed by the experience. Governor Spry was thoroughly convinced of the importance ofnational recognition and thereafter earnestly pressed for its realization.

From Rockville, the party took spring buggies for Kanab with extra teams to negotiate the hills. The idea behind the trip seems to have been to investigate the possibilities of tourist travel from some point on the Salt Lake Route Railroad to Zion and Grand Canyon. Douglas White, writing inThe Arrowheadfor July 1917, said that as a result of this visit, Governor Spry “decided that the highway division of his administration should accomplish the construction of a highway to the border of the National Monument.”

By 1914, the local people of Dixie no less than the governor, were awakening to the scenic potentialities of their homeland. It had taken five years to sell the idea of Zion Canyon as a national mecca to the people living near it. The Grand Canyon Highway Association was organized with David Hirschi as president, and a five-county (Washington, Kane, Iron, and Beaver in Utah and Coconino in Arizona) road convention was called for July in Hurricane. Up to this time no auto had yet been driven from Toquerville to Zion Canyon.

The first problem was to make the roads passable by removing high centers, reducing grades and filling washes. A campaign was launched locally to secure subscriptions for road improvement. Hurricane pledged $2,000, La Verkin $500, Toquerville $1,500 and Cedar City $1,200. During the winter the road from Toquerville to Hurricane and the dugway up the Hurricane Fault to the east toward Kanab were improved.

In 1916, political pressure had reached Washington. Senator Reed Smoot responded and planned to ask for federal assistance in road making. This dovetailed with a national movement which culminated that year in the first federal aid road act. Smoot called upon the Department of the Interior for information concerning the Mukuntuweap National Monument. Horace M. Albright, a youthful assistant to Secretary Franklin K. Lane, furnished the data. Senator Smoot inserted in a deficiency appropriation an item reading as follows:

For a proportionate share of the amount required to construct an inter-state wagon road or highway through the Mukuntuweap National Monument, Utah, approximately fifteen miles for the fiscal year 1917, $15,000. [Approved September 8, 1916. 39 Stat. 801-818].

The U. S. National Park Service was authorized by Congressional Act of August 25, 1916, but it was not actually established until May, 1917. Ever since the passage of the NationalMonument Act of June 8, 1906, national monuments had been accumulating without adequate supervision. The need for an agency to handle national parks and national monuments was becoming urgent. The bill, as passed, created the National Park Service “To promote and regulate the use of the Federal Areas known as National Parks, Monuments and Reservations by such means and measures as conform to the fundamental purposes of said parks, monuments and reservations, which purpose is to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein, and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.”

Albright had joined Secretary Lane’s staff in 1913 and had been assigned to deal with the parks and monuments. When the National Park Service was established, Stephen T. Mather of California was appointed director, April 19, 1917 and Albright was named his assistant. Because of illness, Mather did not assume his duties until March, 1918. and Albright served as acting director.

In the meantime,The Salt Lake Tribunehad sent another auto pathfinding tour led by W. D. Rishel to the Grand Canyon, starting August 6, 1916. It reached Kanab in two days and spent three more going to North Rim and back to Kanab. From here, it headed for Hurricane and Zion. At Pipe Springs, the cavalcade met a railroad party in a large White bus going to North Rim (August 13). This party included representatives of the Union Pacific and the Oregon Short Line railroads, together with those of other travel agencies. The expedition shortly preceded the consolidation of the two railway systems represented, and the agents were scouting the possibilities for railroad traffic in the region. They had left the railroad at Lund by bus and traveled via Hurricane to Pipe Springs where they met Rishel’s jaded eight-car cavalcade.

The next day they drove through the Kaibab to Bright Angel Point on the North Rim; spent the following day sight-seeing and then drove back to Kanab, Hurricane and Rockville (August 16), where they held a meeting in the evening. The youngsters of Rockville saw their first auto bus and many of them had a ride. As on Governor Spry’s first visit to Rockville (October 12, 1913), the local people took a holiday and many accompanied the party next day into Zion Canyon. After visiting in the canyon until noon, the party drove to St. George where they enjoyed a feast of Dixie fruit. The next day they held a meeting in Cedar City and then returned to the railroad at Lund.

