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| Junior Ranger Program This page discusses the Junior Ranger program in detail. This program at National Park Service sites is about completing a booklet or other activity and receiving a badge, patch, or pin. In the process of doing this you learn interesting facts about nature and history. In the last few years, since I started this Web site, the National Park Service has made many improvements in its Junior Ranger program as part of its efforts to upgrade it. Some of them are discussed here. |
© 2005-2008 Sam Maslow. All rights reserved. This site is not affiliated with the U.S. National Park Service.
| (New York) do not mention that they have Junior Ranger booklets at their sites for kids to complete to get badges. When you have some sites near each other there may be one Junior Ranger booklet covering more than one site. An example is the one given out at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The activities cover the different monuments, some of which are separate units in the 391 count of units of the National Park Service. For completing this booklet you will get one badge, which says "National Mall." Another example of this is a situation in Washington state, where there is one Junior Ranger booklet covering three National Park Service units: North Cascades National Park, Ross Lake National Recreation Area, and Lake Chelan National Recreation Area. The booklet covers all three but the badge says "North Cascades National Park." The Junior Ranger booklet for George Washington Memorial Parkway has activities about different sub-units within it but at least one sub-unit, Great Falls Park, has its own booklet also. Some park sites which are very large can have different Junior Ranger booklets at different sub-units in it. An example is Gateway National Recreation Area. For the Staten Island, New York sub-unit there is a booklet, and for the Sandy Hook, New Jersey sub-unit there is a different booklet. They award different badges and patches, even though they are all part of one park site. At Wrangell-St. Elias National Park in Alaska, the booklet available at the visitor center at Copper Center is different from the one at the Slana ranger station in the Nabesna District of the park; at Copper center you will get a badge with the park's name on it but at the Slana ranger station you will get a pin with the park name and "Nabesna District." At Colonial National Historical Park (Virginia), their Yorktown and Jamestown sub-units have distributed different booklets and patches for many years. At Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania County Battlefields Memorial National Military Park (Virginia), there are separate booklets and badges for Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. In addition to most National Park Service sites having the Junior Ranger program, several affiliate sites also have it and you can earn badges there. Those affiliates which have it that I know about are Fallen Timbers & Fort Miami National Historic Site (Ohio), Oklahoma City National Memorial (Oklahoma), and the Inupiat Heritage Center (Alaska). The Lewis & Clark National Heritage Trial, not one of the 391 National Park Service sites but affiliated through the national trails system, has one which must be submitted by mail. In some parks, they have different Junior Ranger booklets for different age groups. This was the case at Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine (Maryland). In others, inside the same booklet, there may be different pages for different age groups. Probably the most elaborate Junior Ranger booklet in terms of its printing and production which I have encountered was the one at Fort Frederica National Monument. It was in full color and contained pop-ups and inserts. You had to pretend you were delivering a message to Gen. Oglethorpse, Georgia founder and governor. In the course of doing this, you walked around the site and learned what life was like in Frederica, Georgia, during British colonial days. Overall, the quality of the Junior Ranger booklets has improved in the last few years. Using a grant from the National Park Foundation, the National Park Service every summer sends college interns called "Junior Ranger ambassadors" to some parks to redo those parks' booklets. The results have been new Junior Ranger booklets which are colorful, less complicated, and more pleasing in appearance. Much of the improvement has been due to the hard work of Corky Mayo, retired NPS Program Manager for Interpretation and Education, and Wendy Davis, current NPS Servicewide Education Program Coordinator. They have worked tirelessly over the last few years and the results are appealing, pleasant-looking, and colorful Junior Ranger booklets for youngsters to complete. At some sites, they have special programs so that instead of completing a booklet you are awarded the badge or patch. For example, at some parks if the kids go on a hike with a ranger they will be awarded the Junior Ranger badge or patch. At some sites, they may have a badge or patch but no booklet to complete. This happened to me at Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site (New York). After taking a tour of the house and looking at the photos and artifacts on display the ranger asked me two questions which I answered correctly. I then got the badge. At Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site (New York), a ranger told me that they were in the process of revising their booklets so he would award me the badge after I took a tour of the house. Most National Park Service sites award you a badge for completing the Junior Ranger program. Some award a patch. A few award a pin (button). Some sites award both a badge and a patch. Some will give you either one or the other depending on your age or the program you complete. The park with the most different patches seems to be Grand Canyon National Park (Arizona), where they award patches for different age groups and for different special programs. At some units, like Richmond National Battlefield Park (Virginia), you will have a choice of a badge or patch. Some parks will award you a badge if you complete a certain number of pages, and a patch if you complete all the pages. At Sagamore Hill National Historic Site (New York), they now have different booklets, one each for Theodore Roosevelt's house, the museum, and the nature walk. If you complete a booklet they award you a badge. If you complete all three, they also award you a patch. A similar situation exists at three southern Florida units. Everglades National Park, Big Cypress National Preserve, and Biscayne National Park have one joint Junior Ranger booklet. Some activities in the booklet can be completed at more than one park. If you complete enough activities at one of the three parks you will get that park's badge, but if you complete enough activities for each of the three units, you will get a patch containing the names of all three on it. Most sites will also give you a certificate in addition to the badge or patch. The certificate will either be separate or in the booklet. Some certificates are very fancy and others are quite plain. Some may have a stack of preprinted certificates and fill in your name and others will produce them individually on their computers. It depends on the individual park site. At Fossil Butte National Monument (Wyoming) and a few other park sites they etch into the back of the badge a number. That way they keep count on how many kids have completed their Junior Ranger program. A few park sites even keep a list of all the kids who ever became Junior Rangers there. I remember that they did this at Guilford Courthouse National Military Park (North Carolina). They entered my name into the list of thousands of other Junior Rangers kept in their computer. You could see that at that park site they took the Junior Ranger program very seriously. At Shenandoah National Park (Virginia), each visitor center maintains a book in which they enter the names of those completing the Junior Ranger program. Most of the Junior Ranger badges awarded by National Park Service sites are standard ones with the same design in the middle and the name of the site at the top. Some award deluxe badges. These are badges that have an image in the middle that shows something about that park site. For the deluxe badges the name of the park site can be either at the top or around the unique image. If a Junior Ranger badge in my collection is a deluxe one I indicated this in the chart on my National Park Service Sites page. More and more, park units are awarding deluxe badges. This change is part of the National Park Service's efforts to improve the Junior Ranger program. Junior Ranger patches are always unique for the park site which awards them. There will usually be a picture of something about that park site on their patch. Some sites will give out different patches, based on how old you are. I've noticed that a few more parks are awarding patches over the last few years. I personally like getting patches better than badges because of the different pictures on them. Some park sites will award a badge or pin without the name of the park on it. Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt (New York) awarded me a Junior Secret Service badge when I was there. It did not have the unit's name on it. Eisenhower National Historic Site (Pennsylvania) used to do this but now its unit name is on the Junior Secret Service badge. Fire Island National Seashore (New York) was awarding pins with deer on them at one point if you completed their Junior ranger booklet focusing on the problem of the overpopulation of deer. They awarded these pins to make children conscious of the dangers of feeding the deer, which has become a critical problem. They also have a badge and patch for their regular booklet. James A. Garfield National Historic Site (Ohio) awards a badge but the words “Junior Ranger” are not on it. For completing its booklet, Golden Spike National Historic Site (Utah) awarded me a pin on which it says "Jr. Engineer." So you can see that between the different types of badges, patches, and pins, you can build up a nice collection of things for having completed the Junior Ranger programs at sites of the National Park Service. At some parks the program may not be called “Junior Ranger.” At Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area (Pennsylvania & New Jersey), they call one program “Junior Naturalist.” As I just wrote, at Golden Spike National Historic Site (Utah) they call it “Junior Engineer.” At Eisenhower National Historic Site (Pennsylvania) and Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site (New York), they call it "Junior Secret Service." At a few park sites, by completing the Junior Ranger program you get a discount on something you buy at the gift shop. I remember that this was the situation at Bandelier National Monument (New Mexico) and Coronado National Memorial (Arizona). When I first started collecting Junior Ranger badges and patches, I kept them in a shoebox. In 2005, at Grand Canyon National Park, I saw these beautiful banners on sale in the gift shop with Junior Ranger badges and patches on them. My parents bought them for my brother and me so we could display them nicely. The banners were made by a company called Adventure Banners and their phone number was (877) 202- 9904. On the page called “National Park Service Sites” (use the button on top or click on the underlined words) I am listing all the sites for which I have a Junior Ranger badge, patch, or pin. (If there is no listing for a site for which I have displayed a badge, patch, or pin on the opening page, it is because I have not gotten to it yet.) The listing is in a chart. The chart will also tell you whether a copy of the Junior Ranger booklet for that site is displayable from my Web