WELCOME TO YOSEMITEPark rangers march through Yosemite on horseback. Horses have been an important presence at Yosemite since it became a state park in 1864 and then a national park in 1890.

38

What is it like to work in one of the first national parks? In this article, National Park Service rangers Yenyen Chan and Shelton Johnson describe what they enjoy most about their jobs and the national park they have come to know and love.

MEET THE RANGERS

BY ANDREA ALTER

THE MOTHER OF THE PARKSYosemite National Park—with its numerous and spectacular waterfalls, giant rock faces, gentle meadows, and towering sequoias—is one of the most visited and beloved of the national parks. Yosemite is nestled in the mountains and valleys of the Sierra Nevada in northern California. Many consider Yosemite to be the “mother” of the national parks. It was the nation’s first state park and a model for the national parks that came later.

The establishment of national parks was a key victory in American wilderness preservation. John Muir and other conservationists knew that while Yosemite’s state park status afforded it protection, it needed more to safeguard its pristine wilderness from the timber and ranching industries. Much thanks to Muir’s writing and activism, Congress formally established Yosemite

as a national park in 1890. Since then, Yosemite has attracted millions of visitors year-round.

Yosemite National Park is roughly the size of the state of Rhode Island. It contains five of the seven continental life zones, so a great diversity of plants and wildlife thrive within its boundaries. Yosemite’s park rangers know the park and its species better than anyone.

Across the country, park rangers perform a number of different jobs in the parks they serve. Law enforcement rangers help rescue stranded hikers, provide emergency medical assistance, and help fight wildfires. Interpretive rangers offer educational programs to visitors, lead hikes and nature walks, study wildlife behavior, and monitor air and water quality. Park rangers love nothing more than introducing the parks to visitors and educating them about the wonder and beauty they hold.

39

Yenyen Chan first encountered Yosemite National Park on her first backpacking trip as a sophomore in high school. She was astounded by the night sky full of stars, and she fell in love with Yosemite. During college and graduate school, she studied history and environmental sciences and learned that she had a passion for environmental policy. She became a park ranger after working several jobs and internships, including as a ranger intern.

Today Chan works as an interpretive ranger. In this role, she does a lot of public speaking and storytelling with park visitors. She says, “Storytelling is a way to engage with a group. Everyone has a story, and the universal themes that emerge from our stories connect us to each other and to nature.”

Another aspect of Chan’s ranger role is as a park historian. While she was an intern at Yosemite, a supervisor mentioned a road that had

been built by Chinese laborers in the late 1800s. Her interest was peaked and she set out on a mission to research Chinese laborers. After years of research, she developed her own interpretive program on that part of the park’s history.

Chinese immigrants arrived in the American West during the gold rush. They worked in mines, on railroads, in hotels, as cooks, and as manual laborers. After the gold ran out, many Chinese immigrants faced discrimination and violence, yet they persevered in this country. Some went to Yosemite, where they were hired as cooks and laborers.

Likewise, after the transcontinental railroad was finished, Chinese workers went to Yosemite, where they were hired to build roads. They became known for their hard—and fast—work in difficult conditions. One winter, Chinese laborers built a 23-mile-long road in Yosemite in just four and half months.

WELL PREPAREDYenyen Chan relies on her background in history and environmental studies in her work as a ranger.

YENYEN CHAN MEET

40

One of the Chinese immigrants who worked in Yosemite was a man named Tie Sing. Tie Sing was the main backcountry cook for the U. S. Geological Survey from 1888 to 1916. He became well known for his fantastic meals, prepared on the trail. Tie Sing was so beloved that a peak was named for him in 1899, Sing Peak.

One person who knew of Tie Sing’s talents was Steven Mather, a businessman and the future first director of the national parks. As part of his efforts to increase awareness about the importance of protecting the national parks, Mather invited influential people to go on Mather Mountain Party trips at Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks.

Mather wanted to make sure that people had great meals while on these trips, so he hired Tie Sing to cook for the guests, who included Gilbert H. Grosvenor, early founder of the National Geographic Society, as well as congressmen and

journalists. As a result of these trips, politicians pushed for more protections of the parks and wilderness places and Grosvenor devoted the entire April 1916 issue of National Geographic to the national parks.

More than 100 years later, visitors to Yosemite can take part in an annual Sing Peak Pilgrimage, led by Yenyen Chan. Participants can listen to presentations about the history of Chinese immigrants in Yosemite, hike along roads built by Chinese immigrant workers, and backpack up to the top of Sing Peak.

