A labor of love: visitors to our national parks experience much more than a brush with nature or a quick glimpse of history, thanks to thousands of rangers who consider the job a calling. Here are three of their stories.

National Parks, June, 2005 by Toops, Connie

North Dakota in the 1960s. A Native American man tells his son about a park ranger he'd recently met--a man in a broad-brimmed hat who cares for the trees and the river. The awestruck child imagines a ranger at least ten feet tall, with the best job in the world.

Meanwhile, in Maryland, an inquisitive boy with a butterfly net pursues insects on the family farm, his curiosity piqued when he can't identify his finds in popular Golden Field Guides.

At the same time, a teenage girl accompanies her neighbor to the Florida Everglades, and her fascination with the lush plants and abundant birds lingers long after she returns home.

Flash forward four decades later. Gerard Baker has since assumed the duties of his childhood idol, working at Mount...

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