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Utah Parks Company




The Utah Parks Company was incorporated in 1923, and over the next several years constructed Rustic -style, stone-and-log lodges at each of the Park Service locations it served. Most of the major buildings were designed by Gilbert Stanley Underwood , a noted period architect. (Underwood also designed the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park , and Jackson Lake Lodge in Grand Teton National Park .) Underwood's surviving Utah Parks Company buildings are considered exceptional examples of the Rustic style of architecture, and are listed on the National Register Of Historic Places .

As the twentieth century progressed, railroad passenger traffic declined and the Union Pacific's interest in supporting National Park tourism correspondingly lessened. The railroad's passenger trains to Cedar City ended in 1960, and in 1972 the Union Pacific donated its concession-related infrastructure to the National Park Service. The facilities at Cedar Breaks were razed, as were some of the developments at Bryce and Zion, but the remaining lodge facilities remain in use today. The current concessionaire at the former Utah Parks Company locations is Xanterra Parks And Resorts .


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