Chauncey Parry

Chauncey Parry was the other big male presence on the trip to Zion. Before the war, Chauncey had gone to the University of Utah and had helped his older brother, Gronway, with running a hotel and automobile stage in Cedar City. The Parry brothers were contracted to provide automobile transportation between the railroad station in Lund, west of Cedar City, to Zion Canyon. After serving in the Army Air Service as a pilot, Chauncey returned to Salt Lake City where he taught school and dated university women including the University of Utah's president's daughter. Soon Southern Utah called him back, and he was again running the automobile stage. He helped Eyre Powell to organize the trip and probably introduced Eyre to the idea of using the Sigma Chi girls.

After the Zion trip in 1920, Chauncey continued to run the automobile stage to the national park until 1926 when the Utah Parks Company bought him out. Gronway and Chauncey continued to supervise the transportation for another 17 years after that. Chauncey started looking to Hollywood to find ways to promote Southern Utah. The Parry brothers offered their services to moviemakers filming in Utah. Chauncey built a hotel in Kanab and offer Hollywood room, board, transportation and beautiful scenery. Hollywood took him up on the offer, and the Parry Lodge became the center for the movie business in Southern Utah. Chauncey became friends with many actors including Spencer Tracy and Clark Gable. Chauncey died at the young age of 47 after a car accident that happened while taking his daughter to school.

Chauncey's daughter told us that he fell in love with his future wife after her horse kicked dirt on him at a state fair. She also said that he has a grandson who looks just like him.

I would like to thank Janet Seegmiller for all the information on Chancey Parry. I hope I got it all right.