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Show .HALF MILLION TOURISTS STOP ; Hi SALT LIKE . City Establishes Claim to Recognition as One of Big Centers of This Kind in U. S. e RAILROADS REPORT HEAVIEST TRAFFIC D. & R. G. Handles 325,000 " Passengers Into Salt Lake; Heavy Travel . on Other Lines. By entertaining rhiring 1915 the largest number of visitors of any year in its history, S;dt Lake established a ''claim to recognition as orie of the leading lead-ing tourist centers of America. Although Al-though the actual figures are not yet available, conservative estimates, by officials of-ficials of the various railroaJi centering here place the number oi tourists passing pass-ing through the city in lflo well above the half-million mark, f.raut'ally all tourists passing through, either on the eastward or westward journey, stopped in Salt Lake between train at least, and it is estimated that fully S3 per cent Vmained in the city a day or longer. The -Denver & Bio Grande and the Western Pacific, from present estimates, handled the bulk of tourists who passed through Salt Lake last year. These two roads, according to estimates of F. A. ailleigh, passenger traffic manager of th Denver & Rio Grande, handled iuto Kait Lake between 325,000 and 350,000 tourists. The Oregon Short Line, with :' iis 1,'aion Pacific and Southern ccu-nections, ccu-nections, aud the Salt Lake Route, .brought in, according to conservative '.f.rinmtes, in the neighborhood of. 225,-mih.i 225,-mih.i or 030,000 more. The total number of visitors during the vear, therefore, is estimate, I at from 350,000 to 600,000, or about tike the population of the state . of Utah. City Is Attraction. , Y!ic greater part of the travel, of ' 'O'iih1, ivmii (hit? to the California exposi-i exposi-i li'tj, i.'nl IS'iH Lake nnd other points of h-it'-n.'st in the intermountain country iitt'iv tliouriiiilh of visitors on their own ;in (unit, Outside of the city itself, Yellowstone Yel-lowstone park was unquestionably the ;j"?jitet attraction in the interuicumtaiii region, and Salt. Lake, being th central ;ueway to the park, was called upon to entertain practically all the visitors to the national playground. The Euro, Eu-ro, 'fan war al:m wiis responsible, to a fi'i't.nn i?n1 ent a t. leabt. for tbe hea vy travel vestwn rd. Many persons who formerly spent the summers in foreign eonwffrics turned their attention to west-em west-em America for the first, time. .... Tourists b'un to arrive with the .opening of the Pamtma Cfllifonia exposition expo-sition at San Pingo. and the number increased in-creased with the opening of the Fan-ama-Parifif exposition, at San Francisco Fran-cisco on l'ebruaiy 2U. Fronl June 1 until un-til well along in October the visitors fairly (dreamed through the city in both directions. The early part of October practically ended the vacation season, and since that time the travel has been oPipiJiativoly light. The early tourists 'were pra"fially all headed toward the Pacific riast and during the latter part of the ;ea;-(.m the principal travel was eastward" on account of the homeward movement'. Profitable Investment. Because of .the unusually low rates, the majority of the railroads failed to show any reat net revenue from the passenger earnings of the reason. Efow-oveiv Efow-oveiv t raffic officials consider that even : ;; if "there was little or no net revenue from passenger traffic that the season 's '. ' b'lf-inoss was a profitable investment in ,'i ' the way of advertising. The majority ,. of the visitors learned tor the first time : ;y. of the wonders of western America, v They learned that in scenic grandeur America ranks at the top of the list, and they also learned of some of the wonderful resources of the western part of the continent. Some of this knowledge knowl-edge will bring thousands of visitors in future years and some of it will bring investors and settlers to the vast western west-ern countrv. The majority of the eastern touvist agencies, under whose direction practically prac-tically all organized parties made the trip, might be" said to have "discovered America'' in 101,5. As a result, and with the aid of the thousands of last year's visitors, they are planning for a still heavier westward movement in 1016. Krum the earnings of the past season t lie tourist nancies are appropriating vast sums for the advertisement of the western country and parties are now be-1 be-1 1 1 r organized for the coming season. In vi rtually all itineraries for 19 lr Salt 1 .ake City and Yellowstone park oc-i oc-i npy prominent positions. Salt Lake Featured. In advertising the western country i the tourist element the railroads n-ily take first rank. The advertising literature of all western roads and manv of the eastern lines give Suit Lake CitV and the Yellowstone national park top place in the list of places of interest. At the Panama-Pariiic exposition the I'nion Pacific, of which the Oregon Short Line is a part, the Southern Pacific, Pa-cific, the Denver Ri0 Grande and the Western Pacific, and at the Panama-California the Salt Lake Koute, al! featured Salt Lake and I'tah and the in-termountain in-termountain mm try in general. The I'nion Pacific in its main exhibit ex-hibit at the Panama-Pacific exposition reproduced in miniature the Yellowstone national park and reproduced in size and derail the famous "Old Faithful'-' inn. Salt Lake being the I'nion Pacific gate- wu- to Yellowstone park, the citv naturally nat-urally will receive considerable benefit 1 mm this extensive advertising. The exhibit of the Denver & Rio Grande and the Western Pacific rail- roads was a mammoth plohe and both inside and outside the globe Salt Lake and Utah were featured. In addition to the exhibits these roads distributed at $T tlw globe large quantities of literature bearing uu the city and the state and i the wonderful resources of tbe inter-mountain inter-mountain country. T'ho Salt Lake Route confined its exhibit ex-hibit chiefly to displays of agricultural and 'manufactured products of Utah and distributed literature telling of tbe wonderful won-derful resources of the stale and the opportunities for settlers aud investors. Liberal Stopovers. The railroad companies during the past season granted liberal stopover privileges iu Salt Lake and offered every ev-ery opportunity to the travelers to learn of tho many points of interest and the vast resources of Utah and the inter-mountain inter-mountain region. The same privileges, it is understood, are to be extended iu 1916 and in succeeding years. In addition to thousands of' tourists, hundreds of visitors were brought to the city by national conventions, notably nota-bly that of the American Bar association. associa-tion. All visitors appear.;; to be favorably fa-vorably impressed with Salt Lake and Utah and the entire west and their impressions, im-pressions, transmitted to friends, should augment future travel through the western west-ern country. From all reports received from eastern east-ern traffic representatives, tiie travel through Salt I..1ke during the coming season should be almost' equal, to that of the season just vlose.f. The tourist agencies, with 'one less, exposition on their 1916 itineraries, will have more time to allot to Salt Lake and tbev are arranging for from one to two da'vs in the city instead of a few hours. Therefore, There-fore, even though the number of visit-ors visit-ors in 1916 may be smaller than those of 1915. the time they remain in Salt Lake will be longer and tbe general results re-sults should be equal or bettor. |