The Morgan Horses of Yellowstone

This photo is titled, "Beau and young Morgan 

stallion at Lamar Ranger Station, February 9, 

1941."  Based on the date, the horse is either

Wakefield Duke of Black Baron.

YELL 185380.3177

Author’s Note: I first became aware of the connection between the National Park Service and Morgan Horses when I worked at Beauduste Morgan Horse Ranch in northwest Montana in 1988-1990.  The owners of the ranch, Herb and Inez Wagner, raised Morgans for many years, first on their large cattle ranch near Ashland, Montana, and then later in life when they retired to Trout Creek, Montana.

Although one old proverb asserts that, “a good horse comes in any color,” riders often favor one particular breed.  The same is true – to a certain degree – in the National Park Service, which has a long tradition of mounting their rangers on Morgan horses.  Morgans were one of the first breeds developed in the United States, and are known for their versatility, endurance, and intelligence.  One example of this connection is the Morgan Horse Farm at Point Reyes National Seashore in northern California.  Established in 1968, the farm’s original goals included breeding and training Morgans, which were kept for patrol duty at Point Reyes as well as being sent off for use at other national parks (Sadin, 267).  The farm is still being used today, and is a popular living history programs in that park.

Here in Yellowstone National Park, the use of Morgans is much older although little is known about their early years.  In fact, over the past 18 months several researchers have contacted the staff at the Heritage and Research Center (HRC) asking for information about the Morgan horses used and raised in Yellowstone.  One investigator is a family member of Jack Richard, whose photography collection at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center includes many images of rangers riding Morgans, such as this example from 1960 of Ranger Bob Richard on Big Red.

Ranger Bob Richard and Big Red, 1960.
According to the original caption, "Big Red
[is] the last U.S. Park Service's Morgan
stallion.  the horse patrolman service was
ended when Bob Richard retired from the
[National] Park Service in 1960.
Buffalo Bill Historical Center,
PN.89.116.21.459.

A year and a half ago we were unable to provide much information about Yellowstone’s Morgans, but some recent discoveries in the park’s archives have now allowed us to piece together some of the story.  The first breakthrough was the discovery of a report from 1948 titled “Analysis of Horse Breeding Program at Lamar Unit.”  This document states that the breeding program at Yellowstone began in the spring of 1941, and gives us the names of the three Morgan stallions in the park: Wakefield Duke, Black Baron, and Gipsey Chief.  A little more detective work revealed that all three of these stud horses had the same sire – Gipsey King.  

And like all famous horses, Gipsey King has an impressive pedigree, but perhaps not one you’d expect.  He was donated to the National Park Service in May 1937 by none other than John D. Rockefeller, Jr. (Bruggeman, 73; and Smith, 15).   Gipsey King was stabled and bred at George Washington Birthplace National Monument, and the park’s superintendent is said to have jumped at the opportunity with an eye toward breeding the Morgan stallion to produce mounts for other parks within the National Park Service (Bruggeman, 171).*  It would seem that his plan met with some success since three of Gipsey King’s colts were in Yellowstone only a few years later.  

Yet another discovery was made in December 2013 when a photograph of one of the Morgan stallions was found in the Augustin Photograph Collection (held at the HRC).  Based on the date, this 1941 photo must be of Wakefield Duke or Black Baron.   

Despite these famous connections, we don’t know what happened to Duke, Baron, Chief, or the other Morgan horses of Yellowstone: much of their story is yet to be told.  There’s an old cowboy saying that states, “A dog may be man’s best friend, but the history of the West was written by the horse.”  If that’s true, then perhaps the contributions of Morgan horses to Yellowstone and other national parks will not be forgotten.   

*It’s worth noting that a second attempt at creating a Morgan horse program at George Washington Birthplace NM was attempted between 1968 and 1972.  National Park Service Director George Hartzog envisioned this program as complementing the breeding program at Point Reyes National Seashore, thus providing Morgans to eastern national parks (Bruggeman, 171-173)

Notes:

Wakefield Duke

Gipsey King x Nunda

Foaled: July 18, 1939

Color: Black

Height: 16 hands

“Bred by National Park Service. Black, star and snip, left front and left hind fetlocks white.

