October 7, 2009

PBS & NPS: A Family Story

Through a rather circuitous route, via another blogger, The Trad, I found out that one of the segments on the Ken Burns documentary, The National Parks: America’s Best Idea, features an old friend of mine. NPS 2When I lived in Baltimore before, I lived on a peninsula, at the end of which sat Fort McHenry National Shrine. It’s the where the Star Spangled Banner was written and the Superintendent of the park (and of Hampton National Historic Site) became a very close friend of mine. flag day 005She is the fourth generation of her family to work for the National Park Service. Her great-grandfather worked at Grand Canyon, as did her grandfather. He was Superintendent there and is buried there in a grove of ponderosa pines. Her father was head of all of the National Parks west of the Rockies, so she had to work in parks east of the Rockies until he retired. NPS 8She was raised in National Parks including Denali in Alaska and Hubbell Trading Post in Arizona. It was 10 years ago this month that she moved to Arizona to take over at Glen Canyon National Park, a 1.2 million acre park in Utah and Arizona. NPS 4We took five days to drive out there, having adventures along the way, including a stop at Graceland, a creepy night spent in Clinton, OK and a rare early fall snowstorm in New Mexico. Lots of laughs and great fun on the way.NPS 7Stops to visit a few National Parks along the way, including Hubbell, a real working trading post, Navajo restaurants to try traditional frybread and green chili, views and vistas of mesas and buttes all helped me learn about the American West. A birthday spent at the Grand Canyon was a highlight for me.NPS 5 She’s married to an old friend of mine now and has a son who wants to be a ranger. NPS 3 Five generations of one family serving our nation through our National Parks.NPS 1Congratulations to John Cook and to his daughter, my friend Kayci Cook Collins.  NPS 6 Thank you for a job well done.

12 comments:

  1. I love this story! So interesting - what an incredible family history.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Very nice post. That's quite a family legacy your friend is passing on if, in fact, her son becomes a ranger as well. We're all lucky people like this take their jobs as preservationists so seriously.

    ReplyDelete
  3. What a wonderful story of family tradition Meg...and what a magnificent park to call home, xv.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Great story - and some spectacular photos.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I cried like a baby when I watched the piece about the family. It's on-line for another day or so...

    The scenery images are all from our trip out west. It's hard to take a bad picture of scenery like that!

    ReplyDelete
  6. It's an amazing documentary and so glad Ken Burns featured the Cooks and your friend. How cute was she in that first pic!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Linda... I think this might be at Death Valley where she was a ranger for a while. I can't even imagine!

    ReplyDelete
  8. thanks for the post! What a cool story -- a whole family of rangers, like families who are all in the military, but much better.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I have a friend who works at Alcatraz. Lovely entry. Thank you for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  10. What a wonderful story. Such a history in the Cook family. Thank you for sharing it with us here.

    ReplyDelete
  11. What a totally cool story - and also, it just seems like you have the most amazing friends. You're very lucky, and you're obviously doing something right as a friend!

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for reading and commenting on Pigtown*Design. I read each and every comment and try to reply if I have your e-mail address.