WIND CAVE NATIONAL PARK – Women’s History Month is here so let’s introduce you to the first female National Park Service park rangers!
Wind Cave National Park hired Esther Brazell in 1916 as the first appointed female park ranger. In 1918, Freeda C. Nielsen started work at Wind Cave.
For many years, Clare Marie Hodges was known as the first female park ranger for her work in Yosemite National Park, starting in 1918. But new information came to light as recently as 2019, showing that Brazell was actually first. This fact does not diminish Hodges’ significant contributions, however.
Meanwhile, Helen Wilson began work at Mount Rainier National Park, checking in vehicles, also in 1918.
“In the early years, women found it very difficult to penetrate the male dominated National Park Service,” writes the NPS. “Only a few foresighted people like Horace Marden Albright, then superintendent of Yellowstone, and Washington Bartlett “Dusty” Lewis, superintendent of Yosemite (who hired Hodges) gave women a chance to show that they could perform as well as a man.”
Isabel D. Bassett was hired as a guide in Yellowstone National Park in 1920 by Albright. These female pioneers helped to pave the way for the many women who now serve in the NPS.
For more about these remarkable women, visit these NPS sites:
The pioneering women at Wind Cave National Park
A history of women’s NPS uniforms
Celebrating the remarkable legacies of American women across the NPS
National Park News