D. S. Spencer, Union Pacific Railroad Passenger Agent, informed the writer that the trip had been sponsored by the railroads and that Governor Spry and Road Commissioner Lunt hadbeen induced to go along for consultation on road development. Governor Spry promised all possible support if the railroads would undertake tourist traffic development. Spencer further explained that the Union Pacific had profited from the experience of Edward H. Harriman, the noted railroad capitalist, who had built a spur to West Yellowstone, thereby greatly increasing his long-haul traffic to San Francisco. Carl R. Gray, Harriman’s successor as president of the Union Pacific, recognized similar possibilities in tourist traffic to Zion and Grand Canyon.

Sometime that fall, Douglas White designated the route from Los Angeles to Salt Lake via Las Vegas, St. George and Cedar City, now generally traversed by Highway 91, as the Arrowhead Route. The next year, Charles H. Bigelow of Los Angeles, was instrumental in organizing the Arrowhead Trail Association with J. H. Manderfield of Salt Lake City as president, and Joseph S. Snow of St. George, vice-president. It functioned for many years to promote road development.

Frederick Vining Fisher, a Methodist minister of Ogden, Utah, came to Salt Lake City in 1915 to lecture and show slides of California to advertise the Panama Pacific International Exposition. He had ministered in Ogden for some years prior to 1912, but his attention had never been called to Zion Canyon. One day at lunch at the University of Utah, a student said to him, “Mr. Fisher, your pictures last night were fine, but you have not seen the best.” Surprised, Fisher then wormed the story of Zion Canyon out of the lad. He was at once eager to visit the canyon, and in September, 1916, while traveling to St. George with Apostle Anthony W. Ivins, of the Latter-day Saints Church, to attend a local conference, visited the scenic area, took pictures and made slides which he thereafter used in lectures throughout the country.

Afterwards, Fisher induced Warren Cox, hotel proprietor of St. George, to take him to the Grand Canyon at the lower end of Toroweap Valley, Mt. Trumbull, where he took interesting pictures. Then, as Fisher recalls, Cox dared him “to cross the untrod wilderness one hundred miles” to Kaibab and North Rim. After they had explored the Kaibab with its endless herds, they camped with Jim Owens, U. S. Government hunter, for three days, vacationing and taking pictures. From North Rim, they went to Cedar City where they met Ivins, who in the meantime had obtained a team from his Enterprise ranch and who took Fisher up Cedar Canyon to Cedar Breaks where more pictures were taken. Upon returning to Cedar City, Cox accompanied Fisher to Rockville where he left him.

Bishop David Hirschi’s son, Claud, took Fisher and a friend, Bingham, up Zion Canyon where Fisher got the greatest thrillof his life. They decided to name the scenic points as they went along. Three peaks that Hirschi thought looked like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, they called theThree Patriarchs. The boys of the party stopped at the big loop in the river and looked at the pillars of rock on the inside point. When Fisher asked why they were delaying the boys replied they were waiting for an organist to play theGreat Organ. They coined several other names not now in use, but after reaching the Narrows and starting back, Hirschi espied a great white precipice gleaming in the afternoon sun, framed by the pass between Angels Landing and the Great Organ. He said. “Oh, Doctor, look quick, what is that?” Overwhelmed, Fisher replied, “Never have I seen such a sight before. It is by all odds America’s masterpiece. Boys, I have looked for this mountain all my life but I never expected to find it in this world. This mountain is the Great White Throne.”[94]

The money appropriated September 8, 1916, for a wagon road in Zion had to be spent before July 1, 1917. An engineer, W. O. Tufts, was dispatched from Washington, D.C. to look into the matter. After preliminary exploration, a survey was made, plans outlined, material procured and workmen engaged. By November 1, construction on the road was begun, starting at the boundary and working up the canyon. About the same time, convicts were building a road from La Verkin to Springdale. By the summer of 1917, a passable road led into Zion Canyon.

