I Married a Ranger
_By Dama Margaret Smith_
(_Mrs. "White Mountain"_)
STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS STANFORD UNIVERSITY, CALIFORNIA LONDON: HUMPHREY MILFORD OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS STANFORD UNIVERSITY, CALIFORNIA LONDON: HUMPHREY MILFORD OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS THE MARUZEN COMPANY TOKYO, OSAKA, KYOTO, SENDAI THE BAKER & TAYLOR COMPANY 55 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK
Copyright 1930 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University All Rights Reserved Published 1930
PRINTED AND BOUND IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BY STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
_This book is lovingly dedicated to White Mountain Smith who has made me glad I married a Ranger_
_FOREWORD_
_I Married a Ranger_ is an intimate story of "pioneer" life in a national park, told in an interesting, humorous way, that makes it most delightful.
To me it is more than a book; it is a personal justification. For back in 1921, when the author came to my office in Washington and applied for the clerical vacancy existing at the Grand Canyon, no woman had been even considered for the position. The park was new, and neither time nor funds had been available to install facilities that are a necessary part of our park administrative and protective work. Especially was the Grand Canyon lacking in living quarters. For that reason the local superintendent, as well as Washington Office officials, were opposed to sending any women clerks there.
Nevertheless, after talking to the author, I decided to make an exception in her case, so she became the first woman Government employee at the Canyon. _I Married a Ranger_ proves that the decision was a happy one.
It is a pleasure to endorse Mrs. Smith's book, and at the same time to pay a tribute of admiration to the women of the Service, both employees and wives of employees, who carry on faithfully and courageously under all circumstances.
ARNO B. CAMMERER _Associate Director,_ National Park Service
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. "_Out in Arizona, Where the Bad Men Are_" 1
II. "_This Ain't Washington!_" 11
III. "_I Do!_" 21
IV. _Celebrities and Squirrels_ 31
V. _Navajo Land_ 42
Table of contents (by pages)
- 1: I Married a Ranger by Dama Margaret Smith
- 2: As the sun rose higher over the Canyon
- 3: Homesickness had settled all over me
- 4: Several rangers rose to greet me when I came in
- 5: And again Ranger Fisk came to the rescue
- 6: White Mountain explained that cackle berries were eggs
- 7: Ranger Fisk was born in Sweden
- 8: Ranger Winess was the sheik of the force
- 9: The cheesecloth couldn't keep the noises out
- 10: I've been out on Tony after him
- 11: Ranger Winess brought us love songs
- 12: By Gosh was doing enough for both of us
- 13: Ranger Fisk and Ranger Winess made the tiny casket
- 14: At least not in the land of the shivaree
- 15: And Ranger Winess mercifully ended her suffering
- 16: He rushed up and fingered it lovingly Croix de Guerre
- 17: Father Vabre read the burial service
- 18: When Bunty came for his share
- 19: Chapter V NAVAJO LAND Indians
- 20: We followed Smolley implicitly as we forded the stream
- 21: But Mescal was positively unnerved
- 22: Were the Navajo bucks and the medicine men
- 23: Firmly bidding good night to Smolley
- 24: Silversmith after silversmith turned me down flat
- 25: So I spurred old Roaney down into a draw at the left
- 26: I never saw Senator Ashurst at the Grand Canyon
- 27: Miss Catti never uttered a word of complaint or fear
- 28: Ranger Winess had slept all through my knocking
- 29: Ranger Winess wanted pumpkin pies with plenty of ginger
- 30: Ranger Winess and the Chief looked at each other and grinned
- 31: One of the rangers left the room
- 32: A tourist from New York saw the pelt and coveted it
- 33: Then sand and cactus and sagebrush
- 34: All too soon we reached near zero weather again
- 35: One song Ranger Winess always rendered as a solo
- 36: I guess Old Roaney sure unwound
- 37: The Supai women are without dignity or appeal
- 38: A sage rabbit darts behind a yucca bush
- 39: We saw that the coyotes had returned and pulled him down
- 40: We camped there at Hilltop that night
- 41: Jim invited us to share his hewa
- 42: Squaws and baskets and information poured in
- 43: Their hewas are merely shelters of willow
- 44: I asked Wattahomigie in desperation
- 45: They are going out to collect the rattlesnakes
- 46: The Hopi Indians are friendly and pleasant
- 47: A bunch of turkey feathers hung
- 48: Where they crush the meal for making piki
- 49: He found the ready ear of a Hopi youth
- 50: Close beside him danced a companion called the hugger
- 51: When my squaw die he teach his squaw
- 52: The water was drawn with a bucket
- 53: I want the rangers to go and find them
- 54: Badgers scratch and fight like forty
- 55: For Ranger Winess limped into the ring
- 56: And felt like a full fledged dude
- 57: Jumping from crag to crag and mesa to mesa
- 58: An old matate and many chipped flints
- 59: While Bright Angel Creek murmured a soft accompaniment
- 60: I revived suddenly at a never to be mistaken B u u z z z
- 61: Uncle Jim must have caught several cougars to order
- 62: Tony seemed quite unnerved by his encounter
- 63: When speaking of Indians of the Southwest
- 64: Not so much ceremony greets the Navajo baby
- 65: She must have water to make the mush for supper
- 66: Studded with the native turquoises
- 67: He spoke of the width and depth of the Canyon
- 68: The rangers went to the rescue
- 69: And got her tongue full uv stickers
- 70: And you can't fool a Harvey mule
- 71: Rangers feel the same way about their charges
- 72: And when she saw the Mormon she knew that was her chance
- 73: Ranger West rode in front on Black Dixie
- 74: The Chief called to Ranger West
- 75: But the lupine was beautiful in Long Jim Canyon
- 76: Bite by bite the salad disappeared
