Park Ranger Interview with Miriam Hornstein

In this interview series, I'm going to introduce you to park rangers across the United States. Today's post features Curt Dimmick, chief park ranger at Mt. Rainier National Park. Curt with his oldest son, Eli, at the NPS Centennial on August 25, 2016, at Mt. Rainier. What is your name and job title? Curt Dimmick, Chief Park Ranger, at Mt. Rainier National Park in Washington. Is this the first National Park you've worked at? If not, tell me what other parks/nature centers you've worked at. No, this is actually the ninth. I have worked at Coronado National Memorial (southern Arizona), Grand Canyon National Park, Yellowstone National Park, Big Bend National Park, Everglades National Park, Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I have been the Chief Park Ranger at Great Basin National Park (Nevada), Crater Lake National Park (Oregon) and now at Mt. Rainier National Park (Washington). Where did you grow up? In the country, city or suburb? I grew up in Illinois in a very small town called Thomson that has a population of about 550.  I consider it the country as we lived on the edge of town without many close neighbors. What did you love about the outdoors as a child? I loved playing in my parents' large yard (we had over 3 acres).  I loved riding bikes and playing all sorts of games and acting out fantasies. I loved animals (we always had a dog growing up and cats) and became interested in wildlife and nature early on. My mother loves birds and always had bird feeders around the house, and I enjoyed watching and learning to identify birds. I loved spending time along the Mississippi River, which was less than a mile from my parents’ house. When did you know you wanted to work in outdoor education? Unlike a lot of my colleagues, I never thought about being a park ranger while growing up. I did know I wanted a job where I could work outdoors at least some of the time. When I started college, I was interested in being a wildlife biologist. I studied and have several degrees in biology and zoology. As I went further in school, I thought I would be a college professor. I got interested in the park ranger profession after I started graduate school and worked seasonal (temporary) positions for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and then later for the National Park Service as a park ranger. I got hooked and eventually landed a permanent position as a protection or law enforcement park ranger with the National Park Service. I have worked as a ranger ever since. I grew up interested in law enforcement too and it is in my family. Both of my brothers are police officers. So this career as a park ranger has combined my interests in wildlife, nature and biology with my interest in law enforcement. Who encouraged you to pursue a career in outdoor education? My parents always supported me and my siblings in whatever we wanted to do. I had several science teachers along the way who helped stoke my interest in the outdoors and nature. Several college and graduate school courses and professors further fed my interest. In the end, it was probably my own internal desire that most led me to this type of career more than any other person. What is the most common question you get from park visitors? Where are the restrooms?  Actually, that is something of a park service joke, but it does ring true as that is one of the most asked questions at visitor centers. At Mt. Rainier National Park, it is usually, "How high is the mountain?  How many people climb the mountain every year?" The answers are 14, 410 ft. and of about 10,000 people who attempt to climb it each year, about half make it to the top. The others get turned around for various reasons. How can parents raise kids to love the outdoors? Get them outdoors early and often. Don’t let weather stop you. Get them rain clothes for the rainy days, snowsuits for the winter days and get them out in all sorts of weather and in all sorts of places. Take them to local, state and national parks. Take them camping, hiking, fishing, kayaking, whatever you are in to and get them started. Read books and stories about the outdoors, animals, nature. Teach them about what they see around them and if you don’t have a nature background, learn with them and take them places like nature centers, children’s museums and programs in national parks to learn more. Anything else you want to share about your job or what you love about nature/being outside? Being a park ranger for the National Park Service, living in or near and working in national parks, is one of the greatest jobs there is. Being part of the mission to preserve and protect the natural resources in our parks and to serve and protect the visitors who come to enjoy the parks is one of the proudest accomplishments I can think of.

Bee and her dad, Dan, check out Washington's Headquarters at Morristown in Morris County, New Jersey during the National Park Service's 100th Anniversary celebration weekend in 2016. Sharing our love of history One of the reasons I married my husband was our shared love of U.S. and world history. Most of our vacations revolve around visiting a historic site. Now that we are a family of three, we bring our daughter, Bee, along as we walk through the history of the United States. We are lucky enough to live in an area of the country where numerous early American historical events took place. We live along the Revolutionary War trail and there are often instances on our hikes when we are literally walking through history. Walking through the Revolution So far, we've covered George Washington's encampment in Morristown  which includes: Jockey Hollow, Fort Nonsense and his Headquarters. We covered the entire three-site area in one afternoon. Every spring, Jockey Hollow has its re-enactment days. We took Bee last spring but she was much more interested in the horses than meeting the soldiers and families in their tents. There were children dressed alongside their parents in colonial clothing as well as colonial kitchen demonstrations inside and out. I watched an actor demonstrate how colonial families did laundry using an outdoor kitchen area to boil water and cleanse the wool articles of clothing with lye soap. In the main encampment area in an open field, there were a dozen or so canvas tents set up with various trade crafts as well as a tent for eating meals. Bee loves horses, just like her mama. She was fascinated with the horses at the April 2016 Jockey Hollow re-enactment days. Getting around a historical site Depending on your level of comfort, most historical sites can be covered with a stroller. However, if you want to get into the buildings, I would recommend bringing a carrier so you can easily access the buildings without lifting a stroller. What I love the most about visiting historical sites is the amount of open space available to explore. Bee loves a good chase while we're out on a hike and there is usually a long open path to run along.  There isn't always a food option nearby so we're prepared with a picnic lunch or snacks and plenty of water to stay hydrated. Perhaps you want to be literary... If literary history is more interesting to you, you can visit the birthplace or setting of the books by your favorite author. For example, my older sister, Kate, did a road trip with her family a few years ago and stopped at a number of sites mentioned in Laura Ingalls' Little House on the Prairie series of books. She was so excited to see the wheel tracks left by the pioneer wagons who went West through Nebraska, Minnesota, and the Dakotas. She often saw trail markers and pulled over to do a pit stop with her two kids, a toddler and a preschooler at the time. My hiking bucket list includes an urban hike along The Freedom Trail in Boston. There's a lot of cobblestone there so I'm planning to bring my frame backpack carrier along to hike with my family. I also want to check out Walden Pond and Louisa May Alcott's house while in the Boston area. Is there a historical place you've been longing to hike through? What places have you wanted to share with your kiddo?