New Book Tells Park Ranger Stories
Recommended Reading to Learn More About Park Rangers - These books tell true stories written by Park Rangers.
Park Ranger Stories from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is an exciting anthology of memories from Corps park rangers and other natural resource management professionals who helped shape what it meant to be a park ranger. Compiled by Joseph Patrick "Pat" Barry, who spent 35 years as a park ranger and managed the Bonneville Lock and Dam Visitor Center for 27 years, this diverse collection includes hundreds of stories from dozens of current and former employees - from program leaders in Washington, D.C., to those in "boots on the ground" including seasonal employees. You'll share some experiences of the first female park rangers and understand why integrity was - and still is - so important to those who serve the public. Through first-person interviews and biographies, you'll relive the first 60 years of Corps ranger experiences. This book captures and helps preserve the culture and values of the U.S. Army Corps rangers for future generations. Curl up and enjoy some delightful first-hand stories as told by actual rangers. All proceeds benefit the non-profit Corps Foundation. (Book description per Amazon.com)
Paid in Sunsets: A Park Ranger's Story is a humorous memoir of David A. Dutton's life as a Federal Park Ranger. Park Rangers are called upon to do many dangerous things, like rappel down cliff faces to rescue stranded climbers, or cut fire lines in advance of raging forest infernos. Dutton didn't do those things. He spent thirty-one years sharing the natural world with others. This memoir retells the best of those experience, bawdy encounters along the muddy Rio Grande, ghosts in a remote Southwest canyon, swimming with Great White sharks, tweezing pernicious Kentucky ticks off his body, carrying diarrhea out of the longest cave in the world, and getting pissed on by an indignant raccoon in a Mississippi backwater, to name a few. The memoir is about birth, life, and sometimes, death. It's about a journey - from being a greenhorn Park Ranger in New Mexico to becoming an ordained Senior Park Ranger in Mississippi, twenty years later. [This book] pays homage to rangers as an emblem of ruggedness, individualism, and courage. But more importantly, the memoir shows that Park Rangers are ordinary people, too - men and women who put on uniforms and hats every day, step into the crowd, and commit themselves to the idea of protecting America's treasures for the benefit of future generations (Book description per Amazon.com)
Ranger Confidential: Living, Working and Dying in the National Parks. For twelve years, Andrea Lankford lived in the biggest, most impressive national parks in the world, working a job she loved. She chaperoned baby sea turtles on their journey to sea. She pursued bad guys on her galloping patrol horse. She jumped into rescue helicopters bound for the heart of the Grand Canyon. She won arguments with bears. She slept with a few too many rattlesnakes. Hell yeah, it was the best job in the world! Fortunately, Andrea survived it. (Book description per Amazon.com)
