OCR Text |
Show EDITORIAL: Utah Indian Day Summer and early autumn are the festive season the days when enterprising communities glorify wheat, strawberries, corn, black and white cows, raspberries, raspber-ries, pumpkins or various and sundry other agricultural products pro-ducts for which the celebrating communities may be famous. In full pageantry they revive the days of the old West with rodeos showing the customers a picture far more brilliant than anything the old West ever enacted. But these local expositions, which are gradually replacing the county fair, are well planned to promote community interest and to stimulate business. They are fast becoming a part of the economic and social life of every town that has a "day." Summer catches the tourist on his way to vacation land and seldom will he fail to travel out of his way in order to witness a rip roarin' rodeo or to observe the resplen-dant resplen-dant local color of "Muletown's Annual Gooseberry Day." Early autumn nabs him on the way back, tired and headed for home, but ever anxious to witness another an-other local celebration enroute. One or two celebrations, namely name-ly Cheyenne's Frontier Days and Pendleton's Roundup, have become be-come so famous that summer travelers arrange their itineraries itinerar-ies in order to be in Wyoming or Oregon when the events take place. A doubter has but to stand in front of the Plains Hotel in Cheyenne during Frontier Days to be convinced that such is the case (he has no other recourse than to stand out in front because be-cause rooms aren't available and neither is space in the lobby). He will see cars from New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, Vir-ginia, Ohio, Kentucky and a dozen doz-en or so other states drive up and unload passengers, clad in western garb, who have been on the hotel's reservation list for months. This all brings us up to the point that in 1941 Governor Herbert B. Maw proclaimed a Utah Indian Day and designated Roosevelt the town in which the celebration was to be observed. The fact that the Governor issued is-sued a proclamation and called it Indian Day gave it a resounding resound-ing send-off; it flavored the celebration cele-bration with official oil and made of it a state-wide affair rather than a local enterprise. Naturally it was left pretty much up to the people of Roosevelt and the surrounding towns to keep it alive, but Utah Indian Day it was proclaimed and Utah Indian Day it remains. The possibilities of making Indian Day the show and tourist attraction that have endeared Pendleton and Cheyenne to a celebration loving people are unlimited. un-limited. In the first place it's unique un-ique unique in name and from the standpoint that the Ute Indians In-dians themselves participate. It's unusual because it take place in the heart of the Ute reservation. And people travel far to witness the unusual. A dozen Utah cities would welcome the Indian Day celebration; cele-bration; several of them already covet it. We may be certain that unless Roosevelt pushes the show for all it's worth another town will take it and boost it to a top position among the nation's na-tion's attractions. Never again will there be a better chance to build a reputation reputa-tion for Utah Indian Day and the town in which it is held. There's a centennial coming along it starts six months hence. Utah will be crowded with interested travelers anxious to see what the state looks like. So Utah Indian Day can be made in the summer of 1947 by careful care-ful planning, but that planning must start immediately after this year's celebration. |