Teaching visitors about Yosemite National Park’s history is incredibly rewarding for Chan. She argues, “Learning about the people who contributed to the history of our national parks reminds us of the extraordinary gifts we experience today, thanks to their efforts. What we do today can have a lasting impact. What we do today affects the future.”

“Everyone has a story, and the universal themes that emerge from our stories connect us to each other and to nature.” —Yenyen Chan

BACKCOUNTRY CHEFTie Sing, standing center, wowed Mather’s guests with elaborate meals, including trout, chops, soup, fresh sourdough bread, hot apple pie, cheese, and coffee.

41

When he was five years old and living in Germany, Shelton Johnson’s parents took him on a trip to the Bavarian Alps. Experiencing the grandeur of nature at such a young age was a formative event. When his family moved to Detroit, Johnson recounts, “I could visualize a different world. I could close my eyes and see the Bavarian Alps. My childhood friends only knew the streets of the neighborhood where we lived. We felt relatively safe there, but feeling less vulnerable to violence and being inspired are not the same things. What I know is that I am a ranger today because I never forgot the experience of being in the mountains in Germany. It made me who I am.”

After graduating from the University of Michigan, he joined the Peace Corps and taught English in Liberia, West Africa. Later, in graduate school, he applied for a summer job at Yellowstone National Park—on a whim. He was a writer, and because few African Americans wrote about the wilderness, he thought this might be an opportunity. So his job washing dishes at the Old Faithful Inn was his first experience in a U.S. national park.He remembers it fondly. “Once I stepped off that bus at Yellowstone and saw a bison walk by just 10 feet away, I was hooked. I knew I had walked into an enchanted world and I never wanted to leave. It made a deep impression on me as an individual and on my spirit.”

WILDERNESS EDUCATORShelton Johnson speaks to a group of park volunteers at Lower Pine Campground in Yosemite National Park.

MEETSHELTON JOHNSON

42

BACKGROUND & VOCABULARY

demographics n. the statistical data relating to the population and particular groups within it

facilitate v. to make an action or process easier; to make possible

policy n. a course or principle of action adopted or proposed by a government, party, business, or individual

Johnson became a national park ranger in 1987. His background in literature and music helped him develop in his role as an interpretive ranger. Of all his duties, what he loves most is sharing the beauty and wonder of the wilderness with visitors. He laughs and says, “What I do is tell stories and facilitate astonishment, so my actual title should be ‘Astonishment Facilitator’. I build on the natural sense of wonder people have when they stand at the edge of the Grand Canyon, or wander among the great sequoia. My job is to make the astonishment more intense.”

In addition to facilitating astonishment, Johnson has made it his mission to get young people fired up about the national parks. He knows that when people encounter the wilderness, they become part of something bigger. The virtual reality of smartphones and television “doesn’t hold a candle to reality,” he says. “Those who never experience a national park may not fully develop a sense of what’s possible in this world. After all, a ‘waterfall’ is just a word until you experience Yosemite Falls for the first time.” Connecting with young people is critical for the parks, too. He argues, “The future of the national parks depends on nurturing the sense of wonder that all children have.”

During his long career as a ranger, Johnson has also addressed another issue facing the parks: the lack of diversity among visitors. He says, “The absence of people of color in the national parks is profound.” Diversity matters for several reasons. First, Johnson believes that “public lands and national parks exist for citizens. The country’s demographics are changing. If all citizens do not consider themselves stewards of the parks, we

will lose these wild places. Stewardship is possible only when people of all ages and backgrounds have formed a connection to these places.”

Historically, African-American, Hispanic, and Asian families have not visited the national parks in large numbers. Reasons for this are rooted in our nation’s troubled history of race relations. In the early 20th century, for example, an African-American family wouldn’t feel safe driving across the country to visit a national park. Along the way, they might encounter towns where they couldn’t stay the night. The wilderness itself caused anxiety, too, because of the violence that occurred in rural areas, particularly between 1870s and the 1960s.

Johnson brings his love for the wilderness and his passion for bringing people of color to the parks together in his role as an interpretive ranger. Some days, he greets visitors in his Buffalo Soldier uniform. The Buffalo Soldiers were members of African-American army regiments who were sent West after the Civil War to fight in the Indian Wars and to protect the national parks. In the next article, Shelton Johnson will introduce you one such soldier.

THINK ABOUT IT!

1. Make Inferences What qualities do national park rangers possess that make them particularly suited to wilderness work?

2. Pose and Answer Questions If you had the opportunity to conduct your own interviews, what questions would you ask Yenyen Chan and Shelton Johnson?

“If all citizens do not consider themselves stewards of the parks, we will lose these wild places.” —Shelton Johnson

43