Douglas White, zealous promoter of Utah’s scenic riches, urged Albright to come west and visit Zion Canyon with him in the summer of 1917. In September, he met him in Los Angeles and they went to Lund, Utah, by train and over to Cedar City by auto, where they met Road Commissioner Henry W. Lunt and Mr. R. A. Thorley, a Cedar City stockman. The next morning Albright, White and Thorley, in a touring car driven by Chauncey Parry, started south over the “perfectly terrible roads” and reached the Wylie Camp in Zion in the afternoon. At Rockville, they met David Hirschi, bishop of the village. The next day, in the words of Albright:

We went as far up Mukuntuweap Canyon as possible. We watched the cable operate from the rim of Zion to the floor. We hiked through to the Narrows and back again. That night we saw a full moon light up the canyon and the next morning I was up early enough to see the sunlight creep down from the top of the domes and spires to the valley floor. I was overwhelmed by the loveliness of the valley and the beauty of the canyon walls and was sure that the area was of national park caliber.

Albright faced two troublesome local problems: elimination of grazing in the canyon and keeping narrow-tired wagons off the new road. He conferred with Bishop Hirschi, who suggested a conference with the local people concerned. At the conference, Albright recorded:

... cooperation of the local people was cheerfully extended, and the orders were issued soon after and were generally obeyed, with the result that the grazing was stopped and the shrubs and wild flowers in the canyon began to come back. I shall always remember with keenest delight my early association with those good Mormon people, who, without knowing what a national park was, cooperated so fully in executing orders that brought them real hardship.[95]

After the contractors finished the Zion road, equipment and other government property was left in care of Walter Ruesch of Springdale, whose home had been used as headquarters by Tufts. Albright interviewed Ruesch and retained him in charge. This led to Ruesch’s appointment as first custodian of the Monument and later as first acting superintendent of the Park. Albright enjoyed recounting his first introduction to Ruesch by Bishop Hirschi, who told him “what a fine character Mr. Ruesch was and how hard he worked, but cautioned me that he had one terrible habit. Over and over again he emphasized the habit. Finally, almost terror-stricken, I asked him what the bad habit was, and he said, ‘He swears.’”

When Horace Albright and Douglas White left Zion, they called upon the new Governor (Simon Bamberger), whom they asked to continue the convict labor on the road from Cedar City to Zion. The story goes that the Governor had driven over this road and found it pretty rough. Besides, the dugway up the Hurricane Fault had cost much more than he had expected. The proposals of White and Albright aroused his wrath. Jumping to his feet, the Governor pounded his desk and shouted, “I build no more roads to rocks!” As a matter of fact, road improvement was interrupted for the time being; World War I was on and interest lagged, not to be revived until 1920, when it was nearly time for a new governor to take over the state administration.

From Salt Lake City Albright wired Director Mather, who was still in California and had not yet assumed office, urging him to visit southern Utah, and giving him a glowing account of what he had seen. Mather did not reply at once but later wrotethat he thought Albright must have fallen into the hands of some chamber of commerce directors or had been given some very potent drink, for he had never heard of such a country and found it difficult to believe it existed.

During the next winter in Washington, D.C., Albright toyed with the idea of changing the name of the monument from Mukuntuweap to Zion and was urged to do so by Douglas White. Secretary Lane approved and the Utah congressional delegation concurred. Albright prepared a proclamation changing the name and enlarging the monument to one hundred and twenty square miles, which President Wilson signed March 18, 1918.

Other Utah scenic areas, including Cedar Breaks, Bryce Canyon and Wayne Wonderland, all profited by the publicity accorded Zion and the Grand Canyon. S. A. Halterman of Parowan, Utah, took the first automobile to Cedar Breaks via the wagon road in Parowan Canyon. In 1920, he piloted Senator Smoot and others over the same route to see the Breaks. By 1921, he was planning regular weekly trips for tourists during the summer. Iron County spent about $12,000 that year to improve the road.

On August 25, 1918, Oliver J. Grimes of Salt Lake City, published an article inThe Salt Lake Tribune, describing “Utah’s New Wonderland, Bryce’s Canyon,” which stimulated additional interest in southern Utah’s scenic wonderland. During that summer, LeRoy Jeffers, an eastern writer, visited Bryce Canyon and published an article entitled, “The Temple of the Gods in Utah” in theScientific Americanof October 5, 1918. He approached Bryce from North Rim of Grand Canyon, from which he says, “we made a rapid run through the yellow pine and aspen forest of the Kaibab Plateau—crossed the burning sands of the Kanab which nestles verdantly among the vermillion cliffs of southern Utah. We had come eighty to eighty-five miles before sundown and were ready for a similar trip to Panguitch on the following day.” He gave directions for reaching Bryce via Marysvale and Panguitch; described the wonders of the scenery and published four pictures.

