In his thirty years with the National Park Service, Jim Burnett has seen it all: boatramp mishaps that have sent cars into the water; skunks in the outhouse and bears at the dumpser; visitors looking for the bridge over the Grand Canyon.

Imagine serving as a park ranger for our U.S. National Parks! If you were a national park ranger, you'd spend every day in one of the most treasured places in America. You'd wear a special uniform, a hat, and a badge—but sometimes you might also need snowshoes or a life jacket. Maybe you'd track the movements of wild animals. You could help scientists make discoveries. You might even be part of a search and rescue team! You'd have an amazing job protecting animals, the environment, and our country's natural and historical heritage, from the wilds of Denali to the Statue of Liberty.

Two men played a crucial role in the creation and early history of the National Park Service: Stephen T. Mather, a public relations genius of sweeping vision, and Horace M. Albright, an able lawyer and administrator who helped transform that vision into reality. In Creating the National Park Service, Albright and his daughter, Marian Albright Schenck, reveal the previously untold story of the critical "missing years" in the history of the service. During this period, 1917 and 1918, Mather's problems with manic depression were kept hidden from public view, and Albright, his able and devoted assistant, served as acting director and assumed Mather's responsibilities. Albright played a decisive part in the passage of the National Park Service Organic Act of 1916; the formulation of principles and policies for management of the parks; the defense of the parks against exploitation by ranchers, lumber companies, and mining interests during World War I; and other issues crucial to the future of the fledgling park system. This authoritative behind-the-scenes history sheds light on the early days of the most popular of all federal agencies while painting a vivid picture of American life in the early twentieth century.