This Yellowstone museum pays homage to national park rangers

Fun fact: Former President Gerald Ford was a national park ranger, working the summer of 1936 at Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. That was back in the day when the park staff fed the bears, so the future congressman and president served as the armed guard on the bear feeding truck.That’s a factoid you’ll pick up on a tour of the small but interesting Museum of the National Park Ranger at Yellowstone.Located near the Norris Geyser Basin, the park log structure dates to 1897 when Yellowstone was protected and patrolled by the U.S. Army. This was a soldier station which doubled as a barracks.Because Yellowstone is the first national park, it’s appropriate that the museum be located here. But it was not until a meeting of the Association of National Park Rangers in 1977 that the idea of a museum came about. Paperwork was signed in 1985 and the museum opened a few years later.The museum showcases living and working conditions that rangers endured in the earliest days and how the profession has evolved over the years. Galen Clark, who served in Yosemite in the 1860s, is considered the first park ranger. In 1920, Isabel Wasson became the first female park ranger.But perhaps the most interesting facet of the museum is the volunteers who stand by to answer questions. These are retired national park rangers, people who have spent their entire careers with the National Park Service and now volunteer their time to tell this important story.The museum, located off the Grand Loop Road near the entrance to the Norris Campground, is open in July and August.