Vermillion Castle Campground

In the mid-1930s, the Dixie National Forest managed a campground on Bowery Creek about five miles from Parowan.  It was called the Vermillion Castle Campground after the name Adalinda Thorton had given the area in 1887.  The campground is still there, but today it is called the Five Mile Picnic Area—no camping allowed.  In any case, campground facilities were constructed in the mid-1930s by a CCC (or similar) crew.  Many of those facilities are still in relatively good shape.  The picture, above, was made by (I think) Forest Supervisor Betenson of the Dixie in 1937 (about 75 years ago), and it shows a picnic shelter constructed in 1936.  The image is the property of the Forest Service, but has been scanned and archived by the Sherratt Library at SUU.  The image, below, was made by Rural Ways, yesterday, and it shows the same picnic shelter.

You can see from the older picture that there was a fair amount of oak around the structure in 1937.  You can see from the newer picture that there is a lot more of it today.  There is also considerably more juniper, a good bit of additional mountain mahogany, a few pinyon trees, and some sumac.  In short, the area is much more densely vegetated today than it was 75 years ago.  This is, of course, not news to those who have studied the ecology of western forests over the past 150 years.  It is likely that the vegetation in this canyon was impacted by wildfire on a somewhat frequent basis prior to European settlement circa 1860.  The wildfires were probably not of high intensity, but they maintained a relatively open forest.  It is my guess, however, that there have been no fires in this canyon for at least 75 years, and maybe not for 150 years.  As a result, the forest is no longer open, but is packed so densely with vegetation that you can no longer see through it in most places.  This vegetation will, of course, burn again—there is no way to permanently exclude fire.  And, as much as I hate to say it, I suspect that this picnic shelter will not survive the next blaze.  I just hope everyone from Parowan does.