17 Aug LEWI Superintendent

Alas, this is my final week at the Lewis and Clark National Historical Park. It has been an awesome experience filled with great memories and even greater people. One of those people is the Superintendent, Scott Tucker. It’s a real treat to be able to see the superintendent of a national park on a daily basis. Whether it is asking advice on a work project or talking about your weekend, his door is always open. Scott has been in the park service for over 2 decades and it started right after college. Being a native of Colorado, Scott had a strong connection with the outdoors growing up. During family vacations, he would camp at national parks all around the country with his parents and brother. Going to college to become a high school history teacher, Scott realized he’d rather be a park ranger. The first national park he worked at was the Klondike Gold Rush national park where he was a seasonal interpreter ranger. Later he jumped around from park to park including the National Mall, the Smithsonian, and finally at the White House where he met both President George W. Bush and Barack Obama. He has been working at the Lewis and Clark Park for 2 years. Coming from big parks to a smaller park, he saw a clear difference. During summer, the number of park employees jumps from 12 to about 50, and a handful of those are interns. At the smaller parks he creates closer connections with his employees and he enjoys working with the community. However, he still misses the hustle and bustle of the larger parks.  For Scott having interns allows the park to embark on projects that they wouldn’t normally have time or the resource to do. Interns play a vital role in progressing the park with each interns special skills and personality. The future goals for the park is to rebrand the idea of Lewis and Clark story to try make it fit in current world. His aim is to advertise all the resources the park offers for all people of the community. It was a real pleasure working along side him and gaining knowledge about the park world and what its future will look like.