News Release

Wind Cave Superintendent Vidal Dávila to Retire

Wind Cave National Park Superintendent Vidal Dávila is retiring at the end of the year.

NPS Photo

News Release Date: December 5, 2019

Contact: Tom Farrell, 605-745-1130

WIND CAVE NATIONAL PARK, S.D. – After almost 45 years of service with the National Park Service, Vidal Dávila, Superintendent at Wind Cave National Park, will retire on December 31. Vidal has been the superintendent at the park since October 1, 2007.

A native of Pearsall, Texas, Davila graduated from Texas A&M University with a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Recreation and Parks Administration. He started working as a summer seasonal for the National Park Service at Amistad Recreation Area for four summers before becoming a permanent employee.

Davila served in many national park units including Amistad Recreation Area (TX), Big Bend National Park (TX), the Southwest Regional Office (NM), Guadalupe Mountains National Park (TX), Great Basin National Park (NV), and Wind Cave National Park.

“I grew up in national parks, having started working at age 22 as a seasonal and continuing on as a permanent employee for the last 45 years,” said Park Superintendent Vidal Dávila. “In between the four summer seasonal jobs, I taught life and earth science at the junior high school in Pearsall, Texas, where I was born and raised.”

Davila states he has been fortunate to have such a great career working and living in national park units where he saw beautiful sunsets and worked alongside amazing people that shared the same vision of protecting and preserving national park units. Early on in his career, Davila worked as an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT), wildland and structural fire fighter and was a member of the technical rock climbing rescue team at Big Bend National Park.

One of his early accomplishments was working in the interpretive division at Big Bend National Park and being selected to the second Natural Resource Training Program, where he traveled to major universities throughout the country and received the latest and best information on how to manage natural resources. After the training program, his career has been in the management of natural resources starting as the first resource management specialist at Guadalupe Mountains National Park.

Davila has had a great career seeing some of nature’s best wildlife up close and personal working alongside researchers studying peregrine falcons, black bears, mountain lions, and black-footed ferrets.

“One of my favorite places to work has been Wind Cave National Park. The resources here are amazing. With a significant underground cave and vast natural and cultural resources above ground, we have two parks in one,” said Dávila. “The staff here has been great to work with. They are very dedicated government employees who go out of their way to serve the public. My career has been amazing and I feel very fortunate to have spent time here in the Black Hills of South Dakota.”

In 2010, Vidal was awarded the Superintendent of the Year for Natural Resources by the Midwest Regional Director for his work in managing natural resources at Wind Cave National Park. Since 2013, Davila has been a member of the NPS Midwest Regional Office Bison Leadership Team (BLT) to encourage collaborative decision-making among bison parks and to facilitate coordination with other NPS regions and with NPS national leadership.

Davila’s biggest accomplishment at Wind Cave was working toward acquiring the former Casey property, a 5,556 section of land adjoining the park in 2011.

A retirement dinner will be held Saturday evening, January 4, at the Red Rock River Resort in Hot Springs. Reservations can be made by calling [phone].