Rainier.
He put probably 12 years in the park working part time and then coming on full time. But the Fultons go back to the ‘forties. They and other maintenance employees were all trained in heavy equipment and stuff like that from the war. They moved here in ’46-47 and went to work for the Park Service. They just stayed right in the park. A lot of them built their homes just outside the park. Gourley was never going to leave (5). That’s his home. I think you can get this entrenched feeing, perhaps.
There seems to be a difference between the people who come back year after year after year and people who have civil service status and are looking at other opportunities in the Park system.
Then you have people who came in, like Dan Sholly, who really made a difference in the park. Mayberry, what was his first name, I just about had it, Slim Mayberry. He’s the one that put on the Crater Lake ski races so much. He was Chief Ranger there, but he was always thinking of things to do for the people during the wintertime, outside. He had old engines going and put rope tows in and things like that. Especially in the maintenance area, people really stay a long time.
I think that is still pretty much the case.
Yeah, about half your staff is like that. I remember when I was working there, I hardly ever saw a new person when I was working in maintenance. And you learned from these guys. A lot of my stories that I’ve come up with, the cars over the edge, and stuff like that, at lunch hour you sit around and talk to Guy Hartell and Stub Jones. These old guys were just full of stories and they’d just BS like crazy over lunch. You’d pick up the stories. I was out working with these guys, a little college kid. We respected these man. They were great people. So I think there’s a lot to say about longevity to a certain extent. You get continuity.