Foaled July 18, 1939, George Washington Birthplace National Monument, Virginia. Stationed at

Yellowstone National Park all his life. Died in the 1960s.”

“Procured [by YNP] August 4, 1940”

“Duke was bred in 1941, 1942, and 1943 at which time his service was no longer deemed

suitable to the program. He was at that time castrated and trained as a saddle horse.”

Black Baron

Gipsey King x Minerva

Foaled: April 19, 1940

Color: Black

Height: ?

“Bred by George Washington Birthplace National Monument. Black, small white spot on rear

left hind foot. Foaled April 1940, George Washington Birthplace National Monument, Virginia.

Served at Yellowstone National Park 1941-1952. Purchased February 1952 by M/M Paul

Shields, Wyoming.”

“Procured [by YNP] September 21, 1940”

“Baron was bred from 1942 to 1948” [this was the year the report was written, so it is possible

that he was bred later]

Gipsey Chief

Gipsey King x Minerva

Foaled April 25, 1941

Color: Black

Height:?

“Bred by George Washington Birthplace National Monument. Black, star. Foaled April 25,

1941, Washington’s Birthplace, Virginia. Owned by Yellowstone National Park, 1942-1952.

Purchased February 1952 by K.C. Barlow Ranch.”

“Procured [by YNP] May 19, 1942”

“Chief was bred from 1943 to 1948” [this was the year the report was written, so it is possible

that he was bred later]

Sources:

Bruggeman, Seth C.  George Washington Birthplace National Monument: Administrative History, 1930-2000.  2006.

Ernest R. Augustin, Jr., Photograph Collection (MSC 17), Yellowstone Park Archives.

“Morgans of Yellowstone National Park,” Morgan Horse, September 2005, pages 104-106.

Sadin, Paul.  Managing a Land in Motion: An Administrative History of Point Reyes National Seashore.  October 2007.

Smith, Larry.  “Harold D. Smith: ASPA Founder and Trusted Advisor to FDR.”  ASPA Times.  The American Society for Public Administration, vol. 26, no. 8, August 2003.

Genealogical Resources at Yellowstone's Heritage & Research Center

We hear a lot about resource management in Yellowstone National Park, usually natural resource management but sometimes cultural resource management as well.  Now I’m going to mention another one - genealogical resource management.

Many of the researchers who either visit or contact Yellowstone's Heritage and Research Center (HRC) are interested in locating information about a family member who worked, lived, or visited the park.  Over the past few months I've compiled notes on the types of records we have at the HRC, based on a list first created by the research librarians.

Here are my notes regarding genealogical resources at the HRC, plus some other pertinent information:

EMPLOYEES

Concessionaires

• Registers of passengers carried by licensed transportation (includes names of stagecoach drivers), bulk dates 1898-1920 (Items 208-212)
• Mammoth Payroll and Employee Registers, 1931-1935 (MSC 019 YPC)
• Personnel Lists (Department Heads), 1936-1960 (MSC 019 YPC)
• Personnel Lists, 1953-1973 (MSC 019 YPC)
• Personnel Lists (Canyon Village Directory), 1954-1967 (MSC 019 YPC)
• Personnel Lists (Fishing Bridge Directory), 1958 and 1964 (MSC 019 YPC)
• Personnel Lists (Lake Lodge Directory), 1946-1956, 1965 (MSC 019 YPC)
• Personnel Lists (Mammoth Directory), 1960-1966 (MSC 019 YPC)
• Personnel Lists (Old Faithful Savage Directory), 1955-1970 (MSC 019 YPC)
• List of Winterkeepers, 1959 (was Box C-24)
• Hamilton Stores employee list, 1960 (was Box C-56)
• Hamilton Stores organizational chart, 1963 (was YPC Box-37)
• Hamilton Stores employee directory for Fishing Bridge, 1971 (Box W-98)
• Telephone Directory, circa 1975 (MSC 019 YPC)
• Xanterra Telephone Directories, 1981-2005 (MSC 073 Xanterra Parks and Resorts Collection)
• Seniority lists for the Gardiner Service Center for TW Recreational Services, 1982-1997 (was Box C-61)
• TW Recreational Services telephone directory, 1987 (was Box C-24)
• TW Recreational Services telephone directory, 1996 (was Box C-61)
• Yellowstone Mammoth Memories yearbook, 1998-1999 (was YPC Box 167)
• Reservation Staff yearbook, 2000 (MSC 073 Xanterra Parks and Resorts Collection)
• Reservation Staff yearbook, 2001 (MSC 073 Xanterra Parks and Resorts Collection)

