Historic Irrigation Ditch

Following the exploration of the Upper Virgin River area by Nephi Johnson in 1858, Brigham Young (religious leader and Utah’s first territorial governor) called 33 families to colonize this beautiful but formidable place. Near small oases at canyon streams and along the river, intrepid pioneers began to carve out a cluster of villages surrounded by swaths of isolated land yet known only to indigenous populations. Brigham Young's method was to select a balanced group of people, including the different types of workers, professional people, and leaders and about the proportion that would be needed in building a community and send them out to make the settlements. This was probably one of the greatest of his secrets of success in colonization” (www.nps.gov).

Cotton, sorghum, maize, and later fruit orchards were planted by hands animated by faith and fortitude. Irrigation ditches and canals were erected to water and nurture their efforts. According to environmental compliance archivist with the Great Basin Institute Rebecca Finnigan, “For the homesteaders, pioneers of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the ditches were a vital artery helping them survive in the arid desert and were something they learned from the Southern Paiute Tribe, who already had ditches in the area” (www.thespectrum.com).

The red sandstone rubble and rough mortar of the irrigation ditch pictures suggests this was part of the settlement-era irrigation system between 1862 and 1898. The irrigation ditches were constructed of a combination of earthworks, stone walls, and linings, with simple wood bridges to individual properties. The irrigation ditches on both sides of Main Street, now Zion Park Blvd, were important for both irrigation and flood control. 

The communities of Rockville and Springdale remain extant today in no small part to the beauty and draw of what was to become Zion National Park, and the necessity of road improvements–from the first wagon-rutted trail of “Johnson’s Twist” to the SR-9 route–to accommodate an increasing flow of motor tourism, such as the Utah Parks Company busses. In 1872, John Wesley Powell and members of his company came through the Parunuweap gorge and explored Zion Canyon. The next year, Powell’s photographer Jack Hillers returned and took photos which were circulated. Still, few outsiders visited the region until a federal land survey in 1908 first exposed the area to the general public. Leo A. Snow, United States deputy surveyor out of St. George, Utah, submitted a report to Washington that stated, "in my opinion this canyon should be set apart by the government as a national park” (www.nps.gov).

Not long after, on July 31, 1909, President Taft set aside approximately 16,000 acres for Mukuntuweap National Monument, noting the “labyrinth of remarkable canyons with highly ornate and beautifully colored walls” (www.nps.gov).

In 1918, the name was changed to Zion National Monument, and in 1919 to Zion National Park.

After these designations, tourism and visitation to the area began ramping up, as a brief timeline including the addition of a Union Pacific Railway stop in Cedar City, UT and its subsidiary The Utah Parks Company that eventually developed and operated transportation facilities to Zion, Bryce and The North Rim of the Grand Canyon:

1916 A private auto-stage company, Wylie Way Company, started transporting Union Pacific passengers from Lund to Cedar City and beyond to the scenic attractions of southern Utah.

July 1922

UP president Carl Gray admitted that UP was considering a branch line from Lund to Zions Canyon. (Deseret News)

August 1922

In August 1922, in Utah Public Service Commission case 577, Columbia Steel received Commission approval to construct a subsidiary called the Carbon County Railway. At the same time, they withdrew their application to build another subsidiary called the Iron County Railway which was to be constructed from Lund, on the Union Pacific, to their iron ore properties in Iron County. The steel company withdrew their application based on the Union Pacific's protest in which Union Pacific stated that they were intending to construct the Cedar City Branch.

October 18, 1922

LA&SL received ICC approval to construct the 32.5-mile Cedar City Branch. To be completed by December 31, 1923. (ICC Finance Docket 2527)

1923

The Parry Brothers had started their Utah-Arizona Parks Transportation Company in 1917, in conjunction with W. W. Wylie's National Park Transportation System and Camping Company. In 1923, Utah Parks Co. acquired part of the two companies' operations and the remainder in 1927.

The Parry operation had originally used White autobus touring cars, which carried 11 to 13 passengers. In 1925, the Utah Parks Company purchased a new fleet of buses, with retractable canvas tops, similar to those used at the other national parks.

March 23, 1923

Utah Parks Company was incorporated in Utah. (www.utahrails.net)

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