Bryce Canyon Lodge
Known Name(s)
Bryce Canyon Lodge
Address
1 Lodge Way, Highway 63 Bryce, UT
Establishment Type(s)
Lodge
Physical Status
Extant
Detailed History
The Union Pacific Railroad invested in the infrastructure of both Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park in the spring of 1923. They hired a Los Angeles architect named Gilbert Stanley Underwood to design tourist accommodations, including the lodges and inns, of each park. He designed the Bryce Canyon Lodge and Bryce Canyon Inn in the Rustic style favored by the National Park Service in the early twentieth century. The lodge was finished by May 1925 with additions completed by 1927. Bryce Canyon officially became a national park in 1928. The Park Service constructed additional guest cabins by 1929. Both the lodge and many original cabins still host overnight visitors to the park. In 1930, trains and buses began to transport visitors between Zion, Bryce, and Grand Canyon national parks.
In the 1959 Breen Book issue, the address is listed as: "Opens June 15th to Sept. 15th"
It might surprise those familiar with the Civil Rights movement to find entries for Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks in the Green Book during the 1950s and 1960s. In 1945, Interior Secretary Harold Ickes had ordered the desegregation of all national parks. Yet implementation of this new federal standard was varied and frequently unenforced. National parks often remained segregated or off-limits to Black travelers late into the twentieth century. Even after the Civil Rights Act of 1964, attempts to integrate public parks at times ended in violence. The Green Book continued to advise Black travelers of those National Parks friendly to travelers of color throughout the 1960s. Even as late as 2018, less than two percent of annual visitors were African Americans according to National Park Service data. Under President Barack Obama, the government launched a new effort to promote diversity in national parks. His memorandum of 2017 entitled, “Promoting Diversity and Inclusion in Our National Parks, National Forests, and Other Public Lands and Waters,” aimed to diversify the National Park Service and create exhibits honoring the historic contributions of people of color within the national parks.
Sources consulted:
“National Park Service Cultural Landscapes Inventory Bryce Canyon Lodge/Deluxe Cabins Bryce Canyon National Park,” 2010, accessed 1/26/2023, http://npshistory.com/publications/brca/cli-bryce-canyon-lodge-cabins.pdf
Bryce Canyon National Park History,” NPS.gov, “https://www.nps.gov/brca/learn/historyculture/park_history.htm#:~:text=President%20Warren%20G.,was%20restored%20to%20Bryce%20Canyon.
Leslie Kelen, "Interview with Charles Nabors," December 15, 1983, Everett L. Cooley oral history program, 99.
David Scott and KangJae Jerry Lee, "People of Color and Their Constraints to National Parks Visitation," The George Wright Forum, 2018, vol. 35, no. 1, pp. 73-76.
