What made you decide to become a Park Ranger?
It was necessity, is what it was. There were a whole lot people that were coming out of World War II that didn’t have a job. When I was released from active duty. I was a First Lieutenant in the field artillery. After coming back from Europe, I was sent to Texas and was down in Texas with both my wife and my oldest son who was then about three of four months old, I guess. We were released from active duty at Fort Sam Houston, Texas and stopped at Carlsbad Cavern and the south rim of Grand Canyon. We would have gone into Bryce Canyon, except it wasn’t opened yet. The winter snows were still hanging there even though it was in the first part of May. The Park Service looked pretty good to me, what I saw of it. But my education was in Fish and Game Management as I say, and so I attempted to get a job with the Fish and Wildlife Service. I was offered a job with the Fish and Wildlife Service, but it was down in the Sacramento Valley and it would have been working with planting rice and this sort of a thing for the game birds down there. We just come out of Texas. There was enough heat in Texas and I knew that the Sacramento Valley was no better. So we decided that there was no way we were going to go down into California, at least on the first go-round. So we kept looking around up here in this part of country. Now I had worked for the Forest Service as a Seasonal for two summers during college. They were desirous of having me back. So I went back to work for the Forest Service for about a month at the Tiller Ranger District, which is just over the mountains from here. We were at the end of the road and it was kind of a primitive situation. But we stayed there only a month. In the meantime, I was getting out letters. I sent out letters to a number of parks. I got a reply from Yellowstone. Yellowstone would have taken me as a Seasonal Ranger. But they had absolutely no quarters for married people, so I threw that out. I had a reply from Olympic and they would have taken me as a Fire Control Aid, but there again there were no quarters. I did have a reply from Crater Lake. At first was there were no quarters. I think I either wrote or called back and said that I wouldn’t come if I didn’t have quarters. Well, it wasn’t too long after that I got a telegram, believe it or not, from Crater Lake offering me a Seasonal Ranger job with quarters for my wife and son, so we packed up an I quit the Forest Service. I liked the Forest Service, it was good organization. I had a lot of friends in the Forest Service, but my education was not in Forestry. At least in those days and it probably holds true somewhat even today, if you don’t have a forestry degree, you’re in trouble.
