Too much of a city now?
Right, and the law enforcement situation, let’s see was it “48 Hours” two or three weeks ago-it was the 4th of July Holiday on television for Yosemite. And it was bad enough sometimes when we were there from ’60 to ’63 and it was before the advent of all the drug situation, before the Vietnam era situation, you know, all this. It was still a kind of a cozy situation. It was starting to come into its own, that’s a poor way of putting it. I mean it was starting to build up to be that. We had a ranger beaten up one time. We had drunks, and we had some drugs and we would have the robbers, and this kind of stuff. But it wasn’t anything like it is now. So it was really, it was kind of a fun place. And the skiing was excellent. And from there I was chosen to be the chief ranger at Yellowstone and of course it was as big of a job a chief ranger could have. So we were there from ’63-’66 and served under two very wonderful men; Lon Garrison and John McLoughliin. And I think John McLoughlin was the best Superintendent that ever served there.
I have a question about the NPS directors and that kind of politics from Drury to Wirth to Hartzog.
From Drur to Wirth it was probably not noticeable, as far as I was concerned, because I’m down far enough in the organization. So these things are changing, are affecting chief rangers, they’re affecting superintendents, assistant superintendents, and then into the region. They’re affecting them all right. But they’re really not affecting people further down. It’s not something that you spend a lot of time thinking about.
By the time you got to Yellowstone, it’s …
It makes a lot of difference. And particularly it makes a difference to you who’s in your regional office, who is the ones that you really have to deal with. And of course, you have a deal with Washington, too. And Washington is, well, setting some stupid ideas and some great ideas. And of course, the hullabaloo that came out of it, a lot of the rumor and this sort of thing about how George Hartzog boosted Wirth out and it may or may not be true. I don’t care. George Hartzog, in retrospect, is probably the best Director the best Director that we’ve had in a long, long time, or will have. Well, probably the best. Although Russ Dickenson is a good friend of mine.
