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Show Son Juan protests closing of famed Hole-ln-the-Rock road San Juan County Commissioners Com-missioners last week attacked at-tacked the closing of an historic road in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Recrea-tion Area, in letters to various high-level officials. offic-ials. The Commissioners reported re-ported that the National Park Service has closed the Hole-in-the-Rock and Rincon roads which lead to the east shore of Lake Powell in San Juan County. Coun-ty. Chairman E. S. Boyle stated that the Hole-in-the-Rock road was the first road built in San Juan County. The road was constructed in 1880 by Mormon pioneers who initially settled at Bluff. The Rincon road was built in 1957 for uranium exploration in the Rincon-. Boyle said that both roads are on the State and County "D" road system. The Commissioners stated sta-ted that for many, jeep trips over the two trails "are almost a religious ritual." "When the bill was enacted to establish the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, the language lan-guage in the law and the clear legislative intent was continued multiple use," Boyle said. "The San Juan County Commission insists that these roads and all others within the Recreation Area remain open for vehicles," he concluded. The Commissioners stated sta-ted that former Governor Calvin L. Rampton, in cooperation with the counties coun-ties surrounding and adjacent adja-cent to Lake Powell and the National Park Service appointed the Governor's Advisory Council on Glen Canyon. The Council, the Commissioners continued, continu-ed, was to be "a landmark of cooperation between the various levels of government and an example exam-ple of cooperative planning." plann-ing." The Commissioners stated sta-ted that federal representatives represen-tatives had indicated that if the state and local government representatives representa-tives would be broad in their approach and accept things they were "naturally "natur-ally opposed to" in consideration of national interests, such as wilderness wilder-ness areas, they "could and would recommend our joint planning efforts." Though the federal representatives rep-resentatives "acted in good faith" the San Juan Commissioners accused their supervisors in Washington Wash-ington of rejecting the report and destroying the joint plan and cooperative planning process. The Commissioners further fur-ther accused the Park Service of proposing their own planning alternatives without regard to state and local interests. For these reasons, the Commissioners Com-missioners said, "the Commissioners of San Juan County hereby repudiate repu-diate the wilderness part of the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area as originally submitted by the State of Utah." They concluded, "The language in the law which established Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, the hearings, and the legislative intent clearly mandates multiple use and no wilderness should be allowed." |