Special Saturday Evening Program September 3

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Date: August 30, 2011
Contact: Kyle Patterson, (970) 586-1363

Saturday, September 3, 7:30 p.m. - Rocky Mountain Ranger

Ever wonder about the "good old days" in Rocky Mountain National Park and what it was like to be a young ranger making decisions during the early years of the National Park Service? Rangers did everything from building cabins, stringing telephone lines and catching poachers while laying the foundation for the National Park Service.

Join ranger "Bob Flame" and Pat Yeager Washburn for a night of adventures in Rocky Mountain and Yellowstone National Parks at the Beaver Meadows Visitor Center in Rocky Mountain National Park at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, September 3. Patricia Yeager Washburn is the daughter of Dorr G. Yeager, Rocky Mountain National Park's first chief naturalist and author of Bob Flame: Rocky Mountain Ranger. She will discuss her father's eventful life and the latest edition of the classic book with Ranger "Bob Flame" played by real- life park ranger Don Stewart. Author Yeager took ranger Flame and his heroic colleagues on thrilling rescues, duels with poachers and perilous patrols into the mountain wilds. First released in 1935 and republished in 2010, the novel helped define the image of the modern national park ranger.

The incidents depicted in the book are taken from actual adventures shared by Yeager and his best friend, John McLaughlin, chief ranger in Rocky Mountain National Park during the early 1930s, when Yeager was a ranger in the park. "I realize that much of my fascination with the thinly veiled fictional character of Bob Flame is my own joy at having grown up as a ranger kid in that era," Washburn said. Besides being the daughter of a park ranger, Pat is the grand-daughter of Joe Mills and spent her childhood growing up at the local Crag's Lodge. She has many delightful memories to share.

In the latest edition of Bob Flame: Rocky Mountain Ranger, Pat contributed recollections of her father to the book's new forward. Along with her forward, Curt Buchholtz, director of the Rocky Mountain Nature Association, contributed another forward for the book. Signed copies of the new edition will be available for sale the night of the program.

The Rocky Mountain Nature Association and the Estes Park Museum Friends and Foundation's Friends Press collaborated to republish Yeager's book sharing his tales with a new generation. During his tenure as chief naturalist, Dorr Yeager, establish the Rocky Mountain Nature Association and Pat currently volunteers her time as a board member for the Estes Park Museum Friends and Foundation.

This program was given in June and is back by popular demand. All programs are free and open to the public.   For more information about Rocky Mountain National Park, please call the park's Information Office at (970) 586-1206.



Last updated: February 24, 2015

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Contact Info

Mailing Address:

1000 US Hwy 36
Estes Park, CO 80517

Phone:

970 586-1206
The Information Office is open year-round: 8:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. daily in summer; 8:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. Mondays - Fridays and 8:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. Saturdays - Sundays in winter. Recorded Trail Ridge Road status: (970) 586-1222.

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