When Albright read the article, he recalled that he had heard of Bryce Canyon when he was at Zion and made inquiries about the feasibility of establishing it as a national monument. He was temporarily blocked because it was a part of a national forest. However, it was placed on the agenda for later consideration. Albright later made up his mind that Bryce Canyon belonged in the National Park System, but Director Mather did not at first agree and toyed with the idea of a system of state parks to supplement the national system. Bryce, he considered, would make a keystone around which other state parks could be clustered. However, when the Utah governor and state legislature rejected hisview and insisted that Bryce Canyon, Cedar Breaks and Wayne Wonderland were of national park caliber, he yielded and when later he saw these marvels, was delighted that he had done so.

Cedar City was preparing to cope with the growing traffic. It was apparent that the town was the strategic point for those wishing to visit southern Utah via the railroad and auxiliary bus lines. Randall L. Jones returned to his native Cedar City in 1912 as an architect, and drew plans for a modern hotel, later called El Escalante. The local chamber of commerce backed him and work was started in 1918. It was, however, a major undertaking for a small community and was not completed for several years. His wide travel experience and his realization of the necessity of good highways as well as good hotels in the development of scenic attractions, made him the logical choice at a later date as liaison officer for the Union Pacific Railroad.

Mather and Albright were both in the West during the summer of 1919, but neither had opportunity to visit southern Utah. However, Albright had conferred with Senator Smoot several times on the question of creating Zion Canyon a national park. Mather finally yielded to their persuasion even though he had not yet seen it. Albright went ahead with plans, drafted legislation, prepared reports and presented arguments to the congressional committees. Boundary lines of the park were based upon information furnished by Richard A. Thorley of Cedar City and Leo A. Snow of St. George.

Smoot had previously introduced a bill in the Senate (S. B. 8282) to change the name of Mukuntuweap National Monument to Little Zion National Park, but no action was taken. On May 20, 1919, he introduced another bill (S. B. 425, Vol. 58:9640) to establish the Zion National Park in the State of Utah. It passed the Senate a month later and was sent to the House Committee on Public Lands the next day. It was reported in the House, August 26, after which amendments delayed its passage until October 6. The bill was finally signed in the House, November 15, and in the Senate, November 19, 1919, and sent to the President, who signed it that same day.

Mather was in Denver at the time of its passage, attending a conference of national park superintendents, at which Walter Ruesch was also present as custodian of Zion National Monument. When word reached him, Mather immediately decided to make his long delayed visit to Zion. His enthusiasm was immediate and thereafter he gave personal attention to its affairs.

The dedication took place, September 15, 1920, in the presence of a large assembly. St. George and Cedar City bands furnished music. Speakers included Director Mather, Senator Reed Smoot, ex-Governor William Spry, C. Clarence Neslen, mayor of Salt Lake City, and Heber J. Grant, president of the MormonChurch, representing Governor Simon Bamberger. Mather reviewed the history of the Park, Mayor Neslen foretold its future, and other speakers promised support for its development.

Travel into Zion was slowly increasing. The number of people entering in 1920 nearly doubled that of the previous year (from 1914 to 3692). By 1930 it had increased to more than 55,000 and for a decade thereafter registered proportionate gains. Governor Bamberger in 1920 sent Randall Jones to Denver as Utah’s delegate to the Park-to-Park Highway conference, where plans were laid to coordinate the local movements for good roads into a park-to park system.

Among the interesting parties that came in 1921 was a tour sponsored by theBrooklyn Eagle, which took in the scenic loop to Bryce Canyon as a side trip. Mather came again, bringing with him Emerson Hough, eminent novelist, and Edmund Heller, naturalist. During that year a road passable for autos was built from Cedar City up Cedar Canyon to the Breaks, but it was excessively steep and dangerous.

