National Park Service rangers give voice to Minnesota's rich story

From commemorative stamps and coins to ubiquitous hashtags and special events at the parks, 2016 has been the year to acknowledge the National Park Service centennial. On Aug. 25, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed the parks into being. Today, the Park Service consists of 410 sites with 28 different designations, from parks to monuments to seashores. With that, we introduce some of the people who give voice to the history, importance and future of Minnesota's part in the parks system: rangers representing each of the state's six units, from Voyageurs National Park in the wooded far north to the quarries of Pipestone in the far southwest.

(Illustrations by Anthony Hary, Special to the Star Tribune)

'We need stewards to care' for the parks

My role is to coordinate the public programs, special events, staff and volunteers who connect visitors to the Mississippi River and each other. Working in an urban national park offers unlimited opportunities to introduce the ideas and values of the National Park Service to new people and old friends.

To me, the Mississippi River is a dynamic and versatile resource that reflects our changing values, attitudes and preferences. It's a recreational resource, a laboratory, a classroom, a refuge and a historic landscape. It's a microcosm of the national park system.

What I love about this park, why I think it matters, is the location. It's a national park nested among 3 million people, many of whom have no idea that we exist. We have the opportunity to partner with dozens of organizations and untold numbers of communities to protect and interpret the river.

One of my favorite park experiences was watching a hundred people from two dozen countries become naturalized citizens on the banks of the river at Harriet Island in St. Paul. It was a sunny, blue-skied June morning. Two paddleboats in the background. A bald eagle in the tree. A barge going downstream. A hundred new people who added the Mississippi to their life's story. It was a once-in-a-career experience that makes Harriet Island one of my favorite places in the park.

(Valentine, 39, has been with the National Park Service for 10 years.)

'It is the home of my ancestors'

I grew up with a national park in my backyard, and I didn't even know it! Growing up in Grand Portage, Minn., home of a national monument, I never thought of it as a park. I spent hours fishing in Grand Portage Creek, climbing Mount Rose, and hiking on the Grand Portage. I remember talking with the rangers and watching the short films that were shown on-site.

Grand Portage is more than a great place to work; it is the home of my ancestors. I am a member of the Grand Portage Band of Ojibwe; this place is our homeland. My uncle is the chief of maintenance at the park, like his father before him. My brother has worked at the historic site. I never thought I would, but I'm so glad I do. As an interpretive ranger at Grand Portage, I feel as though I welcome people into my home. I am proud to teach others about preserving and protecting this place. I especially love to learn and pass on some of the handicraft traditions of my ancestors.

My main job is to talk to people, but my favorite day is when we walk into the woods. On rare occasions, we must gather raw materials for the living history demonstrations. We build birch bark canoes, wigwams, and baskets that require harvesting birch bark, cedar wood and spruce roots. My favorite thing is to gather birch bark to make baskets. I enjoy envisioning what each piece of bark will be and thinking about how to make it into something useful and beautiful. These are good skills to pass on.

(Drost, 38, has been with the National Park Service for nine years.)

'This park will always be special for me'

It was there, on the Chain of Lakes Snowmobile Trail , that the realization hit me. "This is a beautiful park, and I'm thrilled to be here," I thought. I was giddy; I was happy to be outside; it was fun to patrol with another ranger.

It was February 2015, and I had just started work at Voyageurs National Park. I had just arrived to my first chief ranger job from Big Bend National Park on the border between far west Texas and Mexico. Needless to say, Voyageurs was a bit different than the desert I had just left. But change of scenery was a natural part of me. I was raised in a military family, attended college overseas, and had worked in a number of national parks throughout the country. But it was on the Chain of Lakes Snowmobile Trail where I thought, "This is home." The green trees, the white snow, the moose and deer tracks ... "the bush" of Northern Minnesota is the place for me.

