Sequoia National Park, California
Oh, Ranger!
"Oh, Ranger, can I take your picture with a bear ?"
"Just a minute, ma'am, until I show this gentleman where to go fishing."
"Where's a bear, now?"
"Well, ma'am, there was one in these woods an hour ago. Maybe we can find him."
Five minutes for the purpose of finding a wild bear.
"Oh, Ranger, that's a lovely bear ! Stand closer to him, won't you ? Would you mind putting your arm around him ? It would make a peachy shot. We'd just love it."
"Sorry, ma'am, but it's against regulations to hug the bears."
"Oh, pshaw! Why do they have such foolish regulations? Well, just pretend to be feeding him something."
Knowing the ways of bears, the ranger declined to "pretend." He produced some molasses chews and actually fed them to the bear. It is dangerous business to try to fool a bear about food.
Click! Click! Click!
Another ranger was immortalized in picture, for the ninetieth time that day.
"It's all in the day's work," explained the ranger.
"What else do you do?"
"Well, show folks where to camp, and how to keep on the right road, and answer questions, and see that people don't tease the animals, and keep things orderly, and put out forest fires, and give lectures on Nature, and rescue Dudes in danger, and most anything anybody wants done around here."
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"All in a day's work." That whimsical line was written at the top of a report turned in one day by Ranger John Wegner of Yosemite, which read as follows :
"I got phone orders at Tuolumne Meadows to pack up and come in over Sunrise Trail. Started at sunrise. Everything haywire, including cranky pack horse which kept getting off trail. Phoned in at Vernal Falls station. Ordered to hurry down, help catch two auto thieves which broke jail just after breakfast. Assigned to guard Coulterville Road. Only transportation was Chief's personal auto which I could have if I could find man who borrowed it from Chief. Chief didn't know who that was. Guarded Coulterville Road until 3 :00 A.M., when ordered to Valley to beat brush by the river
with flashlight to locate thieves. Found one thief and captured him just before dawn.
Somebody else assigned to guard him, but before I turned in, got orders to meet carload of trout fry at El Portal and help plant them in streams. Met fish O.K., but coming up El Portal Road, Quad truck slipped over side of road, but was saved from going down cliff by being caught in tree. Cans of fish lashed to truck, so we saved them. Job was complicated by necessity of keeping water aerated in cans setting by roadside while we rushed more water in small bucket from stream quarter of mile away. Fish all saved. Phoned for help, and kept water in cans moving until truck dragged back on road and fish cans reloaded. Relieved of duty, with nothing to do but walk nine miles and go to bed."
"All in a day's work" can be almost anything for a national park ranger. One day, at the end of a long battle for control of a forest fire, Superintendent Lewis of Yosemite was making a final inspection before telling the last ranger on the job to go to his cabin and turn in for much-needed sleep. Every blaze was out except a small flicker in an old tree trunk, dead but still standing. It looked safe enough, but the rangers hesitated to leave before it was entirely out, for fear that a sudden breeze might rekindle the forest fire. The blaze was too high to reach with wet sacks or dirt thrown by a shovel, or by water thrown from a bucket. The tree was too large to be cut down without help, and Lewis hesitated to call back his already exhausted rangers. He scratched his head and puzzled over the engineering problem of snuffing out that small blaze. Then he and the ranger scouted for a spring. Finding one, they made a lot of mud balls and carried them in their hats to a point near the burning tree. Both and carried them in their hats to a point near the burning tree. Both had been baseball players in their younger days, and as Lewis afterward said, "The old soup-bones were still in fair shape." Cheering each other's pitching, they heaved mud balls until the last "strike" smacked out the last flickering blaze.
"Just a minute, ma'am, until I show this gentleman where to go fishing."
"Where's a bear, now?"
"Well, ma'am, there was one in these woods an hour ago. Maybe we can find him."
Five minutes for the purpose of finding a wild bear.
"Oh, Ranger, that's a lovely bear ! Stand closer to him, won't you ? Would you mind putting your arm around him ? It would make a peachy shot. We'd just love it."
"Sorry, ma'am, but it's against regulations to hug the bears."
"Oh, pshaw! Why do they have such foolish regulations? Well, just pretend to be feeding him something."
Knowing the ways of bears, the ranger declined to "pretend." He produced some molasses chews and actually fed them to the bear. It is dangerous business to try to fool a bear about food.
Click! Click! Click!
Another ranger was immortalized in picture, for the ninetieth time that day.
"It's all in the day's work," explained the ranger.
"What else do you do?"
"Well, show folks where to camp, and how to keep on the right road, and answer questions, and see that people don't tease the animals, and keep things orderly, and put out forest fires, and give lectures on Nature, and rescue Dudes in danger, and most anything anybody wants done around here."
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
"All in a day's work." That whimsical line was written at the top of a report turned in one day by Ranger John Wegner of Yosemite, which read as follows :
"I got phone orders at Tuolumne Meadows to pack up and come in over Sunrise Trail. Started at sunrise. Everything haywire, including cranky pack horse which kept getting off trail. Phoned in at Vernal Falls station. Ordered to hurry down, help catch two auto thieves which broke jail just after breakfast. Assigned to guard Coulterville Road. Only transportation was Chief's personal auto which I could have if I could find man who borrowed it from Chief. Chief didn't know who that was. Guarded Coulterville Road until 3 :00 A.M., when ordered to Valley to beat brush by the river
with flashlight to locate thieves. Found one thief and captured him just before dawn.
Somebody else assigned to guard him, but before I turned in, got orders to meet carload of trout fry at El Portal and help plant them in streams. Met fish O.K., but coming up El Portal Road, Quad truck slipped over side of road, but was saved from going down cliff by being caught in tree. Cans of fish lashed to truck, so we saved them. Job was complicated by necessity of keeping water aerated in cans setting by roadside while we rushed more water in small bucket from stream quarter of mile away. Fish all saved. Phoned for help, and kept water in cans moving until truck dragged back on road and fish cans reloaded. Relieved of duty, with nothing to do but walk nine miles and go to bed."
"All in a day's work" can be almost anything for a national park ranger. One day, at the end of a long battle for control of a forest fire, Superintendent Lewis of Yosemite was making a final inspection before telling the last ranger on the job to go to his cabin and turn in for much-needed sleep. Every blaze was out except a small flicker in an old tree trunk, dead but still standing. It looked safe enough, but the rangers hesitated to leave before it was entirely out, for fear that a sudden breeze might rekindle the forest fire. The blaze was too high to reach with wet sacks or dirt thrown by a shovel, or by water thrown from a bucket. The tree was too large to be cut down without help, and Lewis hesitated to call back his already exhausted rangers. He scratched his head and puzzled over the engineering problem of snuffing out that small blaze. Then he and the ranger scouted for a spring. Finding one, they made a lot of mud balls and carried them in their hats to a point near the burning tree. Both and carried them in their hats to a point near the burning tree. Both had been baseball players in their younger days, and as Lewis afterward said, "The old soup-bones were still in fair shape." Cheering each other's pitching, they heaved mud balls until the last "strike" smacked out the last flickering blaze.