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Show In These United States National Parks Ready For '46 Travel Rush (By WNU Features) America is hitting the vacation trail this spring and summer sum-mer and the crowds in the national parks are expected to be the greatest in their history. Some of the parks are already open, and all of them will be operating at full schedule by June, says Newton B. Drury, director of the National Park Service. shorter tours in Zion, Bryce and Grand Canyon will be resumed. Ranger crews maintained by the national park system during the war years for vital conservation work will have their ranks augmented augment-ed to protect the parks' natural beauties and resources. They'll also protect the crowds, who often take chances in the unfamiliar un-familiar wilds. An intensive road-building and road - improvement program is planned by the department of the interior, continuing through 1946 and 1047, to meet the influx of automobile auto-mobile tourists who will follow in thj wake of new car production. While the national parks are always al-ways free and open, the usual tourist tour-ist facilities were suspended during dur-ing the war. Park attendance dropped from a high of 21,050,426 visitors In 1941 to a new low of 6,908,749 in 1943. That the 1946 total will surpass the attendance of 1941 Is indicated by the rush of late fall and winter visitors which started immediately after V-J Day. Shenandoah national park, in Virginia's Vir-ginia's Blue Ridge mountains, was virtually Isolated during gas rationing, ration-ing, but on the Sunday following the surrender of Japan four cars a minute were checked in at the perk. Lodges and hotels which have been closed for three years are being be-ing reconditioned. New staffs are being recruited and trained for the summer season. Few of the sightseeing busses used in the national parks were suitable suit-able for war use, so most of the fleets are still Intact. Yellowstone, Yosemite, Grand Canyon and Glacier national parks will have complete sightseeing services. serv-ices. It Is expected that enough manpower man-power will be available to restore full service in the other parks of the system. Some reconditioning work may take more than six months. Staffs may not be as complete and skilled as they were before 1941, but the concessionaires stated their plans are being rushed and they have high hopes of giving good service serv-ice by June. More than $500,000 for reconditioning recondi-tioning the cabins, lodges and cafeterias cafe-terias In Grand Canyon, Bryce and Zion national parks and at Cedar Breaks national monument Is being be-ing spent by the Union Pacific railroad, rail-road, which operates the facilities In these parks. The renovation program also Includes In-cludes purchase of 22 new 29-pas-senger busses and a fleet of 9-pas-enger sedans for charter service. The prewar five-day all-expense tours through all the parks and |