This park will always be a special place for me. Various recreational pursuits abound, the people are good and kind, and for once in my life I can truly call a place home. Maybe I'm extra-sentimental because I enjoy raising two small girls, maybe it's because we are close to family and friends, and just maybe it's because I'm in love with this park.

Come visit us.

(Welch, 36, has been with the National Park Service for 13 years.)

'How lucky I am to work in parks'

In this centennial year for the National Park Service, I have found myself looking back at my career as a park ranger (which included Channel Islands National Park), marveling at how lucky I am to work in parks. For many years I worked as park ranger interpreter/educator in the middle part of the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway on the border of Minnesota and Wisconsin — a dream job.

I was able to connect with people and help them discover the greatness of the St. Croix River. I remember watching a dragonfly emerge from its aquatic life-form with a young urban camp leader who had never seen anything like it. I was "Ranger Jean" to thousands and thousands of schoolchildren who came to the river with dip nets to see underwater life. I've held an eagle, talked to a bear and watched the sun rise over a misty river where the calls of birds were overwhelming.

My favorite stretch of the riverway continues to be between Nelsons Landing and Highway 70 on the St. Croix. The rapids are fun, the scenery spectacular, and I love that I can go for hours without hearing the noise of civilization. Few people paddle the Kettle River Slough (downriver from Nelsons Landing), so if I take that paddling option, wildlife is always to be seen and quiet is the norm. Stopping at Seven Islands gives me a chance to reflect on how lucky I am to work on such a natural beauty. You've got to get out there.

(Van Tatenhove, 59, has been with the National Park Service for nearly 30 years.)

'Unlike any site I have ever worked at'

My job is to provide law enforcement operations at Pipestone National Monument as well as interpretive services. The combination of these responsibilities provides a good variety of duties to keep me engaged and challenged.

Pipestone National Monument is one of the most unusual National Park Service sites due to the management of the sacred pipestone quarries. The monument was established to protect the tallgrass prairie ecosystem and the pipestone resource, but the pipestone still is quarried today by American Indians. It has been for thousands of years. This combination of protecting a resource but allowing it to be actively removed from the site is unlike at any other NPS site I have ever worked at.

One of my favorite experiences here is observing the many Indian ceremonies and events because we are a sacred site to many. These ceremonies and events have their own unique significance, but what I especially appreciate about them is the traditional nature of them. I think it is important for all of us to understand and respect where we come from so we can move forward with knowledge of our past.

(Goraczkowski, 32, has been with the National Park Service for eight years.)

Favorite park is 'fantastic volunteers'

I have worked as the North Dakota and Minnesota regional trail coordinator for the North Country Trail (NCT) Association since 2006. The association's mission is to build, maintain, promote and protect the trail. The association is a nonprofit partner of the National Park Service, the trail's administering agency. Our organization's role is to support the volunteers that do the on-the-ground work on the trail. My favorite part of working on the trail is the fantastic volunteers. They are so dedicated and giving of their time. Their work can range from talking to people at events to flagging new routes in the depths of winter, to maintaining sections by cutting back brush and mowing. One annual highlight is a volunteer vacation trail-clearing trip on the Kekekabic Trail portion in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Canoeing in and then clearing trail for five days with a crew of strangers is a great experience. It's truly an honor to work beside them (and also volunteer) building and maintaining this recreational treasure.

The trail matters to me because it affords a unique opportunity to experience a lot (a weeklong hike) or a little bit (a day hike) of nature in a very intimate way. The NCT is a 2-foot-wide primitive footpath in a cleared 4-foot-wide corridor, so nature surrounds hikers. My favorite spot along the NCT is by DeSoto Lake in Itasca State Park. The trail is surrounded by old growth pines. I've been out there in all the seasons and its beauty never fails to inspire me. I am thankful that folks such as Jacob V. Brower, a champion of the Mississippi River headwaters, and Mary Gibbs, a former Itasca park superintendent and the only woman in such a position at the time, fought to protect the park 125 years ago.