Posts Tagged National Park

Photo Credit: Grand Canyon NPS

Grand Canyon forest ranger Warren Hamilton and Marv Adams, a maintenance worker, cut down trees to produce a fire line on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, circa 1934.

Photo Credit: Grand Canyon NPS

One woman sits on a mule with another tries to push them both up the Bright Angel Trail at the Grand Canyon, circa 1910. Looks like it might be a long trip up…

Photo Credit: Grand Canyon NPS

Ranger naturalist Edwin McKee (in profile) with pygmy nuthatch bird in hand, circa 1929.

As the park’s naturalist, McKee changed the way tourists interacted with the Grand Canyon. By creating ranger talks, nature walks along the rim, interpretative signs and educational pamphlets, McKee helped to make the Grand Canyon the tourist destination is still is to this day. As a geologist, McKee published many important papers about the geological and  natural history of the canyon.

Yosemite Valley

The Yosemite Valley got its name in 1851 by an expedition battalion that came upon the valley while trying to dispose of the American Indian tribes that settled there. The battalion thought that “Yosemite” was the name the tribes had give the area, but they were mistaken. The tribes called Yosemite Valley, “Ahwahnee” which means, “the place of the gaping mouth” and the tribe’s name was Ahwahneechees. According to the tribal language, “Yosemite” was the word used to describe threatening people and it translates into “among them are killers.”

- Yosemite National Park was the third national park to be signed into law on October 1, 1890.

Clare Marie Hodges, the first female ranger

- In 1918, Clare Marie Hodge became the first woman ranger in Yosemite. World War I had created job shortages all around the country with few men to fill them, so they turned to women. According to the Yosemite website, “[Clare] applied to the superintendent, Washington B. Lewis, and said, ‘Probably you’ll laugh at me, but I want to be a ranger.’ He responded, ‘I beat you to it, young lady. It’s been on my mind for some time to put a woman on one of these patrols.’ Her job consisted of taking the gate receipts from Tuolumne Meadows to park headquarters, an overnight ride on horseback.”

- Yosemite first hit 1 million visitors annually in 1954 and 2 million in 1967. Now the annual visitors average between 3.5 and 4 million.

Further Reading

Yosemite website

Duncan, Dayton. The National Parks: America’s Best Idea. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2009.

[Photos via Yosemite Valley and Clare Marie Hodges]