Bryce Canyon Historic Resource Study

PARK ESTABLISHMENT (1929-56)

Joint Administration with Zion

To furnish a comprehensive administrative history of Bryce Canyon is beyond the intent of this study. It is worth explaining, however, the unique administrative setup imposed on the park from 1929 to 1956, due—for the most part—to geographical condition. Because of its altitude Bryce Canyon was a seasonal park, open but 6 to 8 months of the year. The overwhelming majority of its visitors took advantage of the most clement weather between May 15 and October 15. When the Forest Service tended the monument, visitation in the winter was so slight a snow removal program for existing roads and footpaths was discouraged. The National Park Service expected this trend to continue, making the need for a separate administration in Bryce Canyon all the more difficult to justify. [264]

Late in the summer of 1927, Assistant Park Service Director Albright outlined to Director Mather his views on the future administration of Bryce Canyon:

I would like to see Zion, Bryce Canyon, and Cedar Breaks all administered as one national park administrative unit even though covering rather widely separated areas. All three areas could easily be administered from Zion Park headquarters. One permanent ranger and possibly one or two temporary men in summer would be all that Bryce Canyon would need. It would never be necessary to establish a superintendent there after the Zion-Mt. Carmel road is completed. It would be as easy then to get from Zion headquarters to Bryce Canyon as it is for us to go from Yellowstone Park headquarters to the Old Faithful geyser region. [265]

There is no evidence Mather or his immediate successor, Arno B. Cammerer, disagreed with Albright's assessment. On January 12, 1929, all rules and regulations for the government of Zion were made applicable for Bryce Canyon. [266] Bryce Canyon personnel records for fiscal year 1930 show that none of Zion's permanent staff served more than 20 percent of their duty time at Bryce. Three temporaries, including a ranger-naturalist and ranger-checker, were employed at Bryce for 4 months during fiscal year 1930. [267]

A park ranger was hired for 5 months, his name was Maurice Newton Cope. In May 1925 the Utah Parks Company had employed him for $130 per month to assist tourists at the newly opened Bryce Lodge. [268] Since the tourist season wound down around September 1, Cope spent September to May teaching school in Tropic or in other gainful employment. [269] In 1929 he was hired by the Park Service as a seasonal for the months of May to November. [270] Superintendent Scoyen must have been pleased with Cope's versatility, From May 1930 to May 1931 Cope was employed both as a ranger-naturalist and park ranger. [271] During the spring of 1931 he moved his family into the park. [272] Thereafter, until Cope transferred to Zion in 1943, his family stayed with him during the tourist season and returned to Tropic for the school year. [273] Maurice Cope became Bryce Canyon's first permanent park ranger in 1933. [274]

Cope described his early Park Service duties in the following way:

When I went over with the Park Service, I had many things to look after. I helped to lay out all the trails and roads in the canyon and along the rim. We started to hire help to build trails (Illustration 20) and make ready to build camp grounds, rest rooms, chop wood and haul it for the campers, assign the rangers to the checking station, help patrol, look out for those who might violate the rules, look out for forest fires and anything else that needed attention. About the last of September everything would be closed down for the winter. Each year travel would increase and that would mean more help. We soon kept another man on duty during the winter so the roads could be kept open. Each summer about 15 men were hired to build new trails and maintain the other trails. [275]

In 1933 Zion's Superintendent, Assistant Superintendent-Engineer, Park Naturalist, Chief Ranger, and Chief Clerk served in their respective positions to administer Zion and Bryce Canyon, as well as the newly created Cedar Breaks National Monument. Only one park ranger, Maurice Cope, was permanently assigned to Bryce Canyon. During the 1933 season, Bryce Canyon's seasonal force consisted of one ranger-naturalist and two ranger-checkers. Laborers and mechanics were hired as needed from local communities. [276]

Local civic pressure for a "separate" Bryce Canyon appears to have first surfaced late in 1934. On November 10, 1934, a committee of the "Associated Civic Clubs of Southern Utah" convened at Delta. As a result of this meeting, correspondence was directed to Bryce Canyon/Zion Superintendent P. P. Patraw, asking him to explain why Bryce Canyon continued under the administrative protection of Zion. Toward the end of the year Patraw answered the committee, giving three primary reasons for the current situation. First, Patraw carefully pointed out that while the Federal Government was in the midst of spending enormous sums for emergency employment relief, it was at the same time attempting to reduce expenditures for the operation of government agencies.

