A new Junior Ranger booklet celebrates the transcontinental railroad/David and Kay Scott
The National Park Service, Union Pacific Railroad, and the National Park Foundation have released the Junior Ranger Railroad Explorer activity booklet that can be obtained for free from NPS.gov. Issued just ahead of National Train Day and the Golden Spike anniversary this weekend, the educational booklet traces the journey of the first transcontinental railroad and brings the rich history of railroads to life in a fun and engaging way.
The Junior Ranger Railroad Explorer is one of many Junior Ranger programs available online. Each program is an intergenerational learning experience that focuses on a site or theme tied to public lands.
“Get ready to ride the rails from coast to coast and learn how the transcontinental railroad impacted the country,” said National Park Service Deputy Director David Vela. “The program’s creative activities provide insight to the technology, challenges, people, and transformation associated with the iron horse.”
National Park Foundation President and CEO Will Shafroth said the booklet "is a great way to track the history of trains, and you can do the fun activities at home with friends and family. Thanks to the support of Union Pacific, this new Junior Ranger program engages kids of all ages with the multi-faceted and multi-cultural story of the meeting of the rails.”
Among the people who contributed to the development of the transcontinental railroad were Chinese immigrants. As the United States honors Asian and Pacific Islander American Heritage Month throughout May, this booklet serves as another educational resource that pays tribute to the generations of Asian Americans who impacted the country’s history.
Junior Ranger activity booklets encourage young explorers to discover the breadth and depth of the National Park System, learn about the outdoors and our collective history, understand the importance of preserving national parks and share their experiences with friends and family.
For more information about the Junior Ranger Railroad Explorer program and to download a copy of the booklet, visit this link.
Comments
It's about time, but I wonder. Does anyone in the National Park Service know what a train is anymore?
Casey: alas, any NPS employee can tell you that just about everyone in NPS knows about trains, and about this Junior Ranger Program. The first great email "reply all" train after migration from gmail to outlook in March was about these very junior ranger books, and about which parks have a nexus with railroads. Then others chimed in with "reply all" requests to be removed from the email, because they didn't know about the "spam" button in the upper left to kill all future messages in that thread. Apparently something like over 150 emails in the train. A few rude or unaware folks edited the subject line, so it came back from the dead a couple of times in my email. Interp staff at nice places like Alcatraz added group photos to the email train. Others added Thomas the Tank Engine memes. An alternative junior ranger badge was created for the "2020 Great Reply All Saga" with a steam engine on the badge. It was so big it even got featured in NPS Lego vignettes:
https://www.facebook.com/NPSCentennialLEGO/photos/a.1429382107367857/225...
But yes, despite Charles Schultheis retiring to write a history of the immigrants building tunnel 6, plenty of NPS folk know a whole lot about trains, and not just those at Steamtown, Golden Spike, or Pullman.
My son has be visiting parks and completing Junior Ranger Booklets for about 10 years. Does the Junior Ranger Railroad Explorer program come with a real badge and if so where does he send the completed booklet. We have already visited many of the national parks which exhibit trains. Thank you.
Every nps'er who has passed thru Klondike Goldrush NHP in Skagway knows about trains as the White Pass & Yukon Route RR is a high point for most every visitor off the cruise ships. I haven't been back to Skagway since the plague dropped on the world so don't know how they are set up now.