In response to pressure from Utah to undertake development of the scenic south, in 1921 Carl R. Gray, president of the Union Pacific Railroad Company, determined to investigate personally the agricultural possibilities of contributing areas. His party left Lund and examined the farming areas around Cedar, Parowan and Fillmore and interviewed farmers and livestock men. Mr. Gray was favorably impressed with the stability of the communities and the quality of the people. As a result, a railroad spur was built to Fillmore a year later.

The following summer Gray and his party made the rounds of the scenic areas. The Union Pacific was preparing to take over the Salt Lake Route and was further investigating the resources of the area. According to Randall Jones, Gray offered to buy the El Escalante Hotel in Cedar City and the next year a spur of the railroad was run from Lund to Cedar City, justified on the basis of anticipated traffic from livestock, agriculture, iron ore and tourist travel.

With a rail-head at Cedar City, June 27, 1923, the Union Pacific organized a subsidiary Utah Parks Company, took over the El Escalante Hotel, set up a large bus station at Cedar City, purchased the Wylie tourist camp interests in Zion Canyon and the Parry transportation route from Cedar City to Zion. In 1917 under National Park permit to the National Park Transportation and Camping Company, W. W. Wylie, who formerly operated in Yellowstone Park, had set up a tent camp in Zion Canyon and North Rim in cooperation with two of the Parry Brothers, Gronway and Chauncey, who had undertaken to provide transportation for visitors. The Parry Brothers closed in 1918 at the time of World War I, resumed business in 1920 and worked out a ten-day roundtrip for visitors from Cedar City via Zion, Kaibab, North Rim, Bryce and Panguitch back to Cedar City. This round trip with variations was maintained until 1923, when the Utah Parks Company acquired part, and in 1927, all of the Parry and Wylie interests.

Southern Utah scenic attractions were spotlighted with the visit of President Warren G. Harding to Zion Canyon, June 27, 1923, en route across country toward Alaska, a journey from which the President was not to return alive. The report of his trip was spread throughout the nation. Everything had been planned in advance. A group of seventy-five local Paiute Indians in gaudy attire was conspicuously at hand. The party was transferred from the station to twenty-four automobiles and started south over the newly smoothed earth and gravel roads leading to Zion Canyon. The caravan, including the cars of many local leaders, stretched out at least five miles and the dust much farther.

A stop was made at Anderson’s Ranch where the best of the Dixie peaches and other fruits were sampled. At Toquerville hundreds had congregated to honor the first President of the United States to visit their section of the country. Harding spoke from a flag-draped platform and then the procession went on, passed through Rockville, where the streets were lined with onlookers, to Springdale where it was welcomed by a fife and drum corps led by John Dennett and O. D. Gifford playing many of the tunes they had once used to welcome Brigham Young on his journeys.

At the entrance to the Park, they were welcomed by mounted rangers and by an orchestra and chorus from Dixie College at St. George. At the Wylie Camp, they were cheered by five hundred local people and tourists and serenaded by the college musicians during lunch. After the meal, the caravan proceeded to the end of the road at the Grotto campground, and twenty-four men, including the President, went horseback two miles farther to the foot of the cable. The caravan then retraced its route to Cedar City, where in the evening, both President and Mrs. Harding gave short talks to the assembled multitude before bidding farewell and boarding their train. The trip had been unmarred by trouble of any kind and seemed to have been immensely enjoyed.

Before leaving Washington, President Harding had signed a proclamation making Bryce Canyon a national monument, but had left it under the direction of the U. S. Forest Service in the Department of Agriculture. The transfer to the Department of Interior was to come later. The Forest Service went ahead with plans for its development.

By 1923, passable auto roads reached Zion, Kaibab, North Rim, Bryce Canyon, and Cedar Breaks, but some of the routes were circuitous and it required a great deal of extra travel tomake the loop. Thus the road from La Verkin to Zion had to be retraced in order to go from Hurricane to Pipe Springs, while to reach Cedar Breaks a special side trip was necessary from either Parowan or Cedar City, and to get back to Cedar City from Bryce required a routing through Panguitch and Paragonah. Popular demand was growing for shorter and more direct routes as well as for better roads.