NPS

Note: Official Personnel Folders (OPFs) of former Federal civilian employees (1850-1951) are maintained at the National Personnel Records Center.  OPFs for former Federal civilian employees separated after 1951 remain in the legal custody of the Office of Personnel Management and access to these records is restricted under the Privacy Act of 1974.

• Personnel Rosters, 1918-1960, 1962-2008 (RG 10 FPS)
• List of rangers including assignments, 1927 (Box K-10)
• Fire Cache Personnel, 1953-1965 (Box Y-273)
• Fire Control Aids, 1956-1958 (Box Y-273)
• List of BRC [Blister Rust Control?] personnel, 1958-1965 (Box Y-288)
• Personnel Rosters, 1960-1973 (was Box P-88)
• Roster of Participating Personnel, Northern Elk Herd Helicopter Census, 1962 (MSC 036 Kittams Papers)
• Fire Control Aids, 1965-1967 (Box Y-273)
• List of Fire Control Aids, Summer 1968 (Box Y-273)
• List of North District Interpretive Staff, 1970(?) (Box W-106)
• List of West District and South District rangers, 1970 (Box W-106)
• Lists of Resource Management and Visitor Protection staff, 1970-1974 (Box W-106)
• List of seasonals and fire control aids, 1971-1972 (Box Y-257)
• List of personnel, 1974 (was Box P-88)
• List of fire control aids, 1974 (Box Y-257)
• List of seasonal naturalist staff, 1975 (Box K-118)
• “A Directory of Yellowstone Park Families,” 1977 (was Box P-89)
• Personnel and Families Directory, 1977 (RG 10-FPS)
• Lists of personnel stationed at various places which includes rangers, naturalists, groomers, and winterkeepers, Winter 1977-1978 (was Box P-92)
• List of Fire Control Aids, 1977-1978 (Box Y-257)
• Yellowstone telephone directory, Winter 1977 (Box A-102)
• South District phone directory, 1979 (Box A-410)
• List of employees for the Division of Interpretation and Visitor Services, 1982 (Box K-96)
• Museum Directory(?), 1983 (Box H-18)
• Seasonal Interpretation staff yearbook, 1986 (Box K-90)
• Seasonal Interpretation staff yearbook, 1987 (Box K-56)
• List of seasonal and permanent Resource Management and Visitor Protection staff, Summer 1988 (Box W-240)
• Yellowstone telephone directory, Winter 1988-1989 (Box A-410)
• List of summer staff for Old Faithful Interpretation, 1994 (Box K-118)
• NPS phone directory, 1994 (was Box P-10)
• List of staff for the Division of Interpretation, 1995 (Box K-118 and Box K-148)
• List of summer staff for the Division of Interpretation, 1997 (Box K-96)

Civilian Conservation Corps

• Roster for Company 544, 1938 (MSC 069 Swier-Bolhuis’ Research)
• Roster for Company 535 and yearbook, 1941 (MSC 069 Swier-Bolhuis’ Research)
• Roster for Company 544 and yearbook, 1941 (MSC 069 Swier-Bolhuis’ Research)

Yellowstone Association

• List of Employees, 1995(?)

VISITORS

• Registers of passengers carried by licensed transportation (includes names of stagecoach drivers), bulk dates 1898-1920 (Items 208-212)
• Registers of camping parties, bulk dates 1898-1923 (Items 161, 191-207)
• Yellowstone Park Camp Company/Yellowstone Park Lodge and Camps Company registers which include payroll registers with lists of employees and often their occupations, 1924-1935 (MSC 019 YPC)
• Yellowstone Park Hotel Company registers which include payroll registers with lists of employees and often their occupations, 1923-1935 (MSC 019 YPC)
• Yellowstone Park Transportation Company registers which include payroll registers with lists of employees and often their occupations, 1923-1935 (MSC 019 YPC)
• Yellowstone Park Company registers 1936-1961 which include payroll registers with lists of employees and often their occupations.  N. B. Social Security Numbers were first issued in November 1936 and these records may be restricted.  (MSC 019 YPC)
• Yellowstone Park Hotel Company check register which may contain employees’ names, 1930-1937 (MSC 019 YPC)
• Lists of Rail Visitors which include lists of visitors and their home addresses, 1929 and 1930 (MSC 019 YPC)
• Entrance Registers of Park Visitors which include lists of visitors and their home addresses, 1942, 1946, 1947, 1951 (MSC 019 YPC)

