OCR Text |
Show National Park Rating Sought for Utah's Arches Several months ago, the Department De-partment of Publicity and Industrial In-dustrial Development initiated a movement to have Arches National Na-tional Monument made a National Na-tional Park. The Moab Lions Club is waging the same campaign cam-paign and soliciting support of a bill they will introduce in congress con-gress to have the Arches National Na-tional Monument raised to the status of a national park. If the scenic section can be raised to the rating of a national park definite appropriations will be ear-marked for the Arches which should hasten an improvement of the roads and facilities of the monument. The contention- is that the scenic attractions in the Arches are recognized as fully justifying their being developed develop-ed into a national park. 8320 Tourists It is interesting to note that travel in the monument for the month of September totaled 577 cars and 1404 people which brings the total for the travel year up to 2995 cars and 8520 people. This is an increase of almost 10 per cent over 1947 accountable ac-countable largely to the fact that aproximately 11 miles of new roads, opening up a new section at a cost of about $19,000, were constructed within the monument monu-ment by the joint effort of Grand County and the Department Depart-ment of Publicity and Industrial Indus-trial Development. Figuring that visitors stayed at least a day in the monument, the new roads brought in 3818 more visitors vis-itors in 1948 than in 1947 and at the nominal cost of $15 per day spent by the average tourist. These roads accounted for $57,-270 $57,-270 being left in the district by the increased tourist traffic. From 41 States Visitors in the Arches this season came from 41 states, Alaska, Hawaii, Canada, Norway, Nor-way, China, France, Italy, England Eng-land and Sweden. California, Colorado and Texas lead in the number of visitors with Illinois, Kensas, New York, Michigan, New Mexico and Ohio following in the order named. |