A History of Southern Utah and Its National Parks (Revised)Woodbury, Angus M. (Angus Munn)
History
A History of Southern Utah and Its National Parks (Revised)
Woodbury, Angus M. (Angus Munn)
National parks and reserves -- Utah -- History; Utah -- History
Bishop David Hirschi’s son, Claud, took Fisher and a friend, Bingham, up
Zion Canyon where Fisher got the greatest thrill of 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 the
_Three 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 the _Great 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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account