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 to make 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.