Working the Parks 

Recollections of the Early Days 

In 1976, FHWA published The Trailblazers, containing employee recollections of early 

work in the National Parks and National Forests. Following are excerpts 

Mount Rainier National Park 

Clifford Polk

On the Rainier Park project [in the 1930s], we all camped at Ohanapecosh Hot Spring. I was 

allowed to camp in the park with my family and the park bears would come up regularly to beg 

for food. We fed them, and I guess that made them more bold because one day I woke up early 

to see a bear poking his head through the tent window, within reach of my daughter. I scared him 

off before he caused any trouble though. 

Yellowstone National Park 

William B. "Pete" Peters

Once when I was working on the side of a mountain, the contractor's timekeeper came two miles 

up to tell me my wife and baby had gotten ill and my wife wanted me to come back to camp 

immediately. The timekeeper offered me his horse to ride down but I knew I could beat any 

horse in the world down a mountain, and I ran the whole distance . . . . They both had dysentery 

from impure water and we had to get to the nearest doctor who was in Lander, over 100 miles 

away. The same day, one of the chainmen who was a cigarette smoker got burned while 

pumping up one of those Coleman lanterns that burned gasoline. It exploded and threw gasoline 

all over him and burned his arms, face and neck pretty badly. The boys got a blanket and 

smothered the fire out. 

I tried to telephone the doctor from camp but I couldn't get through because of one of the 

connections in the line. The contractor had told me that if I ever wanted to use his car, he would 

have a driver take me anywhere anytime. So, the contractor's man and I went to each farmhouse 

with a telephone on the line and tried to call the doctor until we finally got through. The doc 

came right out and took care of everybody but when we got the bill, he had lumped everything 

together for a "call” - he figured since we all worked for the Government, it didn't matter. It did 

to me since he had spent most of his time on the burned man and I remember it took a while 

before we got the charges all straightened out.
Bryce Canyon National Park 

Karl S. Chamberlain

The field party [in 1923] was made up of a Resident Engineer and one other instrumentman who 

were regular employees. The balance of the crew were temporary employees, most of whom 

were students. According to my recollection, expenses were paid to a limit of $1.20 per day. 

The automotive equipment consisted of World War I surplus equipment. The Resident Engineer 

rated a car and another was provided for the crew. Both were Model T Fords of the crank up 

variety for starting. They used high pressure tires and it was an uncommon day's travel if there 

was not at least one flat tire - repaired and patched on the spot. 

The quarters and field offices on the project consisted of tents without the benefit of floors or 

other unnecessary luxuries. The furnishings in the sleeping tents were rough lumber bunks 

without mattresses. Fresh cut pine boughs served as a substitute. A water bucket on a rough 

lumber stand and a wash basin completed the furnishings. Meals were taken at the contractor's 

mess at a cost of $1.00 per day. Food was plentiful, but the mess tent was unscreened. A large 

horse tent was located in the vicinity as nearly all motive power for the construction was horse 

drawn. Living conditions were rather primitive. A Saturday night bath could be taken in a round 

tub with only warm water heated on a small wood stove. On a Saturday night a trip to town 

could provide a good bath at the barber shop for 25 cents. A cafe meal could also be bought for 

the very low price of 35 cents plus. 

Crater Lake National Park 

Norman Wood 

During the summer season of 1931, someone decided that part of the Rim Road around Crater 

Lake should be located inside the crater itself . . . . As was then customary on location surveys, 

the party chief (me) was out in front of the transit party "flagging the line." Along the base of the 

vertical cliff above me was a narrow game trail and it was along this trail we proposed to run the 

"P" line. About the middle of the afternoon, of the first day out, I was setting an angle flag along 

this trail at a point in a small draw along which I could look downward some 800 feet and see the 

deep blue water of the Lake. As I attempted to drive the lath I apparently shifted my weight and 

my footing gave way. Down I went - with my axe and bundle of lath. While the lath and axe 

were never found, I managed during my slide down about a 1:1 slope to catch hold of a large 

rock imbedded in the slope and stop my slide before I reached the vertical drop below me. I 

"froze" and was unable to move for a time, after which I dug my boot toes into the pumice slope 

and transferred some of my weight away from my arms . . . . This is the closest I have yet come 

to going to the big survey camp in the sky - needless to say, I never again worked in such areas 

alone or without ropes. I cannot yet look over a high cliff without the same cold fear I 

experienced that day.

