A privately owned 30-acre tract in the shadow of Tabernacle Dome inside Zion National Park has been acquired by two non-profit organizations that intend to donate it to the park.
The acreage was acquired by the National Parks Conservation Association and the Trust For Public Land, which were aided by an anonymous $825,000 donation for the purchase.
The acquisition is a bright spot in the ongoing effort to see that such inholdings within national parks aren't developed. According to NPCA officials, hundreds more inholdings remain in national parks, many of which have been turned into large trophy homes. In fact, an inholding two miles north of the Tabernacle Dome property is now the site of a large mansion that was recently constructed.
“There are lots of places to build large homes with great views, but national parks like Zion aren’t one of them,” said Will Rogers, president of the Trust. “These parks are for all of us. And now, thanks to a generous donation from a private individual, the view of Tabernacle Dome will remain forever unspoiled.”
NPCA staff knew about the inholding from their work in preserving and protecting Zion National Park and informed the donor about the urgency to protect this specific property from development.
“National parks like Zion were established to protect the unique natural beauty of those places and to prevent development from scarring their pristine nature,” said NPCA Program Manager Cory MacNulty. “The purchase of private pieces of property like the Tabernacle Dome location should be handled through the Land and Water Conservation Fund. But for decades Congress has raided this fund that was supposed to be set aside to protect our national parks and other protected areas from encroachment and improper adjacent development.
“We are fortunate that a private donor was able to protect this historic piece of land, but with hundreds of more inholdings still at risk due to the lack of funding, Congress needs to step up to the plate and fulfill its duty to protect and preserve our national parks for future generations,” she said.
The National Park Trust is supporting and assisting in acquiring inholdings in National Parks across the country and provided financial support to The Trust for Public Land to protect this property.
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Comments
This area is up the Kolob Terrace Road and is an interesting part of the park that is less traveled.So if you want to get away from the busy part of the park it is worth checking it out. I have only been there once. The road does move in and out of the park boundry. It is awesome that land inside the boundry will be protected and be part of the Park.
I was in Zion last weekend and while driving up to Lava Point, I took these photos of the mansion. It's huge and, boy does it stand out. It's also far beyond the part of park road that is snow plowed in winter, so it's probably a "summer cottage." There is a lot of other structure that is hidden by trees. It's larger than it appears in the photos.
This is wonderful news!
The only thing better now will be to learn that the place has been struck by lightning and burned completely.
Public or private, it does not deserve to be struck by lightning. While I agree it may be an eyesore for the viewing public, it IS their property. Inholding has been going on as long as there has been an NPS, as you well know, so why the attitude? At least this property holder is paying for his own upkeep, as opposed to those who "donate" their land to the NPS for the right to live on it as long as they live, with the government picking up the tab for their upkeep. This piece of land has apparently never been owned by the NPS, so quit acting like this property owner is the intruder.
This is very poor architecture for the beautiful surrounding environs and has absolutely no business being there! The owners obviously do not understand the bigger picture.