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 Mormon Church, 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 the Brooklyn 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 round trip 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.