Abstract
This thesis examines how the Bureau of Reclamation and the National Park Service utilized recreational values in their arguments throughout the Echo Park Dam controversy. This research addresses a gap in the Echo Park Dam historiography, as many historians have overlooked the importance of the recreational arguments used throughout the controversy and how they contributed to the abandonment of the Echo Park Dam project. Drawing on materials from the J. Willard Marriott Special Collections at The University of Utah, Dinosaur National Monument, government reports, Congressional Record and congressional committee hearings, and newspaper articles, this research analyzes the controversy in a new way. This thesis explores the origins of the recreational arguments utilized by both the dam’s proponents and opponents, tracks the evolution of the various arguments, and examines how these arguments led to the removal of the Echo Park Dam project from the Colorado River Storage Project in 1956.