Museum of the National Park Ranger

After leaving the Old Faithful area we headed over to the Norris area to set up camp.  My first plan had been to move around from campsite to campsite as we saw more of Yellowstone, but I realized that it wouldn't work well to have to pack up all our gear and our tent each day.  Additionally though it was still early in the season some of the campgrounds did fill up, so we would have had to go to each new campground early to set up before we could have seen any sights.

Anyway, once we'd set up camp in the campground (and we discovered that it was one of the nicest campgrounds in the Park--at least of those we explored) we headed to the Museum of the National Park Ranger, located adjacent to the campground before heading over to the Norris Geyser Basin a short drive away.

I knew about the museum partly because it was one of the locations where I wanted to get my passport book stamped.  But I'd also read a bit about it before our trip because it seemed very interesting in its own right.

It is located in the old Norris Soldier Station and was "one of the original soldier stations, built in 1908, as an outlying station for soldiers on patrol. The building has been completely rebuilt, using original materials where possible and staying true to the original floorplan. The original building was taken down on site and rebuilt." (quoted from the above-linked NPS site)

 Not only does the museum cover the history of the park rangers, it also explains the various roles of the park ranger and how these roles have both changed through time and remained the same.  As a side note, quite a bit of Yellowstone's ranger interpretation seemed to cover the theme of "we did it differently in the old days, but we've learned better."

"Exhibits depict the development of the park ranger profession from its roots in the military traditions through early rangers and to the present array of NPS staff specialized duties."

When many people think of park rangers one of the most distinguishing features is the hat.  Even in thinking of fictional rangers (perhaps those in cartoons), they always have the hats.  Of course the museum features an official ranger hat.

The sign reads as follows:

The hat is the most distinguishable part of the ranger's uniform.  The one worn today is almost teh same as the very earliest.  It is probably based on the old army style which was current when the Park Service was founded. 

Other hats found in Park areas reflect the many duties performed.

While we were wandering around the museum we were fortunate enough to get a close photograph of one of the bison eating outside while light snow fell.

The patches from international rangers were most interesting.  I should have taken close-up shots of more of them, but alas I only thought to get a good picture of the Australian ones.

We also watched at least one of the theater videos--I think they only played one while we were there.

This area showed a typical cabin for certain rangers--perhaps those going through the back country or manning an isolated post.

Not that I hadn't heard (learned) it elsewhere, but again I saw a practical example of  "being careful what you wish for!"

There were plenty of exhibits, though the space wasn't too large.  If you're in the area you should drop by.  If you're camping then check out Norris--and if you stay there you really won't have any excuse not to visit the park ranger museum.

~Matt

PS All blog photos are in this album: