Ferel Campbell: Growing Up In Zion

By Teisha Nelson
People come from all over to visit Zion National Park. It is a popular tourist attraction and

captivates millions of visitors a year. What was Zion National Park like back in the 1940’s? This is a

question that I asked a gentleman by the name of Ferel Campbell. Ferel Campbell was only ten-years-old

when his family moved from Bryce Canyon to Zion National Park in 1945. Ferel’s father worked as a

foreman for the roads and trails. He was responsible for assuring that the roads and trails were kept in

fine fettle. In his own words, he said, “Less than one percent of the people that come to Zion now came

to Zion then.” The beauty of Zion National Park was free to whomever wanted to enjoy the spectacular

views, and all those views were in Ferel’s backyard.

Ferel and his family moved to Zion National Park just before the end of World War II. Ferel

remembers the day that they were told that the war had ended very vividly. In his words, he remembers

that on that particular day, his father was working up at the end of the road by the Temple of Sinawava.

Ferel remembers walking up to the end of the road with his two brothers to inform their father of the

good news. At this time, there had been some apprehension about whether Ferel’s father would

possibly be drafted if the war continued. Ferel remembers being so happy and relieved to know that

neither his father nor his family would have to worry about that anymore.

The first home that Ferel’s family lived in when they first moved to Zion National Park was the

Grotto. During the time that they lived there, they had the whole area to themselves. Ferel remembers

there occasionally being campers coming to stay in the campground that surrounds that area. Only in

the middle of the summer did people come to camp and there were only at most 3 to 4 campers. Ferel

doesn’t remember ever seeing that campsite completely full. There were always open camp sites. They

did have a lot of deer though that would come to visit. In Ferel’s words, he said, “I remember one

summer in particular, we had a 4 point buck that would bed down in our backyard every night. It was so
close to our home that you could almost reach out and touch it.” This would be an experience that very

few of us will ever get to experience in our lifetimes. They had all kinds of animals that surrounded

them. This included deer, skunks, squirrels, rabbits, and snakes.

Ferel enjoyed meeting new people while living in Zion and getting to know them better. In the

evenings, Ferel remembers going around to the few campers that were staying there and visiting their

campsites. His family would always ask the campers where they were from and what brought them to

Zion National Park. During this era, Zion National Park was not widely known. Ferel also was always

curious to know if there were any cute girls staying at the camp sites. If there ever were, he would

excitedly get to know them and show them around.

One instance in the middle of the summer, Ferel said, “there was a group of Boy Scouts that

were camping in the campground. On one particular day, these Boy Scouts had ran onto a rattlesnake

and had killed it and cooked it up for dinner. They came over to the house and told us, “Oh we found a

rattlesnake and killed and cooked it for dinner.” Ferel remembers that his dad was very calm about it

and didn’t get angry at them even though the rattlesnake was technically protected by the park service.

Their home at the Grotto was built out of rock. Ferel remembers that the home wasn’t very big.

Five of Ferel’s six siblings lived in that home with him. The two older siblings by then had moved out.

During this time, there were roughly 12 households living in Zion National Park. Ferel said, “The

residents are still pretty much the same as what was there then except for now at least double what

lived there then.” Ferel estimates that there are probably roughly 25 homes within the park now.

However, most of the homes now are the rangers housing for those rangers who come to work for the

summer and do not live there year round.

Ferel recalls that, “after a year or so of moving to Zion, the park fixed a home for us across from

the river under the bridge mountain. That is where we lived the rest of the time I was at home.” Ferel

recalls that the house consisted of two quonset huts that were put together. He says, “it was a fairly
long home with 5 or 6 bedrooms. It wasn’t very wide but was quite long. It had 1 bathroom, a kitchen,

living room, and a dining room. The dining room and living room were connected.” Most homes during

this time had only 1 bathroom.

Having the river in Ferel’s backyard at both of the homes his family lived in, he remembers

swimming in the river on more than one occasion. In his words, he said, “it was a nice river.” Ferel has

some great memories with the river and also learned some valuable lessons when he got himself in a

pickle. In Ferel’s words, he states, “I remember getting in my dad’s brand new car to go run an errand. I

got it started and then went in the house to get some money for fuel and when I came out, the car was

rolling into the river.” Ferel remembers being so scared as to what his father’s response would be.

However, Ferel goes on to say, “I went back inside and told my dad that the car had just rolled into the

river. To which, my dad’s response was, well, I guess you will have to take the truck.” Ferel remembers

being so relieved and simultaneously surprised by his dad’s patient and loving demeanor.

Some of Ferel’s favorite things to do in Zion were roller-skating and playing football. Because

Zion National Park used to be a CCC camp, there were old buildings that were no longer standing and all

that was left of them was the foundations. For fun in Zion National Park, Ferel and his friends would go

roller-skating on those foundations as he said they were lots of fun to roller-skate on. In Ferel’s words,

he relates, that “lots of kids that we knew would come there and skate on those concrete floors.” Ferel

remembers in particular that there were two older girls that were 3 or 4 years older than him that

actually lived in Zion. These two girls would come and play football with him and the rest of the boys.

Their favorite place to play football was on the lawn of the rangers’ home. It was a vast field and

doubled as a great area to play football on.

