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Show jlo Highway Jl i 1 B-3 y-- U.S. 30 ,7 . Conyo J """h John """ J HAMING GORGE n"'" j DINOSAUR LAND W "N fVa sr.isi I ASHLEY "NY mom ( I NATIONAL ST-V. ! FOREST I 3 IT"- I FIELD HOUSE OF ifjj I VS-Lv I natural Hisioar I VISITORS' I VERNAL A CENTER DINOSAUR ' M (C NAT'l. q " j I MONUMENT LaPoinf --s r nlNOSAURW I ,M40f PARK 4J Jensen (ffy To To Old Fort U CL De"yer Salt Lake Docheme s Vernal Area Has Outlook for Getting Increased Tourist Trade either dam. They already are taking tak-ing a gander at the huge dam building operations. It's a sure thing that the people who come now to look will be back later to .play in the midst of the most scenic areas in the country. Several agencies, local, state and federal, are beating on doors to advertise the areas and attract at-tract more tourist traffic. Expansive recreation areas are planned surrounding the reservoirs reser-voirs of the Dams. Envisioned are hotels, boat ramps, golf courses, and beaches; new roads and bridges brid-ges to open "the new vacation lands" for fishing, hunting, packing pack-ing and hiking. The State Tourist and Publicity Public-ity Council says Utah has hardly begun to realize its full potential in tourism. Last year, imore than 3,000,000 tourists in Utah spent about $100 million. All agencies are embarking upon more ambitious advertising and publicity to bring in more visitors and keep them a little longer on each visit. One of the most successful programs pro-grams is heing carried out in the 'Unusual Uin talis.' Presently, the key point of interest is the Visitor's Vis-itor's Center at Dinosaur National Nation-al Monument, 30 miles east of Vernal. Last year 120,000 persons visited the Monument. At the Center visitors mav see You can't lose when you invest vacation coins to play in the vacation va-cation areas of Utah. You hit the E.njoyment jackpot every time. This year all of the state's well-known well-known spots will receive a shot in the tourist traffic arm. Everyone Every-one in the state is preparing to play host to what may be the greatest horde of visitors in the history of the west. Two places are responsible for this 'shot in the arm' Glen Canyon Can-yon Dam near Page, Ariz., and Flaming Gorge Dam, '40" miles from Vernal. These work-horse units of the Colorado River Storage Stor-age Project are also sleek, trotting trott-ing Good-Time Charlies preparing to offer America, a whale of a lot of fun. While the 'horses' are getting ready to harness the mighty Green and Colorado Rivers, they also are .twirling out a lasso to bring Utah one of it's biggest tourist bonanzas. As the huge concrete dams bow their backs against the onslaught on-slaught of the waters, they will add to their work function a galaxy gal-axy of playtime attractions. And, while- this- is happening, Utah's decorated land of parks, canyons, arches, waterfall and wilderness, is preparing. National Parks, neighbors to Glen Canyon, are shining up their doorsteps and laying an enlarged welcome mat. But folks aren't waiting for the completion of Dinosaur bones more than 100 million years old. The center is one of the few places in .the world where layer on layer of the earth's crust is exposed for all to see. Whole skeletons, fragments, dinosaur teeth all are preserved with care. The skeletons of these huge animals come into view as scientists carve away the rock exposing the bones. Another interest point is the Utah Field House of Natural History, His-tory, in Vernal. A billion years of geology and 500 million years of fossil records can be seen. A life-size replica of a fossil Dip-lodocusi Dip-lodocusi 80 feet long is on the museum grounds. Planned to coincide with the Dam's completion possibly before) be-fore) iwill be a scenic park. It is being built by Dinosaur Land, Inc., an organization of Utah men from Salt Lake City, Roosevelt, and Vernal. It will be built on a 300acre site on the northwestern fringe of Vernal adjacent to U.S. Highway 40. The park, an elaborate recreation recrea-tion and tourist facility, will tell the story of the Dinosaur with life-size scale reproductions made of fiber glass. Eventually more than 100 of the 'terrible lizards' will be on display. Building the monsters is Elbert H. Porter, professor of Sculpture at the University of Utah. Preliminary Pre-liminary work also is underway at the site on landscaping, parking park-ing areas, motels, cafes, curio shops, service station and educa-'tional educa-'tional and historical tours. Vernal businessmen have created crea-ted "Dinah," a cartoon Dinosaur, to advertise the Basin. She speaks from billboards, hotels, motel and cafe signs, and will speak even louder as springtime draws near. Her slogan is "I'll See You in Dinosaur Land," and she probably proba-bly will be right. Utahns in all of the many vacation spots in the state will reap benefits as well. - Utahns, even within a few hundred hun-dred mile radius, can sample any of several of the state's most scenic sce-nic areas including Flaming Gorge Dam and Glen Canyon Dam in a weekend. Studies have shown that the state ranks well below most other states in number of visitors, time spent in .the state, and expenditures. expendi-tures. Some officials estimate that the two recreation areas formed by the two dams will bring nearly a million more persons each year into Utah. A cautious guess points to at least 300,000 in the Uintah Basin area and probably an equal number in the southern Utah areas. Yes, Utah, wisely is starting now in her job as hostess to a never-ending party of tourists. |