site and whether the park site specifically permits you to participate in the Junior Ranger program by mail. In the chart, you would click on the name of the park site. That will get you to my Web page for that park site. If the Junior Ranger booklet is displayable you would click on the image for it on my individual Web page for the park site. When you click on the image you may be taken to the Web site for the park site, to where they display their booklet. Or the booklet will be just on my Web site because I scanned it in. I displayed the individual park site Junior Ranger booklets for a few reasons. Firstly, some sites will let you do the program by mail so you can use my Web site to display the booklet and print it out. You would then complete it at home and mail it back to the park site. They would then mail you their Junior Ranger badge or patch. Remember, only some park sites specifically permit you to do this by mail. Some are quite insistent that the booklet can be completed only at the site. Other park sites might permit you to do the Junior Ranger program by mail but they don’t say this on their own Web sites. If my chart in National Park Service does not show a “Yes” as to whether a particular park site permits mail-ins, you probably should contact it and ask first if they’ll send you the badge or patch by mail. If they say yes then you can print the booklet off my site. If you do a Junior Ranger program at home, you must be willing to look up things on the park site’s Web page. There you will find a lot of the information you will need to complete the pages of the booklet. The page for that park site on my Web site (reachable through National Park Service Sites) will have a link to the park site’s Web page. One park site, Petroglyph National Monument (New Mexico) will permit you to do the Junior Ranger program on the Internet. You do not print anything out. You go from page to page on their Web site, reading paragraphs about their site and answering questions. At the end you are prompted to enter your name and address and they will send you the Junior Ranger certificate and badge. You can also do their Junior Ranger program in person at the park site. Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail connects different affiliated places, all having to do with the famous exploration. You can get their badge only by mail. You can’t do it in person. It is a good idea to try to do as many Junior Ranger programs by mail as you can because it is virtually impossible to visit each and every National Park Service site having such a program. If you live on one side of the country, chances are it will be difficult for your parents to take you to all park sites on the opposite end of the country. Take advantage of the fact that some park sites will let you do it by mail. Another purpose for my displaying Junior Ranger booklets was so that you could print out a copy before your parents take you to the park site. This way you can see in advance what types of activity pages there are in the booklet. You can even start to research information on the park to complete some activity pages before you get there. Knowing things about the park before you get there makes it more interesting. Even if you don’t print out the booklets to complete them, it is still interesting to go through them to get an idea of what our National Park Service sites are about. Please remember that the booklets which are displayed are as of when I did the Junior Ranger program. This could be as early as 2004. By now the booklet may have been changed by the park site. If you get a copy by linking from the image on my park page to the park Web site the booklet is probably their latest. If you see a copy which I downloaded into my Web site, you may want to ask the park site if my version of the booklet is the one they are using. (They could look it up on their computer and tell you.) Remember, my park page will have a contact telephone number for the park site, as well as their address. Some booklets are quite long, with many activities to complete, and others are short. One of the longest which I completed was at Prince William Forest Park in Virginia, outside Washington, D.C. I had to complete 13 activities, one for each year of my age. In some parks, they will give you a sheet of paper or a card to complete instead of a booklet. Always look first at the instructions in the booklet which are usually inside the front cover or on the first page. Do this before you start completing anything. Most park sites have films which you watch inside the visitor center. If you are at the park, it is a good idea to watch their film before completing any pages in the booklet. In the film there might be answers to some of the questions in the booklet. But you should familiarize yourself with the questions before you watch the film so you will know what information you're looking for. The booklets (or sheets or cards) have different types of activities for you to complete. They are designed to teach you stuff about the park, including trees, plants, rocks, fish, and animals. Historic sites and historical parks teach you stuff about the famous events that occurred there. The different activities include: information-type questions about that site, hidden word puzzles, crossword puzzles, hidden picture puzzles, jumbled word puzzles, linking words with pictures, drawing activities, bingo where you circle things you’ve seen in the park), and writing a paragraph about what you saw. Sometimes, the things you do on one page of a Junior Ranger booklet can help you with another page. For example, the words they give you to find in a hidden word puzzle may be answers you’re looking for on the crossword puzzle page. I would have to say that the questions asked in most Junior Ranger booklets are suitable for kids to answer based on what you learn from watching the park site film, going around the visitor center, and walking or driving