BMD (Births, Marriages, & Deaths)

Births

As far as I can tell, there is no list of the births within the park although if I was looking I’d check Yellowstone News, 1947-2002, and/or the Monthly Reports.

Marriages

According to the park’s website, “A permit is required to hold a wedding in the park unless it is at the Mammoth Chapel.”  So one would assume copies of these permits are kept somewhere?

Also, “Either a Wyoming or a Montana marriage license is applicable for a wedding in Yellowstone National Park. A Montana license is more practical if you are planning be married in the north part of the park near Mammoth Hot Springs and a Wyoming license is preferable if you are being married in the interior of the park near Old Faithful, Canyon, Lake or Grant Villages. If the couple has a Montana license, it will be necessary to sign the papers and perform the State requirements at or north of the 45th parallel (the state line near Mammoth Hot Springs) before or immediately following the ceremony in the park.”

• Register of Marriages, Yellowstone National Park Chapel, 1914-1963.  Found in Aubrey L. Haines, A History of the Yellowstone National Park Chapel, 1913-1963, p. 27.  
• [1963-1967?]
• Chapel Reservation Forms including weddings, 1967-1972 (Box A-316)

Deaths

For information about deaths in the park see Lee Whittlesey, Death in Yellowstone: Accidents and Foolhardiness in the First National Park, Boulder, Colorado: The Court Wayne Press, 1995.  Note: this isn’t a comprehensive list of deaths.  For example, Lee has told me he doesn't usually include death from automobile accidents (too many).

Cemeteries

• List of burials, Tinker’s Hill Cemetery, Gardiner, Park County, MT.  1880s-Present (MSC 074 FOE).  Note: This is the only private in-holding within Yellowstone National Park.
• Kite Hill Cemetery, Mammoth Hot Springs, Park County, WY.  1883-1897(?).  14 gravesites
• Fort Yellowstone Cemetery, Mammoth Hot Springs, Park County, WY.  1888-1957. First burial: Private Thomas Horton, 22nd Infantry Regiment, died 1888.  Last burial: Jeanett Clark, died 1957.  57-58 graves before 20 of them moved to Custer National Cemetery.  (Item 154, Cemetery Fort Yellowstone; and, Item 155, Official record of interments in the Post Cemetery)

Other nearby cemeteries

• Jardine Cemetery, Jardine, Park County, MT.  1902-Present  
• Cooke City Cemetery, Park County, MT.  1895(?)-Present(?)
• Fir Ridge Cemetery, West Yellowstone, Gallatin County, MT.  1964(?)-Present.  This is the only cemetery in the West Yellowstone area, located on the east side of Highway 191, north of West Yellowstone on a hill overlooking Hebgen Lake
• Emigrant Cemetery, Emigrant, Park County, MT.  Circa 1882-Present
• Chico Cemetery, Chico Hot Springs, Park County, MT. 1864-Present

Other Burials

According to Lee, “at least eight single graves are known at various locations around Yellowstone Park.”  Whittlesey, Death in Yellowstone, 216.

A Brief History of the Junior Ranger Program

UPDATED JULY 3, 2012

Note: please consider this a draft as I hope this story will continue to evolve in the coming months. 

Example of a Junior Ranger badge from the
Ranger Archivist's personal collection.

Can you remember the first time you heard about the Junior Ranger program?  Although it’s one of the most beloved traditions in the National Park Service, Junior Rangers has been part of American culture for so many years it’s hard for most of us to remember when it first appeared.   

