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One Hundred Years ago (August 25, 2016) Woodrow Wilson signed the Organic Act creating the National Park Service.  Today, under the Roosevelt Arch, a Centennial celebration begins.  I run into SOI Sally Jewell for a big “high-five.”  Sally opened my WPA-NPS Poster exhibit at the DOI Museum two years ago.  Sally was CEO of REI, has climbed the Vinson Massif in Antarctica and has a lower Co-op number than I do.  Sally rocks!

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….followed by a hand-shake.  Few people know that I’m a secret agent for the DOI/NPS, ready to ride (Teddy Roosevelt style) into Malheur or the Alaskan frontier to save the environment…..or drive around America peddling the history of the WPA-CCC.  I’m in my 13th month now with 37,000 miles under my belt, second set of tires on my second car, 62 formal park talks (also the Shell Oil Company), and many museums and libraries.

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Who would expect!……TR himself.  TR is my hero.  When he found out I was from Alaska, he launched into a monologue about Taft who talked him out of an Alaska trip and into one to Africa.  Bully!

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Finally–my VP ticket is realized and what a view of the concert stage!!–with Emmy Lou Harris singing the National Anthem with John Prine following……not to mention all the politicians.

Ranger Museum

The drive home included a stop at the Ranger Museum in Yellowstone hosted by none other than Rob Danno–Ranger Extraordinaire–who instigated the Bryce Canyon WPA-style print; our first computer generated design.

Museum of the Yellowstone

This is the interior of the Museum of the Yellowstone–an old train station in West Yellowstone–with scissor beam roof construction.  They built them right in those days.

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The west slope of the Tetons with wheat fields near Ashton, Idaho—but that’s another roadtrip!  Stay tuned!