around in the park site. But I must say that a few are like college exams. If that is the case, just do as much as you can and when you return the booklet to a ranger in the visitor center tell him or her that you tried your best but found the rest too hard. I am certain that they will still award you the badge or patch because at least you tried. You should know that over the last few years, the National Park Service has been urging the individual units to make their booklets age appropriate. Also you should know that most park sites permit parents to help you when you are at the site working on their Junior Ranger booklet. Learning about trees, plants, animals, history, and culture is fun. When you see nature in person you want to know what you are looking at. One thing I learned from Junior Ranger booklets is to identify tracks. Different animals leave different tracks. Many Junior Ranger booklets have activity pages on animal tracks. After you have done several you can become an expert on the subject. For me, history is interesting, so I especially like to go to national historic sites and historical parks. It’s fun to see how things looked like a hundred or two hundred years ago. Although some kids think it is not cool to learn all this stuff I disagree. The stuff I learned at National Park Service sites has come in handy for school. Some school projects I have done came from things I learned at these sites. I even did well on some tests in school because I knew the answers from having gone to National Park Service sites and completed the Junior Ranger booklets. At some parks, you will be required to attend a ranger talk or go on a trail. A few require you to pick up some trash. If either of these are the case, it will tell you on the Junior Ranger booklet instruction page. In many parks, when you return your Junior Ranger booklet to get the certificate and badge or patch, a park ranger will go over it. This is good so that you will learn if you got the questions correct or not. If you got some wrong, it’s good to know the correct answers. At some parks, the park ranger will conduct a small ceremony where you raise your right hand and take the Junior Ranger pledge to keep national park sites clean, not bother the animals, and not touch what you’re not supposed to. Probably the most memorable ceremony a park ranger ever conducted with me was at Rocky Mountain National Park (Colorado). The park ranger made an announcement to everyone in the visitor center, about 200 people, to watch the ceremony. Everyone was looking at my brother and sister and me as the park ranger swore us in as Junior Rangers. He did it for other kids also. It kind of makes the program a little more meaningful because you are being honored for your achievement of completing the program. Ever since I started this Web site at the end of 2005, I have received inquiries asking whether adults can earn Junior Ranger badges. The answer technically is that although nearly all National Park Service units publicly state that the program is for children up to a specified age limit, adults are supposed to be permitted to complete the booklets if they ask for them. Nonetheless, I have been informed that at some park units, they still refuse to give booklets to adults asking for them. It is interesting that at a few units, there are booklets specially available for adults. For example, at Acadia National Park (Maine), there is a Senior Ranger program. At Bandelier National Monument (New Mexico), adults can earn Deputy Ranger patches; my parents earned them there and I have displayed them on the page for that unit. I have also received a lot of questions about WebRangers. This is a program which the National Park Service began several years ago. It is much improved now. WebRangers involves completing online games and activities at the following Web site: www.nps. gov/webrangers. It has a spiffy look. You create your own ranger office. From there you can link to the different activities (nearly 40). The activities range from helping a salmon swim upstream to fitting out a dog sled in Alaska. As you complete the different activities, your progress is displayed. If you complete all available activities the National Park Service will mail you a patch (displayed on my home page). I recommend that everyone who is interested in the Junior Ranger program also try their hand at WebRangers on their home computer. It’s nice to collect the different badges and patches awarded by the National Park Service sites for completing the Junior Ranger program. It’s also great to be able to learn things in a fun way. I hope that if you are into the Junior Ranger program my Web site was helpful to you. If you’re not into Junior Ranger, maybe you will now become interested. Good luck and maybe we’ll meet at a national park site. |
Sam Maslow's
National Parks
Junior Ranger Site
Junior Ranger Site
| When you arrive at a National Park Service site, you can usually ask for the Junior Ranger booklet at the visitor center. If there is no visitor center but there is a ranger station, ask there. Over the last few years, more parks have displays at their visitor centers, promoting the availability of the Junior Ranger program. Wherever you get the booklet is usually where you return it to get the |
| badge or patch. In some parks, usually very large ones with more than one visitor center, you can obtain the booklet in one location and submit it at another. |
Not all National Park Service sites have Junior Ranger programs. If you were to go on the Websites for the various units of the National Park Service, reachable at www.nps. gov/parks.html, you would see that some have a “For Kids” page. On that page they are supposed to tell you if they have a Junior Ranger program. However, they are not 100% accurate. For example, the Web pages of the National Park Service for Martin Van Buren National Historic Site (New York) and Castle Clinton National Monument |
