Comments on: Why do park rangers dress in mock-military costumes?

By: Tom Turner

Tom Turner — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 19:11:07 +0000

In reply to Ranger Bill. Thank you very much for the information. It is both very interesting and very useful to have. I am all in favour of the law being kept and the public being protected. But I am less keen on people wearing military-style uniforms when it is not essential to do so. That said, I find it difficult to know what style of 'uniform' would be more appropriate.

By: Ranger Bill

Ranger Bill — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 18:34:18 +0000

Park Rangers dress that way for a very good historical reason. The National Parks were established some twenty years BEFORE the National Park Service in 1916. For the first 20 years there were no such things as rangers. So who ran the parks, you ask? The US Calvary. When the rangers took over, we wore the same (or very similar) uniforms to the Calvary, which the public was already used to seeing at Yellowstone, etc. What park rangers wear today is essentially a World War 1 Calvary officer’s uniform, with more modernized cut to the trousers and newer boots.

As for the gun belt and the rest of the modern police overlay, well we are federal (or state) cops. If you break the law at Yellowstone, a ranger will arrest you, not some city cop, but you’ll end up in jail all the same. It can be dangerous, a ranger at Mount Rainer, Margaret Anderson was shotgunned to death. She stopped a guy to remind him to out on his snow chains and he just blew her away. It’s every bit as dangerous as any police job, so weapons, body armor, radios and the rest are called for.

Hope that answers your question.

Ranger Bill

By: Tom Turner

Tom Turner — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 15:37:30 +0000

The Wiki entry on Rangers also emphasises security. My comments are (1) I certainly do not want people to be hurt or the land to be damaged (2) you need to protect people in a ‘park’ but I do not think all, or most, ‘natural areas’ should be called parks or run as parks. Many of them should be ‘nature reserves’ in which people take responsibility for their own safety. (3) I dislike the government agencies which market nature reserves as tourist destinations and which cause crowds to be present in these places (4) I love ‘wild swimming’ and do not enjoy being watched by lifeguards or told that the sea is too rough.
TS Eliot put it like this:
And when we were children, staying at the archduke’s,
My cousin’s, he took me out on a sled,
And I was frightened. He said, Marie,
Marie, hold on tight. And down we went.
In the mountains, there you feel free.
I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter.

By: allanbecker-gardenguru

allanbecker-gardenguru — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 15:15:05 +0000

Uniforms are for security and safety.
In an emergency situation, where the intervention of a park ranger is required, a uniformed employee in a silly costume stands out more readily from the crowds and may be easily and quickly identified. One may call some parks “national sanctuaries” but in fact they are destinations where accidents do happen and where visitors might fall ill.

I agree about the folksy signage but not with “holy men” as caretakers. That would reflect that our civilization is made up of a lot of spiritual people. And that is not so.