During Governor Bamberger’s administration, (1917-1921), a bond issue of $6,000,000 was earmarked to build a concrete highway south to St. George, but funds were exhausted before Provo was reached. Under Governor Charles R. Mabey (1921-1925), gravel roads were stressed in place of the more expensive concrete, and a gasoline tax to replace state and county road taxes was enacted into law, but the road to St. George had never been completed. A solution was proposed in 1924 at a meeting attended by G. G. Armstrong, Lafayette Hanchett, A. W. Ivins. George A. Smith, W. J. Halloran and Randall Jones, altruistic Utah citizens. The scheme proposed that each of the southern counties be given a quota of $5,000 and Salt Lake City, $10,000, to be raised through the chambers of commerce. This money was used by the State Road Commission to match federal funds for building the road over the black ridge between Ash Creek and Pintura in Washington County.

Federal aid for roads had been available since 1916, but complications between state and federal rights and prerogatives delayed cooperation. By 1923, the Federal Bureau of Public Roads and the State Road Commission were both studying the problem of linking the scenic points of southern Utah and northern Arizona. B. J. Finch of the Bureau of Public Roads and Howard C. Means, Utah State Road Engineer, investigated the possibilities of a short-cut from Zion eastward toward Mt. Carmel or Kanab. In early June, 1923, they arrived at Orderville and rode horseback with two local guides along the east rim of Zion seeking a possible outlet. From study of topographic sheets, they had already conceived a possible route up Parunuweap Canyon. Failing here, they drove around to Zion Canyon via Kanab, Pipe Springs and Hurricane. Walter Ruesch, acting Superintendent of Zion, suggested that they confer with John Winder, the man best acquainted with the “lay of the land” who already had ideas on the subject.

In 1880, when only ten years old, Winder had climbed the old Indian trail out of Zion where he later (1896) built the first East Rim Trail. He remembered that “old man Newman” of Rockville had always contended that timber could be brought down from Cedar Mountain if a road could be bored through the cliffs of Zion. Winder had explored every outlet and was convinced that there was only one possibility: a road up PineCreek to the cliff and a tunnel opening in the Great Arch and coming out into the canyon above the cliff.

Means and Finch found Winder running logs down the cable. He immediately suggested the Pine Creek route and tunnel. The next day, the three men studied Pine Creek and the possible route up to the Arch. Winder then took them horseback to his ranch on the East Rim, via East Rim Trail. They walked down Pine Creek afoot to the top of the cliff. Encountering difficulties of grade and outlet at the top, they studied alternative possibilities and finally evolved the route now followed by the present road and tunnel.

The Salt Lake Tribune(June 25 and 26, 1923) published a sensational report of their investigations, but there was much skepticism in and out of official circles. In the end, however, the Pine Creek route was finally selected because it traversed the National Park, where federal funds would be available without being matched by the state.

Congressman Louis C. Crampton of Michigan, chairman of the House Committee for the National Park Service, took a personal interest in the route and tunnel and sponsored the appropriations that made it possible. During the planning and construction of this superb highway, which was to become an attraction second only to the canyon itself, Crampton made several trips to the park to watch its progress.

Since it was realized that the Pine Creek route would be years in building, several short-cuts were provided. A road connecting Cedar Breaks with Highway 89 on the summit between Hatch and Glendale was opened in 1923 so that parties making the loop could return to Cedar City via Cedar Breaks instead of Panguitch and Paragonah. In 1924, another cutoff was made from Rockville to the plains leading to Pipe Springs, thus eliminating the long trip down river to Hurricane and back. This road was firmly financed by a contribution of $5,000 from Stephen T. Mather.

In the Park itself, a road was surveyed from the cable up-canyon and was finished to the Temple of Sinawava in the spring of 1925. From that point on to the Narrows where the walls close in to leave room only for the river, a foot path, one mile in length, was constructed. Simultaneously three other trails were constructed: one to the West Rim, one to the top of Lady Mountain (Mount Zion) and one along the east bench under the cliffs from Wylie Grove in both directions. The next year, a trail to the top of Angel Landing was constructed and two suspension bridges across the river were installed and the trails opened to Emerald Pool.

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