Many historians consider the Yosemite Junior Nature School as the forerunner of today’s Junior Ranger program.  The Junior Nature School was started in June 1930 by Park Naturalist Charles A. Harwell, and by the summer of 1937 included such activities as “field instruction, observation and nature games…four auto caravans, one Indian demonstration, and a treasure hunt and picnic” (Yosemite Nature Notes, volume XVI, number 6, June 1937, 41).   

Becoming a Junior Naturalist in Yosemite wasn’t easy!  To earn the award, children had to answer 26 questions and attend at least five meetings of the Junior Nature School.  The following are examples of the questions a Junior Naturalist would be asked: 

• Point out and give characteristics of ten trees
• Identify five birds by their songs alone
• Point out the four principle minerals found in granite
• Name and identify 25 different wildflowers
• Outline the life history of the bear
• Tell four ways of identifying old Indian village sites
• Point out 40 points of interest around Yosemite Valley  

Example of a Junior Ranger patch from
the Ranger Archivist's personal
collection.

Yosemite’s Junior Naturalist program ran from 1930 to 1954.  Other National Parks eventually followed their lead and started similar programs: Sequoia National Park, Rocky Mountain National Park, and the National Historic Sites in and around our nation’s capital had their own programs, and the topic became so important that it was included as a subject of discussion during the Second Park Naturalist Conference at Grand Canyon National Park in 1940 (California Department of Parks and Recreation, Junior Ranger Program Handbook, no date, 1-4).   


In Yellowstone, the earliest example of such a program is the Junior Nature Explorers, which began in 1947.  It’s fortunate that records of this program still exist in the archives of the Yellowstone Heritage and Research Center (HRC), including the field journal of Ranger Naturalist Mildred Ericson, who seems to have instituted the program.  Details of the Junior Nature Explorers were also described in the Superintendent’s Monthly Reports (bound copies can be found in the HRC’s research library):   
 

A special phase of Yellowstone Park interpretation which is being tried out this year is the inauguration of a junior nature program which is being given to children from 6 to 14 years of age each afternoon from 2:00 – 4:30 for five days each week…This junior nature program consists of special exploring trips for these young people and a treatment of nature lore with some work being done on nature craft (June 1947, 4).

Ranger Erickson’s journal gives us an exciting window into interpretation for children during that era, and some of her enthusiasm can be detected in her entry from Thursday, August 19, 1947:  

There were just so many kids today that I declared “visitors day” and consequently had one of the finest nature-study trips of the season. Went to the Beaver Dams [near Mammoth Hot Springs] where we studied the habits of the beaver, hypnotized frogs, and observed a herd of antelope.

However, all of these programs were just the precursors of the Junior Ranger programs we know today, and it seems the credit (for its creation) is not due to the National Park Service, but rather to the U.S. Forest Service and Smokey Bear.  Smokey has been a symbol of conservation since 1944, but his story really captured the nation’s attention in 1950 when a little black bear cub was rescued from a wildfire in New Mexico.  This bear soon found a home in the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., and became the living symbol of Smokey Bear.  Two years later, the Junior Forest Ranger program was started and encouraged children throughout the nation to write Smokey expressing their interest in fire prevention.  In reply, children would receive a Junior Forest Ranger Kit.  In 1953 the first Smokey Bear plush toy was sold with accompanying Junior Forest Ranger badge. 
(Unlike the NPS's Junior Ranger program, Smokey Bear’s history is well-documented including Ellen Earnhardt Morrison’s Guardian of the Forest: a History of Smokey Bear and the Cooperative Forest Fire Prevention Program which has a chapter describing the background of the Junior Forest Ranger program.)



Yellowstone Park Company children's menu circa 1960.
Note the badge with "Junior Ranger Yellowstone 
Park Company."  NPS/YELL

Back in Yellowstone, the success of the Junior Forest Ranger program as an educational and marketing tool was not lost on the park’s concessionaire: the Yellowstone Park Company (YPC).  A company memo from December 23, 1960 – which is also found in the archives of the HRC – records a meeting between the park’s deputy superintendent and YPC officials including ideas for a Junior Ranger program.  An agent with the YPC’s advertising company supported the idea, and on December 29^th of that year wrote:  

I like your idea of rewarding the child with a Junior Ranger Badge (providing the NPS doesn’t object) but this would work strongly only with the boys.  Don’t you think we should have something else for the girls?  The girls generally aren’t attracted to the Rangers until they get a little older.   