In any record of those early days on Forest and Park activities by BPR, it is proper to note the 

role played by the wife and children of project personnel. Quite often, there was a "no-family" 

rule applicable on the more remote projects and almost always on location surveys. Under such 

circumstances families remained at District (Region) headquarters. However, on many 
construction projects families were at first tolerated - and in later years certain provisions were 

made - such as furnishing a tent or available government-owned facilities with consequent 

reduction in the per diem rate. (During the 1930's this rate was $1.30 basic, having been reduced 

from $1.50 in deference to the "depression.") My personal experiences with family life "on the 

project" are many and varied. In the summer of 1931, BPR families were first permitted in 

Crater Lake Park. While NPS made a fine small stone house available to the BPR resident 

engineer, he was charged one-third of his per diem rate as rental, which actually was a bargain. 

Crew members were allotted an area for a tent camp. Travel trailers and mobile homes were 

unknown in those days. Living quarters were basically a 12' x 16' tent on a frame with 4' 

sidewalls. NPS furnished electricity and water, with wiring and water pipes the employee's 

responsibility. We had a three-burner kerosene cook stove, powder box furniture, an airtight 

wood heating stove and steel cots, compliments of BPR. Nighttime temperatures at Park 

Headquarters (Elev. 6,200) are such that the heating stove was in use both evening and mornings. 

 Refrigeration was a snow bank nearby (until about July 4th), a homemade water cooler, or the 

nearby creek.

Yosemite National Park 

Eric Erhart

In the Spring of 1926 Tom Roach hired on in Yosemite Park as transitman for Harry Tolan. This 

was the first year of construction in the National Park system . . . . Tom was later in charge of 

driving the Wawona tunnel in Yosemite. One of his favorite stories is telling how they had cut a 

window in the tunnel wall to outside air. This permitted the tunnel air to exhaust immediately 

after each successive blast permitting the crew to start working sooner. On one occasion Tom 

thought about standing in one of the windows when a shot was fired. On second thought he set a 

loaded wheelbarrow in the window. When the shot went off, the wheelbarrow was blown into 

oblivion in the next canyon. 

Mount Rainier National Park 

Rene Wright

Animals were an occasional nuisance around camps [in the 1920s], especially the big, black 

bears in Rainier National Park. One big fellow would come around the cook tent every day for 

scraps or whatever else he could find to eat - he knew exactly what time dinner was served. We 

tried to scare him off with boiling water, sharp sticks, pepper and everything else, but to no avail. 

 The Park Service finally trapped him in a big corrugated pipe trap and hauled him off to the 

other end of the park. In three days, however, he was back. 

Cougars would follow you around to see what you were doing. They would follow you directly 

in your trail, criss-crossing to stay out of sight. They didn't pose a problem unless you wounded 

one. Most of the so-called "wild" animals weren't aggressive - they didn't seem to consider us 

enemies . . . . 
Landowners were another occasional problem, although most were extremely cooperative. A 

few would object if you went through the middle of a field. Survey parties were sometimes 

challenged with shotguns and a local sheriff would have to be called out to control the owner. 

Mount Zion National Park 

William D. White 

The years 1928-30 . . . construction work on one of the largest forest and park roads up to that 

time was started. This was the Zion Mt. Carmel Tunnel . . . . The prime contractor had divided 

the project into four sections. Each section was under subcontract to a different nationality 

group. In other words, the first section was all Italian, the second Swedish, the third Finnish and 

the fourth German. Very few of the workmen in any of these groups spoke English so for the 

engineering work necessary for stakeout and to interpret the specification requirements we had to 

single out an individual who understood English and could interpret questions from the rest of 

the men that required an answer. These station gangs, as they were called, all worked by hand 

methods, using picks and shovels, single bits, drilling by hand and using mine cars and tracks for 

wheelbarrows to and [from] embankments. Each station gang had its own camp set up and 

cookhouse. It was a rather interesting experience. When working with a particular gang one day 

you might be asked to have lunch with them and it would be Italian type food. The next day you 

would be eating food that was more of the type served in Germany. 

Yellowstone National Park 

A. W. Parsons 

My assignment on the Red Lodge-Cook City project started in July of 1932 . . . . The first big 

snowstorm of the [1933] season occurred in early October and two men working with the bridge 

contractor near Cook City attempted to return to Red Lodge by going over the Bear Tooth 

Mountain summit. As they neared the summit, they could see that they would never make it and 

abandoning their car they hiked on foot and tried to get to a small shelter shack a few miles west 

of the summit. They made it to the shack all right but were unable to start a fire or do anything to 

save themselves as they were found frozen to death there at a later date.