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Show National Park Service Director William Penn Mott and federal, state and county dignitaries accompanying a ..,-. - i- ft- ...vi j M,rf.vx . him stop along Burr Trail at scenic overlook. "Incredibly beautiful," acknowledged Mott. NPS Chief Gets First Hand Look at 'Trail' ESCALANTE Elementary and high school students were excited to greet William Penn Mott, National Park Service director, as he stepped off a plane in Escalante ready for his 66-mile trip down the Burr Trial. The students were thrilled as Mott showed them tricks he had learned and autographed their welcoming signs, but most of their parents were more excited to learn how the national director felt about paving the long, dirt road, major link between their part of the county and Bullfrog Marina on Lake Powell. They were disappointed, however, because Mott wasn't telling what his decision will be, and, other than acknowledging the tremendous beauty of the area, he left the people of central and eastern Garfield County as much in the dark as a moonless night on the dusty trail. The park director, was accompanied on the trip down the trail by Congressman James V. Hansen, R-Utah; Lorraine Mintzmeyer, NPS Rocky Mountain Region director; Roland Robison, state director, Bureau of Land Management; Don Gillespie, state NPS director; Ruth Storey, administrative assistant to Gov, Norman Bangerter; Sam Taylor, chairman of the commission, Utah Department of Transportation; Jim Yardley, Utah state representative, Dist. 73; Garfield County Commissioner Dell LeFevre and Steve Creamer of Creamer and Noble Engineering. Mott's decision will probably not be forthcoming for at least another three weeks on whether or not to j pave the trail through the approximately 16 miles that traverses Capitol Reef National Park and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. The section through Capitol Reef crosses via a series of dramatic switchbacks the spectacular geographical wonder known as the "Waterpocket Fold." The fold is at almost its narrowest point where the time worn trail crosses, a trail that has been used for almost a century by cattle ranchers and sheep herders in the area. The federal government's share to pave the sections through the NPS property would be $8.7 million, with the remaining 50 miles of the trail running slightly over $12 million, for a total cost of $20,835,000 according to engineers' estimates. Noticeably lacking at Friday's visit to the Boulder-Escalante area were environmentalists whose protests have been loud in the northern Utah area and in Washington, D.C. against paving the trail. The Escalante airport was bustling with newsmen and television cameras as the Escalante High School marching band gave a royal reception for the group before they boarded vans for the three hour trip down the Burr Trail to Ticaboo and Bullfrog Marina. Mott, 75, was appointed by President Ronald Reagan last spring to head the national agency. He served under Reagan as head of the state parks system when Reagan was governor of California. During his term of service in California from 1967 to 1975, he doubled the size of the state park system. He also was the first to hire women as park rangers Prior to his state park service, he worked for the NPS from 1933 to 1946. |