National Park Service History

The Montana Peak, that symmetrical quadrant pinch in the crown of the ranger's iconic "flat hat," was born out of the need for a practical solution to an Army trooper's significant problem.

Most of us face some challenging tasks from time to time at work, but you can be thankful you weren't put in charge of the Yorktown Sesquicentennial celebration. It gets my vote for the most ambitious special event ever held in a National Park System area.

He labored in the shadow of the National Park Service’s founding fathers, but Robert Sterling Yard was one of the best advocates the agency ever had.

We’re going to direct you to a website where you can watch a really neat slide show depicting rangering through the years. See if you can spot President Gerald Ford, then 23, the only President ever to serve as a national park ranger. Ford called it “one of the greatest summers of my life,” and his supervisor called him “a darn good ranger.”

The National Park Service’s arrowhead emblem was authorized on July 20, 1951. Like the ranger’s familiar “Smokey the Bear” Stetson hat, the Arrowhead is now an American icon. The origin and evolution of the Arrowhead is an interesting story.