Bridge Ceremony Marks Another Milestone in Man's Fight to Conquer Nature's Barriers

VACATION LAND, 1929 ARIZONA HIGHWAYS Page Nine Bridge Ceremony Marks Another Milestone in Man's Fight to Conquer Nature's Barriers

ARIZONA'S colorful Far North, picturesque and lonely remnant of the last frontiers, will be the scene this June of a celebration unique in the history of the Southwest a ceremony marking another milestone in the conquering of Nature's barriers that the American people may more easily see and enjoy some of the most magnificent scenery in the world. Following the trails blazed by covered wagons of the hardy pioneers of a bygone generation, several thousand tourists will gather on June 14 formally to dedicate the Grand Canyon highway bridge. Down from Utah across the Prismatic Plains, through the mighty Kaibab Forest and remote Houserock Valley-up from Arizona across the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest and romantic Indian lands a new migration will end on the first structure spanning the great gorge of the Colorado in the shadow of the far-flung Vermillion and Echo Cliffs, there to officially open a new tourist route connecting half a dozen main transcontinental highways and making accessible to motordom a new area of untram meled splendor.

The whir of airplanes, the hum of motor cars, the martial airs of bands, will echo from the great rock walls that have heard the awed exclamations of Spanish conquistadores and monks, the rifle shots of lone adventurers, the creak of wagon trains bound from early Utah to found new settlements in the virgin wilderness that is now the fastest-growing of all states. Governors and their staffs will smoke a figurative pipe of peace where Jacob Hamblin, the "Leatherstocking of the West," first won the friendship of powerful Indian races some sixty years ago. And once more an outpost of the West That Was will vanish for all time.

It will vanish only in its solitude, however. All the majesty of that vast domain of Nature's vari-colored sculptorings, all the romance of its surroundings and associations, will remain, an eternal enchantment to those who seek the new, the different. But where few have gone before, thousands will now journey, assured that they may go on and on until they have seen their fill.

By H. E. O. WHITMAN, Arizona Industrial Congress Fitting, indeed, that the opening of the first permanent and dependable route between two of the West's most scenic states should be made the occasion for a great All-Southwest celebration. Not that the route itself is newit is one of the oldest in the two states. But not until this year, when the Grand Canyon bridge was opened to traffic, has travel over it been certain and convenient. So this summer will see its users multiply, taking advantage of U. S. Highway 89, that now can be declared a through route from Nogales on the Mexican border to Salt Lake City, and thence on north to Canada.

For unknown centuries the turbulent Colorado River, twisting through its deep series of gorges from Green River, Utah, to Topock on the Arizona-California boundary, has been a challenging barrier between the bulk of Arizona on the south and the "Arizona Strip" and Utah on the north. In all its 600 miles of sheer-walled canyon there has been no means of communication between the adjoining states except by way of historic Lee's Ferry and the comparatively few who have used that ferry, which was washed away with two men last year, can testify that the crossing was not without its hazards. So ever since the motor tourist discovered the inland Southwest travel has been east and west across both states, almost undeveloped north and south between the two.

The Grand Canyon, the Painted Desert, the Petrified Forest, the Navajo reservation, the Hopi mesa-villages, hitherto have been side-trips from Williams or Flagstaff or Winslow, taken by only a small proportion of transcontinental travelers. The North Rim of the Grand Canyon, only last year provided with a tourist hotel; the Kaibab Forest with its 40,000 deer; Houserock Valley and its buffalo; Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks in Utah, have been only side-trips from Cedar City and the north. To go from one side of the river to the other was frequently done more quickly and conveniently by way of California and Nevada.

But now, at last, all these and other incomparable wonders of that vivid hinterland bordering both states are directly and permanently connected by a cement roadway on lofty web of steel, 467 feet above the restless waters in their bright chasm six miles below the old ferry, and Arizona and Utah have invited all their neighbor states to join with them in celebrating their new union.

In keeping with the color that is the most fascinating lure of that vast land of fantastic rock formation, the great celebration on June 14 and 15 will be a colorful affair. Tourists from east and west, native and new residents of Arizona and Utah, descendants of those same pioneers who braved the crossing at Lee's Ferry before there was even a ferry there, will be there in force. With them there will be Indians by the hundred, stalwart semi-nomad Navajos, artisan and farmer Hopis, come to see the latest conquest of their ancient abode. Indian ponies, the buckboard of long ago, will not be ignored among the huge motor busses and roaring airplanes that will be available for transportation from Flagstaff or Grand Canyon. Included in the two-day program, as tentatively framed as this is written, are Flag Day exercises led by detachments of the Arizona National Guard; Navajo and Hopi Indian sports and dances; a pageant of pioneer days; camp fire tales of long ago, and a variety of amusement features. Governor John C. Phillips of Arizona and Governor George H. Dern of Utah are to preside over the formal dedication ceremonies, and other southwestern governors or their representatives have been invited to be guests.

Typically, it will be a real western celebration. Not only appropriately but necessarily, for with all the modern means of travel and modern structure that will be used, the Lee's Ferry or Marble Gorge country is still virtually a virgin solitude. A new and modern hostelry of forty rooms built last year in readiness for the tourist influx that will follow-will be taxed to accommodate official guests, and all attending will have warning they must come prepared to "rough it."

Thus everyone will have to be responsible for his own camping equip-ment, bedding; cots and tent shelter if desired; if they wish to spend the night. And, indeed, sleeping out is no hardship in that land of brilliant skys and clearest heavens. Water and food supplies will be available, however, as will motor supplies and highway patrol service, while as for safety-well, it is widely known that western "wlids" are far safer than many cities.

ARIZONA HIGHWAYS VACATION LAND, 1929

Considering that the Grand Canyon bridge is 135 miles from the nearest railroad the distance is virtually the same from Flagstaff and Grand Canyon National Park, and farther still from Cedar City to the north and west -preparations for caring for the crowds are no less a feat, in their way, than was construction of the bridge itself, which has been heralded from coast to coast. There are sections of the road to be put in first-class shape; water must be piped some miles from an In dian spring; parking and camping grounds must be laid out; supplies must be trucked in; an air field is to be pre pared, and a myriad other details at tended to. But all this is under way, and electric lights, concessions and probably even a dance pavilion will in vest the scene with many contrasts to surroundings that have been little changed for ages.

The celebration will be under the general direction of a committee named by Arizona chambers of commerce and the Arizona Industrial Congress, since it is a statewide and more than state wide event in its significance. With them the Arizona State Highway De partment, officials of the National Park Service and U. S. Indian Service, the Santa Fe and Union Pacific systems and many other agencies are co-operat ing to the end that the celebration may provide a worthy opening of another scenic highway that is destined to be come a main north-south artery of travel in the West.

Of the great bridge, and of the in numerable attractions all around it, it is unnecessary to speak in detail here. Let it suffice to say that Arizona in vites its citizens and the citizens of all its fellow-states to come and join in the dedication celebrating the conquer ing of the greatest travel barrier on the North American continent.