In 1874, Bryce Canyon became part of a cattle ranch owned by Ebenezer Bryce. His ranch was unsuccessful, but automobile tourism revitalized the area when passable roads reached what is now Zion National Park in 1917. In 1921, Utah’s state legislature accepted a proposition from Park Service director Stephen Mather that protected Bryce Canyon as a state park. Utah made no attempt to develop the area for public use, but the Union Pacific Railroad spurred development in Bryce Canyon by creating the Utah Parks Company in 1923. This connected the Union Pacific’s Cedar City spur line to Bryce Canyon, the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park, and Zion via bus lines. By establishing a network of parks and resorts, the Union Pacific aimed to compete with other successful railroad companies such as the Northern Pacific, Atchison-Topeka Santa Fe, and Great Northern. These companies had established successful tourist attractions at the South Rim of Grand Canyon, Yellowstone National Park, and Glacier National Park. As tourism brought in profit, road construction improved access to rural points of interest like Bryce Canyon. In 1924, Congress established Utah National Park, and the Utah Parks Company constructed Bryce Canyon Lodge and Deluxe Cabins in the same year to provide visitors with accommodations. Congress enlarged Utah National Park and renamed it Bryce Canyon in 1928.
\nThe Utah Parks Company enlisted Gilbert Stanley Underwood, one of the Union Pacific’s consulting architects, to design Bryce Canyon Lodge. Underwood’s designs are notable for their commitment to rustic architecture, which used natural materials and textures to blend a building with its natural surroundings. He utilized locally quarried stone and large, exposed wooden details throughout the structure, figuratively connecting the building to its location. After the company completed the original building in 1925, it added two new wings in 1926 to make room for an increasing number of visitors. The Utah Parks Company constructed fifteen deluxe guest cabins the following year in a pine grove near the main structure. Their design used rough stone and natural wood to imitate the design of Bryce Canyon Lodge.
\nDuring the 1950s, the National Park Service renovated Bryce Canyon Lodge to make room for updated amenities. The hotel originally housed a barber shop, but the Park Service replaced it with a soda fountain. The Park Service also enlarged a road at the hotel’s front entrance to make room for larger vehicles, but the Park service expanded a plaza outside Bryce Canyon Lodge’s front entrance by removing the original bus lane in 1989. In 1985, the Park Service removed sixty-one of the lodge’s original sixty-seven standard cabins. The Sunrise Motel and Sunset Motel replaced them. In 1995, the National Register of Historic Places officially listed forty-two buildings in Bryce Canyon, including Bryce Canyon Lodge. This restricted future renovations, allowing the complex to retain most of its architectural significance. Today, Bryce Canyon Lodge operates as a historic hotel alongside five standard cabins and fifteen deluxe cabins.
","sponsor":null,"accessinfo":"","lede":"In 1923, the Union Pacific Railroad created the Utah Parks Company, which connected its rail line to attractions such as Zion National Park and the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park. The Bryce Canyon Lodge and Deluxe Cabins linked Bryce Canyon State Park to this system of resorts in 1925. ","website":"","related_resources":["Harrison, L.S. “Bryce Canyon Lodge.” In Architecture in the Parks: A National Historic Landmark Theme Study. Washington, D.C.: U.S Department of the Interior, 2001. https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/harrison/harrison14.htm.
","Tweed, William C., Laura E. Soulliere, and Henry G. Law. Rustic Architecture: 1916 - 1942. https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/rusticarch/part1.htm. San Francisco: National Park Service, Western Regional Office, 1977.
","U.S National Park Service. Cultural Landscapes Inventory: Bryce Canyon Lodge / Deluxe Cabins. NPS History Elibrary, http://npshistory.com/publications/brca/cli-bryce-canyon-lodge-cabins.pdf.
","Woodbury, Angus. \"A History of Southern Utah and Its National Parks.\" Utah Historical Quarterly, volume 12, no. 1-4 (August 1950): 194-211. https://issuu.com/utah10/docs/volume_12_1944/s/69226.
"],"factoids":[],"files":{"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/fullsize/2d65ab73bf5bf337b81a40dba1d6d45e.jpg":{"id":3718,"mime-type":"image/png","title":"Bryce Canyon Lodge, c. 1929","description":"Bryce Canyon Lodge, c. 1929. Gilbert Stanley Underwood’s design for the lodge utilizes rough stone and exposed wooden details to reinforce the hotel’s rustic nature.
|Grant, George A. Bryce Canyon Lodge, 1929. National Archives and Records Administration, https://catalog.archives.gov/id/520222.
","thumbnail":"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/square_thumbnails/2d65ab73bf5bf337b81a40dba1d6d45e.jpg"},"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/fullsize/0e790c4f1796797be9d09fdc5fee70cd.jpg":{"id":3719,"mime-type":"image/png","title":"Bryce Canyon Lodge, c. 2010","description":"Bryce Canyon Lodge, c. 2010. The National Park Service expanded the road in the 1950s to make room for larger vehicles, but the hotel’s exterior is largely original. In 1979, the Park Service expanded a public square outside the front entrance and added a wheelchair ramp. The Park Service closed the road in front of the lodge in 1989.
|U.S National Park Service. Lodging NPS Bryce Canyon Lodge, 2010. NPGallery, https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/2219b5025208461393ddc6a6bd3c3250.
","thumbnail":"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/square_thumbnails/0e790c4f1796797be9d09fdc5fee70cd.jpg"},"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/fullsize/04d026831d07c8eab69a18c97e23c939.jpg":{"id":3720,"mime-type":"image/png","title":"Bryce Canyon Lodge’s front entrance","description":"Bryce Canyon Lodge’s front entrance includes a large, covered porch called a portico. Wooden shingles on the roof reinforce Underwood’s use of local stone and rough logs to echo the lodge’s surroundings. |Pendlebury, John. 8. Front Entrance, Facing West, Straight View. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, https://www.loc.gov/resource/hhh.ut0284.photos/?sp=8.
","thumbnail":"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/square_thumbnails/04d026831d07c8eab69a18c97e23c939.jpg"},"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/fullsize/b612b2e01404d67e7b1cd7aaef1edb3d.jpg":{"id":3721,"mime-type":"image/png","title":"A deluxe cabin at Bryce Canyon, c. 1929","description":"A deluxe cabin at Bryce Canyon, c. 1929. Like the main lodge, Bryce Canyon’s deluxe cabins utilized locally sourced stone and exposed wood. These details helped to connect buildings with both Bryce Canyon and the local ponderosa pine forest. While the deluxe cabins have undergone relatively little change, the Park Service removed all but six standard cabins in 1985.
|U.S National Park Service. Deluxe Quadruple Cabin in 1929, c. 1929. NPGallery, https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/9c9d97aa-a3c7-6cfd-7b83-fc86d6939f6c.
","thumbnail":"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/square_thumbnails/b612b2e01404d67e7b1cd7aaef1edb3d.jpg"},"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/fullsize/e3b68f95e364dd065d354cc2203eb378.jpg":{"id":3722,"mime-type":"image/png","title":"Utah Parks Company buses at Bryce Canyon, 1950","description":"Utah Parks Company buses at Bryce Canyon, 1950. The bus system originally connected Bryce Canyon to a Union Pacific spur line in Cedar City, Utah.
|U.S National Park Service. UtahParkBus1950, 1950. NPGallery, https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/37494A1D-1DD8-B71B-0BC296BCADBF6E0F.
","thumbnail":"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/square_thumbnails/e3b68f95e364dd065d354cc2203eb378.jpg"}}}