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Show {Sig CQaR Ci www.thespectrum.com — The Spectrum ZION e Continued from pg. 4 “We lived entrance to Crawford said. had produce, forth for sale, right at the the park; “Because we fruit and so dad put up A, ew LO ST. GEORGE instance, Crawford ‘said of the years before the Great Depression. Zion had one campground in the 1920s. “It served the purpose until - the middle 30s, when the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) built the second? a crude See. ‘picture postCrawford-recalled. cards for sale.” For several summers His brother Lloyd met while he was growing up, movie actor Tom Mix while Crawford worked as a dishselling those cards. washer in the lodge, He While his. family was recalls being disappointed often away earning a living because he wanted to be — either as a sheepherda bellhop, where he could er or working in a sawmill — the family often sold its earn tips. After high school, he produce or livestock to the attended Dixie College for old Wylie Camp; which preone year, then spent time dated Zion Lodge. with the CCC during the In. the early 1920s, Depression. Crawford will tell you, the From 1937 to 1940 he Perry brothers of Cedar City operated a gas station in visited the park and got the Springdale. idea to bring tourists to Zion, “Then Uncle Sam got me; Bryce and the North Rim. he recalled with a chuckle. “I Officiais of the Les Angeles went on a tour of Europe. and Salt Lake Railroad had Following World War II, the same idea. Both applied Crawford: earned a degree for permits and eventually in zoology from Brigham worked together on concesYoung University. He said he sions in the parks. also took courses in botany Union Pacific eventually bought out the LA & SL and geology. “I went to work as a park and had a monopoly on the ranger in 19487 he said. “I concessions. “One reason they made it a monopoly is. worked for them for seven they wanted to get people into the national parks; Crawford recalled. The railroad company invested substantial sums in its enterprise as it built the lodges, water systems and communications systems in the parks. In the mid-1920s the Union Pacific brought: in 40 buses which picked up passengers in Cedar City and took them on a circuit : oe Bryce and North pepk always dressed in suits and dresses,’ Crawford recalled of those days. Those first visitors were wealthy. “Ordinary, people couldn't afford to come and visit? ‘That changed in the early 1930s as more people owned automobiles and motels were built. “I remember people coming in camping, sometimes for weeks, artists for NEIGHBORHOODS years, then resigned: He did so because he planned to marry and the National Park Service regularly transferred its uniformed personnel. His future wife had a good job and they didn’t want to move. They built a motel in Panguitch where his wife, For the week of October 31, 2008 long love affair with Zion He National Michigan visiting some of his an Park and with Southern Utah in general, when I was 19 years old and 1,000 miles away; he said. recalls that mother’s he was relatives. in His LDS Church mother was originally from there, then returned years “T think I discovered Zion Tennessee and had lived in Texas and Oklahoma before eSee CRAWFORD Fern Houston, was from. He Wey Nrate ae “TLE SERVICE aieavesl| io at SVE Gro Wigeak eA We eee ee eS JBs Bs eee ie: rE sy ro SAM & 1-45 SLO A STG mission didn’t discover it Crawford early. worked as Garfield County's welfare director for 13 years. Then he returned to the National Park Service for another seven years. Ultimately the time he spent with the NPS and in the military was enough for a modest retirement. He has served. only..in Zion, Bryce and at Cedar Breaks. He retired in 1980 and the couple moved to St. George. His initial . fascination with Zion National Park came, Crawford said, when Angus Woodbury, whom he calied the park's first naturalist, arrived. “My brother and I used to tag Woodbury around while he was studying insects,’ he said. “That was my first taste of being a naturalist” Woodbury, Crawford said, established the first museum in Zion National eee es — 5 moving to Utah. She met Crawford’s father through family friends while living in Oklahoma. He had served Park in 1928. While he has had a life- 6:30 pr Cent Valley View Medical Classroom (parking “ Cedar seminars regis calling Megin 435- 628 on pg. 6 - |