FARMINGTON—Most 9-year-olds can’t wait to go to an amusement park at least once or twice a summer – but how about being able to go almost every day? That was the idyllic childhood for Julie Freed, who is now the director of special events at Lagoon. She began working at the park at age 9, starring as a character in one of Lagoon’s haunted houses. But no child labor laws were broken – it’s her family’s business.

“After World War II, my grandfather Peter Freed and his two brothers were looking for a project,” she recalled while sitting for this interview in the Biergarten, one of the park’s newest and most popular attractions. “Lagoon had been closed during the war and it was rather rundown. So they leased it from the Bamberger family.” 

The original owner was Simon Bamberger, who built the popular railroad line that ran from Salt Lake City to the park, and eventually to Ogden, and was later governor of Utah.

“The brothers opened again in the late 1940s, and my grandfather used to tell this story that the first day they reopened, he stood at the entrance, his hands behind his back, and as people came in he was counting. Well a total of 15 people came, and he thought that was incredible,” she said. The Freeds bought the park outright a few years later.

Peter Freed passed away last year at the age of 99, and Julie said he came to the park almost every day until the age of 96. “In our family,” she said with a smile, “we don’t really retire. My dad (David W. Freed – president), mom (Luella Freed, who helps with staffing issues and running rides), aunt (Kristen Freed – vice president) and my sister Kirsten (who works with animals at the park) think we’ll be here forever – but when you love what you do, why would you retire?”

She grew up Lagoon – or at least at Lagoon. By age 12, Julie worked a game called Plop Plop, standing out on the midway and inviting visitors to come play her game. “I remember my grandfather saying ‘This is just what we need – having Julie out front when people first come in.’ So I began greeting people as they walked through the gates.”

All through her years in high school at Judge Memorial, any time the park got busy and they needed people, she would come up and serve drinks or food. She worked the rides, and still does today. “We were constantly on call,” she said. “Kirsten loves working with the animals and behind the scenes, while I love being out in the crowds. I think we compliment each other.”

She only had one “beef” growing up – that Kirsten’s birthday party in June could be held at Lagoon, while Julie, who was born in March, didn’t get that. “We’re not open in March, of course, so I’d have to celebrate my half-birthdays in September. I remember thinking, ‘This is so  not fair.’ But of course it was still fun. I got over it,” she said with a laugh.

Through the years, she’s seen the growth of Lagoon, which is the only family-owned amusement park in the nation (all others are corporate-owned). She’s seen new rides and attractions, enjoyed the summer musicals and some of the numerous national acts that have performed at the park, and savored the laughs and smiles she observes every day at the park. 

After graduating from Judge Memorial, Julie left the park and went to college at Arizona State University, majoring in health. She teaches yoga and does some nutritional coaching on the side, but once back home, she returned to the park.

To say 2020 was a year to forget for all of us would be an understatement, but it hit Lagoon particularly hard. When the park finally opened last spring, attendance was capped at 15 percent capacity by health officials. That restriction stayed in place until the final two weeks of the season during its Frightmares presentation. Hundreds of six-foot-distance markers had to be installed around the park’s 150 acres, and over 200 hand sanitizer dispensers were installed. And then on Sept. 10, the weekend before Frightmares was to open, a horrendous windstorm came through Davis County, proving to be the most damaging storm in the park’s history.

“We lost so many trees, some of them legacy trees that my grandfather had planted,” Julie said. “But the silver lining was that it took every one of our staff to clean things up. We all worked together and it was a bonding experience for everyone.”

Reflecting on the two-plus decades she’s spent in and around Lagoon, she feels very blessed. 

“I feel really lucky to have grown up here, to have a job available for me when I returned from college,” she said. “From the minute I got back, I have loved it. I have never second-guessed being back at Lagoon.”