LB2008.14.115186

The Park Ranger A park ranger stands in the arched doorway of what was probably a ranger cabin. He is wearing the uniform standardized in the National Park Service Uniform Regulations of 1920: Stetson hat, with stiff or cardboard brim, in "belly" color; jacket with regulation NPS buttons, collar pins, and embroidered emblem on the sleeve; breeches; and high boots. The eagle badge on his breast pocket identifies his position on the staff. Lafayette National Park hired its first two rangers in 1917. Stephen T. Mather, first Director of the National Park Service, described the early park rangers: They are a fine, earnest, intelligent, and public-spirited body of men, these rangers. Though small in number, their influence is large. Many and long are the duties heaped upon their shoulders. If a trail is to be blazed, it is 'send a ranger.' If an animal is floundering in the snow, a ranger is sent to pull him out; if a bear is in the hotel, if a fire threatens a forest, if someone is to be saved, it is 'send a ranger'…If a [visitor] wants to know the why, if a [motorist] is puzzled about a road, it is 'ask the ranger.' Everything the ranger knows, he will tell you, except about himself.