Administrative appropriations for Bryce Canyon/Zion had, in fact, been pared from $54,300 for fiscal year 1933 to $46,390 for 1934. Second, the Superintendent explained the prevailing governmental trend toward an administrative consolidation of national parks and monuments. In 1934, Zion not only administered Bryce Canyon, but Cedar Breaks and two other monuments. To make this point, it was logical for Patraw to stress the geographic unity of Zion, Bryce Canyon, and Cedar Breaks. By extension, a "greater uniformity of administration" resulted from Zion's central office. Given the limited financial resources available for operating the parks, a pooling of equipment, supplies, and personnel was essential. Finally, Patraw cited the fact that Bryce Canyon was a seasonal park, inoperative for several months of the year. [277]

Patraw's response fully satisfied the committee. Yet, if spokesmen for the Associated Civic Clubs of Southern Utah concurred that parks in the area were "very capably administered," they were also determined to "advertise and do everything possible to increase the travel into these parks." [278] In his letter to the committee, the Superintendent himself recognized that even though operating expenses had declined, there were "more buildings, roads, trails, and other physical improvements to maintain, in the face of rapidly increasing tourist visitation." [279]

Notwithstanding the numbing grip of the Great Depression, annual tourist travel to Bryce Canyon rose steadily between 1934-41.

Total Visitation to Bryce Canyon, 1929-42 [280]

Breakdown of Visitation to Bryce Canyon 1929-42

Union Pacific officials certainly cannot be faulted for failing to predict the Depression, especially its economic effect on their carriage trade. The breakdown of visitation statistics to the park 1930s does, however, tend to demonstrate Omaha's original underestimation of tourist travel to Bryce Canyon by private automobile. Utah Parks Company's share of the total annual traffic was never again to approach what the company acquired during Bryce Canyon's first year of operation. Only the 3 prewar years of 1939 through 1941 approximated the total of Utah Parks Company passengers for 1929.

The visitation figures listed imply that whether the National Park Service liked it or not, it was compelled to increase expenditures for Bryce Canyon's physical plant. If roads are considered part of this physical plant, increased visitation by private automobile accelerated the need to construct the rim road. (See Park Roads section.) This and subsequent extensions in the park were wider and more expensive than earlier park roads, and were required to feature a judicious sprinkling of attractive view points, in keeping with the demands of a modern motoring public. New roads, of course, meant broader responsibilities for the posting of an adequate number of signs, and snow removal in the winter.

Bryce Canyon's campground was clearly no more than adequate by 1927 (see Forest Service Administration). By the early 1930s, the increasing volume of automobile traffic made it clear to park personnel that camping facilities needed to be expanded. New campgrounds, and the expansion of the original campgrounds, entailed new comfort stations, waterlines and sewerlines, and a more modern refuse disposal system. Trails, as well as roads and campground, had to keep pace with visitor traffic. Their proliferation and maintenance naturally required additional operating revenues.

During the period 1930-41, the number of permanent Park Service personnel at Bryce Canyon was "augmented" from 0 to 2. As noted, Maurice Cope's park ranger position was finalized in 1933. He was not joined by another permanent ranger until an authorization for fiscal year 1941. In that year much of both rangers' time was spent collecting automobile entrance fees the year-round. [281] Visitation for 1941 was three and one-half times what it had been in 1930, with nearly four times as many automobiles. On the eve of World War II, park personnel and facilities were undoubtably strained to meet the challenge.

Because of World War II, visitation to Bryce declined precipitously. The Utah Parks Company closed all of its park facilities between September 1942 and May 1946. Visitor entry from 1943 through 1945 was as follows:

Total Visitation to Bryce Canyon, 1943-45

Breakdown of Visitation to Bryce Canyon 1943-45

Approximately 80 percent of park visitation during the war years was composed of; (1) members of the armed forces, (2) local visitors, and (3) defense workers being transferred from one job to another. [283] In comparison to 1944, there was a 296.19 percent increase in visits by members of the armed forces during 1945. Throughout the war, maintenance of the park's physical plant was necessarily kept to an absolute minimum by a skeleton staff. [284] Neither additional construction (see, Isolated Construction), nor significant improvements of any kind were even contemplated. [285]

Although World War II offered Bryce Canyon a respite after years of furious expansion, postwar visitation literally overwhelmed facilities considered modern and reasonably capacious in the 1930s. To gauge the reaction of park personnel to the new state of affairs, the following excerpt from Bryce Canyon's June 1946 report is appropriate:

Travel continues to increase and to tax our facilities. The increased use of trailers in this area is significant and instead of being a fad as was prophesied a few years ago, it is apparent that they are becoming a permanent piece of traveling equipment which will call eventually for revamping our campground accommodations to include sewage [i.e. for each camp site], electrical and water connections. [286]

