Grand Canyon:
Ducey vows the park will remain open.
When the political divide gets too wide between Republicans and Democrats, it seems to affect Arizona’s most famous chasm: the Grand Canyon.
During previous government shutdowns, the Canyon has closed for a handful of days, disappointing untold numbers of national and international visitors and robbing northern Arizona businesses of untold tourism revenue.
On Friday, Gov. Doug Ducey vowed it would not happen “on our watch.”
“Do not change your travel plans,” he wrote on Twitter. “Count on it.”
In a news release, Ducey said the Canyon would stay open thanks to an agreement with the National Park Service. Money to keep the park open would come from the state’s Parks and Tourism departments.
Businesses in Tusayan, the town at the entrance to the South Rim, will remain open, offering lodging, food, beverages and retail, Ducey said. Services, campsites and trails will be open in the park. If that agreement holds, he won’t need to call out National Guard troops and threaten to reopen the Canyon by force, risking a court order to keep him away. Which is what happened more than two decades ago, during another shutdown under another governor.
On Nov 16, 1995, the federal government closed Grand Canyon National Park because of a shutdown. That day,
The Arizona Republic talked to a couple from New Zealand who spent $10,000 to come to the United States, hoping to see the natural wonder, only to be turned away. “I just want to go home,” said Debbie Waldin, wiping away tears.
The closure angered Gov. Fife Symington. He vowed that day to open the Canyon, by force if necessary.
“We’ll let you know when the convoy starts,” he told reporters.
The next day, Symington held what reporters called a “bloodless coup” at the Canyon. He arrived at the Grand Canyon Airport, just outside the park’s entrance in Tusayan, flanked by 50 unarmed National Guard troops and 25 state workers he hoped to use to keep the park open. The feds said no, both verbally and in writing.
When Symington arrived, the park’s superintendent gave him a letter detailing why the park could not accept his offer of state employees. It said the state of Arizona might be able to donate money to the federal department in order to reopen the Grand Canyon. But even that option was fraught with complications.
Symington, stymied, sent the troops and workers home.
The governor’s press secretary would say two days later that the standoff was worth it because “it was on the front page of just about every newspaper in America.” By that Sunday, Congress and the White House reached a budget agreement. The Canyon and the other national parks reopened.
The government shut down again in mid-December, but by that time the state and the federal government had reached an agreement that allowed the Canyon to stay partially open.
In October 2013, when the government readied to shut down again, thenGov. Jan Brewer initially didn’t call for dramatics to keep the Canyon open. She said the park’s status was among the issues she and agency leaders discussed.
Once the government shut down, the park began turning visitors away, upsetting tourists who had traveled from around the world to see the natural wonder.
Ten days later, Brewer made an agreement with the Interior Department, agreeing to pay $93,000 a day to fund the park’s operations