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Show Utah Park Commission Will Press For State Park Sites side area near the Bonneville Salt Flats in Tooele County. The historic Brigham Young home at George and the Jacob Hamblin homestead in Santa Clara, both in Washington County are historic his-toric areas sought, along with the Connellsville Coke Ovens in Emery County, Old Iron Town in Iron County, and a desert area where wagon tracks of the Don-ner Don-ner Party still remain visible in Tooele County. At such cites, restoration or preservation work is proposed with the Commission also seeking protection and preservation pres-ervation of Indian relics and pet-roglyphs pet-roglyphs in several areas. According to Parks Director C. J. Olsen, in some instances the suggested acquisition or development develop-ment calls solely for small tracts, fencing and markers. In others, full scale parks with provisions for picnicking, camping, boating and other sports are desired. At present, Utah's only state parks are at This is the Place Monument, Monu-ment, Salt Lake; the Old State House, Fillmore; the undeveloped Camp Floyd Stagecocah Inn site at Fairfield, and the new Dixie State Park in Washington county. and the East Canyon - Parleys Canyon area of Morgan, Summit and Salt Lake Counties. Stating the "pressing shortage of recreation areas within easy reach of our major population concentrations has been a primary pri-mary consideration in its recommendations," recom-mendations," the Commission "likewise sharply underscores the fact that each year of delay in acquiring the listed areas will greatly increase costs to the point that acquisition will become be-come entirely out of the question in a very few years time." In its report, the Commission, while estimating acquisition and development costs for the five metropolitan area parks at $3,-500,000 $3,-500,000 "is deliberately taking the unusual step of combining estimated costs of these areas in an effort to foster a competitive price situation between them, hoping thereby to prevent unreasonable un-reasonable land costs." In addition to Dead Horse Point and the Metropolitan Area park proposals, areas recommended recom-mended for immediate acquisi- Utah's State Park and Recreation Recre-ation Commission has approved a report to the Legislature recommending rec-ommending immediate acquisition acquisi-tion of ten park sites at strategic areas in the state, early acquisition acquisi-tion and development of 18 other recreation areas plus adequate funds to improve and operate the parks for the benefit of Utahns and as major tourist attractions. The 150 page report contains an inventory of 117 potential park sites in every county of the state. It urges a bond issue to meet the estimated $5,113,021 acquisition capital improvement and operating costs of the program. pro-gram. The commission report stresses that "With $3,273,000 tax revenues reve-nues in cash each year for tourist tour-ist business at present, a 12 per cent increase in numbers of tourist tour-ist or in length of time they spend in Utah will provide an additional $392,760 annually in tax income. This amount will service and amortize a $5,000,-000 $5,000,-000 bond issue over a 20 year period at 2V2 per cent." Harold P. Fabian, chairman of the commission, points out that these figures refer to direct tax revenues from tourist spending on such items as gasoline, liquor, cigarettes, food, etc., while in the state. "Profits to residents directly and indirectly engaged in businesses ptaronized by vacationist vaca-tionist and tourist are of course far greater," he added. Lands sought for state park purposes include the much discussed dis-cussed Dead Horse Point area in San Juan and Garfield coun- ties, and a Wasatch Mountain--y" Park City state park proposal t concerning lands in Wasatch and Summit Counties. The latter features a group of parkland proposals pro-posals under the heading "Metropolitan "Metro-politan Area" in the report. This category also includes park proposals pro-posals for the Oquirrh Mountains t in Tooele County, the Mantua I area in Box Elder and Cache I Counties, the North Fork of the f Ogden River in Weber County tion and development are Circle Cliffs, Petrified Forest, Garfield County; Cove Fort, Millard County; Escalante Petrified Forest, For-est, Garfield County; Goblin Valley, Emery County; Hyrum Reservoir, Cache County; Monument Monu-ment Valley, San Juan County; Rockport Lake, Summit County, and Bear Lake in Rich County. In some cases, such as Monument Monu-ment Valley and Rockport Lake, lands suggested for acquisition or development are already owned by the state. In many other instances in-stances acreage involved would be sought from the Bureau of Land Management at little or no cost to the state. Some Dixie Park lands were donated to the state last month by the Washington County Commission. Similarly, it is expected some areas at Dead Horse Point will be transferred to the State Park Commission for development. Early acquisitions and development develop-ment is recommended for a road- |