OCR Text |
Show i"1-! A Tree Crows in Utah Despite a late start, Utah hat been acquiring and developing state parks at a steady pace sine establishment of the State Park and Recreation Commission Commis-sion in 1957. Since we are not a rich state, legislative appropriations appropri-ations have necessarily been low. Those appropriations have totalled just $2,601,000 since 1957, but for that sum the state has acquired and at least partially par-tially developed 29 prime areas of striking variety and attrac-Weneas. attrac-Weneas. Dead Horse Point with its stunning view across Canyon-lands, Canyon-lands, the Natural History Museum Mu-seum at Vernal with its model dinosaurs, Bear Lake Marina with its up-to-the minute accommodations ac-commodations are samples of park operations of which any state would be proud. The accomplishments ac-complishments are the more re-mar re-mar kable since almost a million dollars has had to be programmed program-med for land acquisition and development at Wasatch Mountain Moun-tain State Park, where due to Eipulation proximity, rising rid values threatened to preclude pre-clude this vital park. Important Role of Tourism During an election campaign in the wake of defense industry cutbacks, Utahns began to realize real-ize the important role tourism can play in the state's economic eco-nomic health. Statistics make dry reading but are sometimes some-times instructive. Despite lack of a paved road, fully 62,756 visitors have been registered at Dead Horse Point since 1962. Approximately 20,-000 20,-000 cars made a fifty-mile round trip, consuming perhaps 120,-000 120,-000 gallons of gasoline costing $42,000 on the junket State taxes on gasoline alone amounted amount-ed to approximately $4,800. Travel experts tell us each visitor visit-or spent half a vacation day in the Moab area as a result of the availability of Dead Horse Point Fully half those visitors spent $10 a day for meals, lodgings and incidentals or approximately $260,000 in the same area of Grand and San Juan Counties. All this because of a park at which just $68,000 in state park funds has been spent for land and improvements. improve-ments. And these visitors in no way reduced a natural resource the spectacular view at Dead Horse Point and its park facilities facili-ties remain for next season's visitors, next decade's visitors and for their grandchildren! This single illustration of what the state park system can do to enhance Utah's economic well-being is of special importance import-ance at a time when legislators must study the worthy budget requests of half-a-hundred state agencies. Nationwide Program Set Up It is of vital importance too since the Federal Bureau ol Outdoor Recreation has established estab-lished a nationwide program in which, during the next twenty-five twenty-five years, almost $5-billion will become avilable to federal, state, and local subdivisions on a "matching fund basis." Fully $200-million may be passed on to agencies with firm programs in hand for 1965, including seventeen sev-enteen states that have already passed bond issues of from $5-million $5-million to $150-million for recreation recre-ation needs. Utah's State Park and Recreation Recre-ation Commission has drawn a realistic budget request of $4,-587,436 $4,-587,436 for the next biennium, including a request for $573,000 for water recreation. The request re-quest for the forthcoming biennium bi-ennium takes into account matching fund availability. It :'s hoped Utah citizens, increasingly in-creasingly aware of recreational needs and the economic potential poten-tial inherent in this growing industry, in-dustry, will support legislative i adherents of a sound, vigorous, forward-looking state park program. |