During June 1946 alone 23,870 persons visited Bryce Canyon. Only 639 (2.7 percent) of these arrived by Utah Parks Company buses. [287] Bryce Canyon's monthly report for September 1946 flatly stated that ". . . travel this season has broken all previous records." [288] By how much is evident in the September 1946 report:

There were 39,246 cars entered [sic] the Park this year as compared with 7,756 cars last year, and 129,134 people as 289 compared with 25,812. This is an increase of over 400%. It is a fairer measure of Bryce Canyon's postwar visitation statistics to compare them to the last prewar years of 1940-41. [289]

Visitation to Bryce Canyon, Prewar and Postwar

Breakdown of Visitation to Bryce Canyon 1946-49

This crush of visitors and automobiles was accommodated with few complaints, even though the park's physical plant had, with few exceptions, not changed since 1941. [291] By June 1947, however, parking in the lodge area had become a distinct problem." [292]

Bryce Canyon's administrative headaches in the early and mid-1950s were aggravated by the continued combination of: upward spiraling tourism, an outmoded physical plant, and an insufficient number of permanent personnel. Visitation statistics for these years were:

Total Visitation to Bryce Canyon, 1950-56

Breakdown of Visitation to Bryce Canyon, 1950-56

The visitation total for 1954 is somewhat misleading. During June 1954 the park's entrance station was not manned as many hours as in previous years, due to a lack of seasonal rangers. [295] For all practical purposes visitation between 1950-56 increased each year. There were 23 percent more visitors in 1956 than 6 years earlier. With the exception of a new sewer system, completed in the fall of 1953, [296] no additions had been made to the park's physical plant since 1947-48. In fact, some of the older buildings such as the Sunset Point shelter were demolished because of their dilapidated condition. [297]

By the tourist season of 1955 Bryce Canyon's multiple needs were really a microcosm of the needs afflicting all Park Service facilities in the Intermountain Region. In the summer of that year a campaign was begun by the Salt Lake "Tribune" to make its readers aware of deplorable conditions prevalent in national parks and monuments within Utah. On July 30, 1955, "Tribune" staff writer Don Howard devoted the second article in the series to Bryce Canyon. The park's Assistant Superintendent Tom Kennedy had told Howard that:

. . . the park should provide more parking space, more scenic viewpoints, more miles of trails and roads, more campground, better museum, information and interpretive services . . . [298]

Kennedy's message to Howard was difficult to misinterpret. Bryce Canyon had been backward and short of funds since the war. Over the years, joint administration with Zion had done little to improve matters. After the war it probably worsened them. There is no questioning that in the mid-1950s park personnel were demoralized. Bryce Canyon, like the vast majority of its sister parks, was adrift.

Separate Administration for Bryce Canyon

Had it not been for the implementation of National Park Service Director Conrad L. Wirth's "MISSION 66" program at the beginning of fiscal year 1957, Bryce Canyon would likely have indefinitely remained an administrative dependent of Zion. MISSION 66, an ambitious campaign to bring Park Service facilities throughout the country "up to par" by the Service's golden anniversary in 1966, [299] evolved in three stages. Director Wirth initially requested that all Park Service facilities notify him as to what would be required to bring each up to the standards necessary for servicing mushrooming visitor traffic. Based on feedback from the parks, 11 facilities were chosen for pilot studies. One of these was Chaco Canyon, administered by Glen T. Bean. Data collected from the pilot studies resulted in a MISSION 66 prospectus—used as the key document to update the entire National Park Service system. [300]

In November 1955 Glen Bean provisionally accepted the Superintendency of Bryce Canyon, contingent on its administrative separation from Zion. Bean gave the following reasons for the split: (1) increased visitation; (2) the need for massive physical development, to be implemented by MISSION 66; (3) lack of attention to the park during winter months, especially with respect to roads and buildings; and (4) renewed local pressure for a "separate" Bryce Canyon, supported by a petition. [301] During August 1956 Director Wirth visited the park and helped to revise the current Master Plan. [302] The revised plan was finalized in January 1957. [303] This document opened the door to the modernization of Bryce Canyon's badly dated physical plant. The administrative split from Zion was made effective on July 1, 1956. Staff members added to carry the simultaneous responsibilities of administrative independence and implementation of the MISSION 66 program included a chief park ranger, chief park naturalist, park ranger, and the conversion of a clerk position to that of administrative assistant. [304] After almost 28 years of operation, Bryce Canyon was finally on its own.