Yellowstone National Park's first Junior Ranger
badge?

Regardless of when girls become interested in Rangers, Junior Ranger programs seem to have become widespread in the NPS in the late 1960’s. For better or for worse, Yellowstone provides us with an example of how a park can lose their connection with Junior Ranger history and heritage.  For example, Yellowstone is currently celebrating the 20th anniversary of their Junior Ranger program. While it’s commonly believed that program started in 1992, records show that the program really started in 1984!  Several Junior Ranger badges from 1984 can be found in the museum collection of the HRC along with accompanying documents in the archives, including guidelines for the program in a memo from the Summer of 1985 (HRC, Archives, Box K-106).  According to this document: 

The goal of Yellowstone National Park’s Junior Ranger Program is to acquaint elementary school-age visitors with the Yellowstone environment through a pleasant and memorable experience.  The experience should involve them as participants, in order to help them develop an appreciation for Yellowstone, the life in it, and the park’s value as a milestone in mankind’s relationship with the land.  This appreciation is necessary to create an informed public, capable of participating positively in the management efforts of the National Park Service (“Junior Ranger Program,” 1985).

The advocates of Yellowstone’s nascent Junior Ranger program sum-up their objectives well: “There is a child in all of us.  May you find yours in working with the children visiting Yellowstone!” 

Of course, the Junior Ranger program continues to evolve throughout the NPS.  National standards for the program were created in 2005, and in 2007 First Lady Laura Bush was in Zion National Park to help kick-off the first National Junior Ranger Day.  "Yesterday [April 29?] was the first-ever Junior Ranger Day.  This program brings children across the nation into our parks," said the First Lady, adding that, "Zion National Park has one of the oldest Junior Ranger program in the Nation" (Sunny Dixie day for US First Lady: Laura Bush speaks at Zion National Park," Deseret News, April 30, 2007.  See http://tinyurl.com/883yaqm).  And WebRangers - created about this same time - has brought the program to children with access to the Internet. 
However, many unanswered questions remain. For instance, in what year and in which National Park was the first Junior Ranger badge issued? And what the true impetus of the program in the 1950s and 1960s?

This Junior Ranger badge, from Muir Woods
National Monument, is made from recycled
redwood.  From the Ranger Archivist's personal
collection.

Examples of the three Junior Ranger patches currently available at
Yellowstone National Park.  From the Ranger Archivist's personal
collection.

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The Albright-SAMO Connection

HORACE M. ALBRIGHT
SOURCE: NPS/YELL

Horace Albright is among the many legendary individuals associated with the National Park Service.  In fact, Albright was there at the very beginning and – alongside of his mentor and friend Stephen Mather – helped create the NPS in 1916.  Albright became the first NPS superintendent of Yellowstone National Park, a position he held for ten years, and then replaced Mather to become the second director of the NPS.  Albright has many accomplishments to his name including roles in establishing such national parks as Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce Canyon, and the Great Smoky Mountains.  

Then, in 1933, Albright left the NPS to become a businessman….

Albright retired in 1962, moved to Los Angeles – to be closer to his daughter – and continued his interest in environmental and conservation causes.  This included his membership with the Angeles Chapter of the Sierra Club.  Moreover, Albright had been elected an honorary vice-president of the Sierra Club every year since 1937.

One can only wonder what was on Albright’s mind as the debate raged to create a national park in his new backyard: the Santa Monica Mountains.  Conservationists and local residents had been trying for decades to preserve the mountains, albeit for a variety of reasons.  The first suggestion for a national park came in 1920s when one local suggested creating Whitestone National Park near Pacific Palisades.  In the 1960s and 70s (and possibly as early as the 1950s) others advocated for the creation of Toyon National Park, named for the distinctive shrub that grows in the area.  (Local folklore suggests that this plant, also known as California Holly, is the namesake for Hollywood.)

Eventually, in 1978, the mountains were protected as a unit of the NPS and the new park was christened Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area (SAMO).  This is where Albright steps back into the picture. 

