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One park ranger whose mission is to protect 48 miles of the American River, envisioned a job where he would be a protector of all things natural. Instead, he entered an area where squatters, fugitives and gold prospectors made camp in an untamed area set
When Jordan Fisher Smith first became a park ranger; he was motivated by the teachings of Thoreau and the ideals of the park system. Little did he imagine the park he would patrol for 14 years would be a virtual Wild West, where miners and guns, not hikers and backpacks, were the norm. Host Steve Curwood talks with Fisher Smith about his new memoirs, Nature Noir: A Park Ranger’s Patrol in the Sierra.