Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Another option for preserving our legacy is to volunteer at a state park. Like their
national cousins, most state parks offer a volunteer program. Contact your state's
park service for more details.
HISTORY LESSON
On March 1, 1872, Congress established Yellowstone National Park in the territor-
ies of Montana and Wyoming “as a public park or pleasuring-ground for the benefit
and enjoyment of the people” and placed it “under exclusive control of the Secret-
ary of the Interior.” For a while, though, nobody really believed any of the stories
about then remote Yellowstone. The first written account appeared in a Philadelphia
newspaper, but because it described boiling hot streams, water shooting out of the
ground, and other “fire and brimstone features,” most people didn't take what was
described as “John Colter's Hell” seriously. Even after mountain man Jim Bridger
extensively explored the region, his stories of waterfalls spouting upward and pet-
rified “birds and trees” were considered nothing but tall tales. The founding of Yel-
lowstone National Park began a worldwide national park movement. Today more
than a hundred nations contain some 1,200 national parks or equivalent preserves.
Although you would certainly be appreciated at a park in your own neighborhood, many
VIPs choose to work in a favorite park away from home. Needless to say, your “office” would
be among the most amazing on the planet. Decor selections include mountains, deserts, sea-
coasts, lakeshores, assorted wildlife, geysers, glaciers, and more.
The jobs, of course, are as diverse as the parks. You could lead history tours of Ellis Is-
land or cave tours in the Ozarks. You could be a lightkeeper on Wisconsin's Apostle Islands,
work a remote duty station in the Teton Wilderness, tend livestock in Nevada, or create exhib-
its at the Desert Discovery Center in California's Mojave Desert. Or, if you like history, you
might choose to wear period clothing and interpret life on a canalboat at Maryland's C&O
National Historical Park.
There are hundreds of established volunteer positions listed on the National Park Service
website, and you can even propose your own volunteer job, coming up with a way to utilize
your own unique talents. Jim Black, for example, the great-grandson of a Navajo who es-
caped the horrors of the Long Walk, a forced 300-mile trek in the mid-1800s across New
Mexico from Canyon de Chelly to Fort Sumner, leads interpretive hikes at Navajo National
Monument, an ancient Betatakin Indian ruin in Arizona. A couple from Maryland, along with
their greyhounds Micha and Jericho, lead tours and monitor trails at Maryland's Monocacy
National Battlefield.
Search WWH ::




Custom Search