Some other things that Ferel enjoyed doing was hiking and riding bicycles. Ferel said, “Zion was

a great area to ride bicycles. You could ride wherever and nothing got in your way.” Hiking was a popular

thing to do when you lived in Zion. In Ferel’s words, he said, “we hiked and did lots of hiking.” Ferel
recalls one particular Summer when, “there was an old building that was a restroom under the bridge

mountain where they used to have Easter pageants. The building had since been abandoned and my

friends and I ended up turning the old restroom into a clubhouse for ourselves. The building no longer

had a roof on it but the walls were still there. We spent a lot of time in the summer fixing it up.” Ferel

recalls that, “one day we was up there in the clubhouse and my older brother and some of his friends

came up with BB Guns and started shooting at us. We hunkered down in the clubhouse to keep from

getting shot. They weren’t too aggressive so no one got hurt.”

Transportation to school consisted of riding the school bus from Springdale to Hurricane every

day. In his words, he said, “I would make 3 or 4 trips a day to Hurricane. If there was a ball game, we

would get off at our stop on the bus and then would get right back on and take the bus to the activities.”

The bus would also take them back home after the activities. Ferel is very open to talking about how he

had a couple of times over the years where he was kicked off the bus for bad behavior and then had to

call his parents or hitch a ride in order to get to school or home. However, Ferel said the bus rides were

fun and it was great to spend time with the kids around the surrounding area, including Springdale and

Rockville. In Ferel’s words, he related, “we had dozens of children that were our age that went to school

with us in Springdale and later in Hurricane.” Ferel recalls that, “the walk to get to the school bus

involved going from our house up to the highway and it was about a couple of blocks from our house.

We had to go up a hill to get up to where the bus was.” Ferel then went on to talk about how

sometimes, “if we wanted to take the car to school, we would walk up just to where we could peek over

the hill and see if the bus had come yet. We would watch it drive off and then we would walk back to

the house and tell my parents that we missed the bus.” Ferel then recalled that his dad would then

reply, “well, I guess you will have to take the car to school.” As Ferel would say, “we were fibbers.”

In the summer, Ferel was able to get a job working at the cafeteria when he was thirteen-years-

old. In his words, he said, “you weren’t supposed to but they needed the help so they ignored the fact
that they were hiring kids that shouldn’t be old enough to work.” He continued working at the cafeteria

every summer until he turned 18. When he was 18, he began working for the park service. He worked

on the trail crew in Zion. Ferel recalls spending a lot of time repairing and keeping the trails in shape.

Ferel also did some tunnel running. When I asked him this question, he laughed. It was obviously

a common activity that one could not get away with today. Ferel said, “I did tunnel run more than once;

everyone would tunnel run. You would either take a stick and go along to make sure you didn’t run into

the wall or you would hold hands.” On one particular night, Ferel said, “I was tunnel running with one of

my friends and we were holding hands, and I don’t remember what happened. Usually if you put your

hands out you would be able to tell when you hit the wall, but I didn’t and ran right into it. I broke my

nose and blacked both my eyes. I was a sad looker at school for a while.” We use to go up in the tunnel

and have a watermelon bust in the big window. Very few cars came through, but now and then they

would and you would get up in the crevices and stay until cars would pass.” It was a past time to go and

spend time in the tunnel every once in a while. Ferel remembers on many occasions going to the big

window, turning on his car radio, and dancing in the window with girls or friends.

In the winter, Ferel would get together with his friends and they would go sledding. Ferel recalls

sledding down the switchbacks and also remembers never seeing very many vehicles come up the road.

In his words, he said, “in the winter, you would only see 3 or 4 cars a day come in the park and that was

about it.” They also enjoyed playing in the snow. However, the snow for the most part was mainly up in

the canyon more so than it was in the lower part of Zion.

Ferel has seen many changes over the years in Zion. In 1953, when Ferel graduated from high

school, he responded that there would have been not more than 5 rangers, 10 maintenance workers,

and 1 secretary in Zion National Park. The work force in Zion at that time consisted of a superintendent

and an assistant superintendent. Currently, Ferel suspects that there are roughly 150 employees in Zion

National Park. Another change that Ferel has noticed is in the summer time, you are no longer able to
take your car up to the end of the road. Instead, there are now shuttle services that have to be

facilitated. Ferel feels that Springdale has become just a tourist town. In 1953, Ferel remembers there

being 2 cabins and motels to stay in and a grocery store. Currently, there are roughly 10 very large

motels in Springdale and 2 motels that are currently under construction. The Cafeteria that Ferel

remembers working at is no longer in use. The building has been transformed into a nature museum.

The campground at the Grotto has expanded significantly. Ferel remembers there being only 1

campground when he was little. Ferel estimates that they probably have 4 or 5 times the area in the

campgrounds now than they did since he has lived there. The lodge burned down a few years ago and

has since been reconstructed. Ferel stated that, “it is significantly a different place than it was when I

was living there.” Ferel remembers, “sometimes we would drive around and see if campers had girls

near them then we would turn up the radio and have a dance in the middle of the road. Get acquainted

with them. Can’t do that now. It was more relaxed. Just a nicer place to live then than it would be now.”

Ferel lived in Zion until he was twenty-years-old. After he graduated from high school, he went

to school in St. George but during the summers he would always find his way back to Zion and spend his

summers living there. When Ferel talks about his time living in Zion National Park, he constantly

comments on how beautiful Zion National Park is. In his words, he says, “the favorite thing at Zion was

the beauty all around us, and we felt like we was in a beautiful place and it was just ours.” Ferel

describes the beauty in Zion as, “the sun sets were beautiful. In the mornings there was usually a breeze

coming down the mountain. The evenings were generally really nice. When the moon was shining in the

park, it was a wonderful place to go out and take your girl for a walk.” Ferel then goes on to proclaim, “I

did that a time or two.” In Ferel’s words, he says, “I was so overcome with the beauty in Zion. It was so

remarkable. I never did and never have gotten over the beauty of that park.”