Storytellers

I spent this week with the crafty storytellers of the park. Interp rangers and guides have a RIGID schedule, down to 5-minute travel blocks. They may spend an entire day at the visitors center, but they often have 20 minute to one hour stints at multiple locations throughout the day. Minus the stress of needing to travel quickly, most rangers like the variance, it keeps the day from being monotonous.

All the rangers and guides were beyond friendly, and didn’t hesitate to tell me their stories. They each have a unique background and there's no one way that someone becomes an interp ranger- some are veterans, some became rangers well into their 40s after careers as teachers, and some joined right after college.

       

 One of my favorite places to spend time was in the West Wing, which houses important versions of the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution. Here rangers could have regular, in-depth conversations with visitors. And before anyone asks, our Declaration is actually older that the one in Washington.

Interp is challenged with both a ‘lightening’ of their job and angry visitors. While I haven’t seen it at our park, rangers are hyper aware that others have contracted out interpreters and expect rangers to have a lighter hand in interpretation. On the visitor side, rangers are the first to deal with people who are unhappy with the interpretation being done. Rangers expertly handle visitor’s issues with topics as small as the way INDE describes Hamilton versus the musical, to something as big as hate for the new LGBTQ exhibit.   Visitors also tend to rush to highlights of the park- the bell, the hall, etc.- without stopping to talk to interpreters or hear a deeper story.

Interp at INDE also takes care of  another of my favorite sites, the Edgar Allen Poe National Historic Site. It's only open Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and since it's all the way up on Spring Garden Street, rangers are scheduled ahead of time to spend the entire day there. It houses a great self-guided tour, a fun video, and a few Poe-style decor.