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Mount Carmel Junction is a tiny community about 12 miles east of Zion National Park in Utah.
Introduction to Mount Carmel Junction
The area was originally inhabited by the Virgin Ancestral Puebloan people. Priddy Meeks (1795-1886), a Mormon doctor, founded the town of Winsor in what is now Mount Carmel Junction in 1864. The LDS Church sent more settlers a year later, but Native Americans raids forced them to leave the area soon after. In 1871, the settlers returned permanently and founded a town about mile to the north. They named it Mount Carmel after the mountain in Palestine.
Mount Carmel Junction, at the intersection of US 89 and Utah State Route 9, was founded in 1931 when Jack (d. 1961) and Fern Morrison (c. 1908-1998) built their homestead there. Artist Maynard Dixon (1875-1946) followed with a summer home in 1939. They remain the only people to settle the town.
The east end of the Zion-Mount Carmel Highway is at Mount Carmel Junction, making it a great base for visiting Zion National Park. You’ll find lodging, restaurants, a gas station, a 9-hole golf course, and a few shops.
Thunderbird Restaurant
To be honest, there’s not much to see in Mount Carmel Junction, but if you’re passing through you can’t help but notice the colorful sign for the Thunderbird Restaurant. This diner, attached to the Best Western East Zion Thunderbird Lodge, has been family-owned by the Morrisons since 1940.
Open Friday through Tuesday, it’s your typical greasy spoon with the variety of dishes you’d expect from such a place. What sets it apart is their huge neon sign with a cartoon of a busty scantily-clad waitress advertising “ho-made pies”.
While nothing really sets it apart as far as the food, and the service is as sassy as you’d expect from a diner, the pies, on the other hand, are actually pretty good! Besides that, how can you possibly pass up trying one of their specialties so brilliantly advertised on the sign? Treat yourself and enjoy a slice of pie with a scoop of ice cream!
