At one time we were talking about Horace Albright, and what my dealing were with Horace. And I don’t mean that I knew him intimately, but I did know him fairly well. One of the things that happened with us is that about 1965, I guess it was, there was a push on to cut down some of the park staff. Of course Yellowstone was reasonably sized, I didn’t think it was too big, but they had to send in a group of people from region and other well-known personalities to see whether we were doing what we should be doing. Well, Horace Albright was one of the people that came in, of course, since he had such an association with Yellowstone, anyway. We disagreed. We sat, and one afternoon I know I talked for four hours straight to try to keep my organization intact. And I was vociferous at times, and I know that I crossed Horace a number of times. And I didn’t know how he took it all, but about two nights later we were at a cocktail party at the Superintendent’s house and Horace was there and Horace introduced his wife to me or something of that sort, I’ve forgotten how it was, anyway he says, “This …” Maybe it was you.
Jean: It was me.
Yeah, o.k., go ahead.
Jean: He said something about, “This is the fire-eating chief ranger.”
In a very, very friendly way he was joking about the thing.
Jean: He was joking!
And I think he respected it, is the thing. I’m sure that he did, because I don’t think that Horace gets mad. It’s not a feeling that Horace Albright wanted “yes people” around him.