There are stories told among the rangers at SAMO that Albright would come to their visitor center and entertain them with tales of the early days of the NPS.  While these stories have yet to be substantiated, it is true that Albright had a close relationship with SAMO.   My first NPS supervisor, Marion Guthrie-Kennedy, recalls meeting Albright several times.  (Just think: I shook the hand that shook Albright’s hand, who in-turn shook John Muir’s hand!)  Marion also remembers driving Albright to special park events, and attending the funeral of Albright’s wife in 1980 along with other SAMO rangers. 

SAMO SUPERINTENDENT BOB CHANDLER WITH ALBRIGHT
SOURCE: NPS/YELL

Albright was presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom – the highest civilian award in the United States – in 1980.  At age 90 he wasn’t able to travel to Washington to receive his award, so the Assistant Secretary of the Interior travelled to California and presented it to him in Van Nuys.  Pictured here with Albright at the award ceremony are SAMO’s first superintendent Bob Chandler (standing in the center) and SAMO ranger Bill Webb (kneeling right foreground).  Also in the picture are superintendents Townsley (Yellowstone), Omundson (Cabrillo National Monument), and Ehorn (Channel Islands National Park). 

Albright must have continued to have a close relationship with SAMO for in 1985 a book-signing was held at Diamond X Ranch when his book The Birth of the National Park Service was published.  (Diamond X, of course, is the former home of singing cowboy star Rex Allen and is now one of the many national park sites in the mountains.)  In the epilogue of this book Albright mentions that he attended an environmental conference at SAMO the previous year (1984).

A year before his death, Albright received the John Muir Award, the most prestigious honor of the Sierra Club.  “His footprints are on the United States and the world, because all other national park systems are modeled on the one that he built,” said Elden Hughes, head of the Sierra Club’s Angeles chapter.

Horace Albright passed away on March 28, 1987, and it’s fitting that his memorial service was held at SAMO.  On April 4th of that year dignitaries from across the nation gathered at Peter Strauss Ranch in the Santa Monica Mountains to pay their respects to Albright.  The director of the NPS in 1987, William Penn Mott, was there along with former director William Whalen and representatives from dozens of conservation organizations.  Albright’s only grandson, John Ford, spoke for the family while Stephen Mather’s grandson, Stephen Mather MacFierson, was there for the National Parks and Conservation Association.  There were also personal messages from the Director-General of Tourism, Republic of China, and Tashimiro Senge, former director of the National Parks of Japan.  And uniformed rangers from California State Parks, the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA), and NPS were there as well. 

ALBRIGHT MEMORIAL SERVICE
AT PETER STRAUSS RANCH, APRIL 4, 1987
SOURCE: NPS/SAMO

My friend Ruth Kilday, who also attended the memorial, wrote, “Peter Strauss Ranch was the perfect site…a lovely lawn, a pretty verandah highlighting the historic rock structure as a backdrop, and a long-distance view to the mountain peak.”  Director Mott said of Albright, “He was one of the rare people who truly changed the nation for all times and influenced international good will through the parks…Mather was really the public relations and ideas person.  Albright was the one who put it together, who developed the regulations, the programs, and the goals of the National Park Service.  When he was director he carried those goals forward.”

During the ceremony a cenotaph was dedicated to Albright.  This memorial is still at Peter Strauss Ranch.  One wonders how many people pass by this near-forgotten plaque dedicated to one of the NPS’s founding leaders.  Perhaps some realize the importance of this site: the location of Horace Albright’s *official* NPS memorial.  

ALBRIGHT MEMORIAL AT PETER STRAUSS RANCH
SOURCE: NPS/SAMO/KEN LOW

Postscript:  Following the ceremony in 1987 a program was presented to attendees so that they could “explore and enjoy the site.”  Similar programs, led by NPS rangers, continue to this day, sometimes titled “What’s at Strauss.”  I hope all those who visit Peter Strauss Ranch will take a moment to pause by the Albright Memorial and consider its significances to NPS heritage. 

Special thanks to Darren Davis, Marion Guthrie-Kennedy, Ruth Kilday, Ken Low, and Linda Valois for providing information, stories, pictures, and support.

The Ranger Archivist by Francis S. Bawden is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.