As many already know, on January 1, 2012 the National Park Service Lost one of our fellow Ranger’s in the line of duty. Ranger Margaret Anderson was shot while attempting to stop a fleeing vehicle at Mt. Rainier National Park.
As an active Law Enforcement Ranger and member of the close-nit NPS family this incident hit close to home. When I first heard about it, my initial reaction was to play out in my mind how to organize a response if I was working there at the time. I then thought about how this would affect the staff at Mt. Rainier, Margaret’s family and the NPS as a whole.
I should take a minute to talk about what I mean by the NPS family. When working in remote areas, living in government housing areas, most Park Service employees only have their coworkers as neighbors, and friends to socialize with. This means that after that search and rescue call that everyone worked on; we all go home and then gather at one ranger’s house for beers and a communal meal. We have to rely on each other 200% on duty and then again after work is over. Rangers in the NPS typically move around the country working at different parks throughout their careers, building a very tight network. So when I say NPS family, I am speaking very literally.
I personally never got a chance to meet Margaret, but some of my close coworkers did know her quite well. While the events at Mt. Rainier were unfolding I know there were hundreds of phone calls between Rangers across the country consoling each other. The outpouring of support in the days following that incident was as comforting as can be expected under those circumstances.
The thoughts that I take away from this incident are those of pride and sorrow. I felt horrible for Margaret’s family, including her two children, and for all of her friends and coworkers across the country. But as I sat in my ranger uniform streaming the memorial serivce video at the District Ranger Station here in Bullfrog; I understood 100% why she loved the job she did, and the selfless action she took to stop a killer in an area of the park known as Paradise. I can’t remember which important person in a suit it was that said it during the service “the Park Ranger is a noble profession”.
There is an old quote from Stephen Mather, First Director of the National Park Service “If a trail is to be blazed, send a Ranger, if an animal is floundering in the snow, send a Ranger, if a bear is in a hotel, send a Ranger, if a fire threatens a forest, send a Ranger, and if someone needs to be saved, send a Ranger.” That was said in the early 1900s and is still true today. However, in our current society Mather would need to add a few lines such as “if a drug smuggler is in the backcountry, if thousands of protesters show up at the gates, if a drunk crashes their car, and if a gunman is on the loose, send a ranger”
I am no longer surprised when a shocked visitor asks me “Ranger, why do you have a gun on your hip”. In the mind of the average park visitor the park is a special, almost a sacred place to retreat from the troubles of the world. I think that when people can ask me that, it means that the sacredness of the National Parks still exists at some level. The incident at Mt. Rainier has brought to light for many how such horrible things can happen in such great places.
I hope that while the nation now knows of the sacrifice that one Ranger gave to protect the people and resources of Mt. Rainer, there should be comfort in knowing that across the country hundreds more Rangers are there to make everyone’s stay a safe and enjoyable one.
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