Ranger Shelton Johnson shaking hands with President Obama after a screening of the Ken Burns special.
You may know Shelton Johnson as the Buffalo Soldier from Yosemite in the recent Ken Burns special, The National Parks: America’s Best Idea. Now Johnson is being honored for his work in bringing to light the life of the Buffalo Soldier and the role they played in the park by being honored with the prestigious Freeman Tilden Award.
The Freeman Tilden Award is presented to Interpretive Rangers within the National Park Service who through words or actions have enriched the lives of others.
Johnson’s research into the Buffalo Soldier history, the creation of an individual soldiers persona he utilizes to tell the broader story, and the multitude of creative techniques he uses to tell the story have allowed audiences worldwide to explore the meanings of race and wilderness.
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One response to “Ranger Shelton Johnson to be Honored”
A well deserved honor! We viewed the preview a few days before the marathon showing of two hours of the film every night this week on KCET. Ranger Johnson along with Lee Stetson’s John Muir, were in that 13 minute clip and prompted us to set aside the time to view the whole film, and, by doing so, captured the continuity of the themes and stories , as well as giving us a wonderful trip down memory lane. Every chapter resonated with us and the Yosemite Fund is a little richer from us because of this. We camped throughout the West, following the National Parks trail in the 70s but always returning to Yosemite and the High Country for thirty more years. So many incredible moments such as hiking Redwood Creek to the tallest groves and hearing the loggers saws in the old growth forest nearby, even on a Sunday, that prompted us to lobby for the preservation for Redwood National Park. We discovered Arches when it was still Ed Abbey’s domain and barely known, adding our voices opposing the Glen Canyon dam. As a teacher from S. CA, I took my middle school students to the Teton Science School one summer and met Mardy Murie – just one of the many people who influenced my way of looking at the natural world and thus becoming a better teacher who recognised the value of engaging kids in Nature’s classroom, just as old time Tuolumne Meadows ranger naturalists , Carl Sharsmith, John Lemmons and the incomparable Will Neely had taught me so much on their day hikes in the 70s and 80s. The backpack into Matterhorn Canyon was life changing.Those memories are as clear today as they were back then when we were in our prime, but the epiphany moment was on my 25th birthday, on a brief weekend in May, when I came as a new immigrant, driving Hwy120 and the Gates of the Valley vista took my breath away. I have no other memory of that first visit, but I knew I would return.
When I retired and received a generous financial gift from former students, half of it went back to The Yosemite Institute and Armstrong Scholars Program to perpetuate the same goals that Ranger Johnson lays out that the parks are for ALL the people to learn about diversity in the natural world and society. So view the film, folks, and add your contribution to keep these national treasures for posterity.