It’s been a whirlwind the last few weeks at FRST – suddenly my time here is almost coming to an end (just a week left!) and I still feel like there’s a lot left to do.
Since my last post, I had time with Interpretation and Education, jumped back into Law Enforcement, took a day to be a tourist and visit the other park sites, searched an abandoned car, observed an arrest, shadowed administration, and spent a week on night shift at Independence Hall! I feel like I’ve hardly had a spare minute all month, but I’ve been having so much fun along the way.
Starting from the beginning, I spent time with the Interpretation, Education, and Volunteer Management division at FRST. We set up our temporary “Visitor Center” tent and spoke to lots of visitors – many of whom are still surprised to be seeing National Park Rangers in their neighborhood! I also sat down with Park Ranger Lorin Felter of the IE&V division, to discuss the park’s interpretive goals and themes, as well as the history and philosophy of interpretation in the Park Service as a whole. Here’s Hugh, our seasonal Interpretive Ranger, posing for a chalk drawing for our sandwich board:
The completed masterpiece: a ranger pointing at things.
I also got the opportunity to observe and assist with a youth program on Saturday morning: Let’s Go Fishing! It was tons of fun to watch kids learn how to cast and help them improve their skills. Lots of kids caught fish and it seemed like they all learned a lot. Here’s a shot of Hugh in the flat hat running a quiz game about safety:
On Sunday, it was back to work with “weekend ops” – what we have been calling the task of keeping the Smith Bridge Picnic Area and Parking Lot safe and orderly. This means setting up posts at the entrance and exit of the lot and monitoring the flow of cars in and out of the lot. When it fills (which usually happens quite quickly), we close the entrance gate and direct visitors to seek parking elsewhere. As people leave, we open the gate to let cars in one at a time. Throughout the day, pairs of Interpretive or Law Enforcement rangers rove through the picnic area to monitor the situation, distribute garbage bags, and let people know where to dispose of their refuse.
The next week, starting July 14th, I had the pleasure of spending a day working with some archeologists who were performing 106 compliance on a fencing project. It was really cool to see what actual on-the-ground archeologist work looks like – we dug holes every few feet down to a certain depth, took measurements, and sifted through the dirt for any artefacts. We did actually find some evidence of stone tools created by the populations indigenous to this area, which was pretty exciting.
On Friday, Ranger Meyers and I took the day to be tourists and visit some of the other park sites for tours. We started with the John Dickinson Plantation (pictured below). It was a great opportunity to learn a little bit more about an important but less well-known Founding Father and to get a look at the inside of an 18th century mansion. We also took a walking tour of the Dover Green and learned about some of the influential and historic buildings in Dover.
On Saturday, it was back to Smith Bridge, but we also inventoried a rental car that had been abandoned in the park for several days. Someone had found and turned in the keys, so we could get in. It was parked illegally in an emergency pullout and its front passenger window had been smashed (along with other damage to the exterior of the car), so we were curious as to what we would find.
The inside of the car was a mess (trunk pictured below), but we did find a number of open alcohol containers and empty bottles, as well as some used needles and a small amount of what we suspected to be cannabis, which provided a great opportunity to use a NIK field testing kit. It was exciting to get some hands-on experience with field testing and the test did come back positive for cannabis. We also found documents and identification for a few different people in the car and discovered that one of them had some warrants out for minor offenses in the state of Delaware.
The next day, someone came back for the car, but was having trouble as she didn't have the keys. We made a contact and identified her as one of the people whose documents were found in the car; although she was not the person on the rental agreement, she was the person with warrants out. Unfortunately for her, one of the state patrol officers drove by and assisted us with the stop, so she was taken in on the state warrants. We followed the officer to observe the booking process, which went pretty smoothly.
Waiting for the gate to open at the New Castle County Jail.
After that, it was my weekend – and time to get ready for night shift at Independence Hall! I’ll finish my catch-up in a second post.
No comments:
Post a Comment