Rocky Mountain National Park Weekly Logbook

WEEK 1

May 13, 2018

Arrived at Rocky Mountain National Park and set up living quarters.

May 14, 2018

8:00 am: Arrived at ROMO’s museum collection.
8:15 – 12:30: Toured the collection, library, administrative center, and some of the wider park grounds with Kelly. Went to Moraine Lodge and looked at exhibition space.
10:45: Moved empty cabinet from library to collection. This will temporarily house research permits when I begin work on that project.
2:00 – 5:10: Updated accessioning errors in 1930 ledger and began to update physical files.
- Kelly started me off by recategorizing accession entries for items submitted in the 1930s by a staff member named Ed Andrews. I crosschecked entries in the original collections ledgerbook with updated files in Re:discovery.

May 15, 2018

7:00 – 10:30 am: Arrived and resumed updating the physical files for Ed Andrews’ accessions. Noted which files contained 10-95 Accession Reception forms as well as 105 Receipt forms.
10:30 – 12:00: Printed accession lists for the first 12 entries of Andrews. Each entry contains a list of 1 – 40 artifacts that were given added to the collection in the 1930s and 1940s. I printed each of these lists and updated each accession entry with a new 10-95 form.
1:00 – 5:00: Took archival photographs for each artifact on the lists. The objects were primarily archaeological findings, including stone utensils, arrowheads, and pottery fragments. I set up a photography station with diffused lighting, size scales, and an accession number chart. I took four photographs of each artifact, one of the front side, the back, and two more of the same photos with the accession numbers included.
Cropped and reoriented the photos and uploaded them onto the collection’s database in Re:discovery.

May 16, 2018

7:00 – 8:30 am: Finished cropping and uploading photos to ICMS.
8:30 – 11:00: Adjusted Andrews’ accessions, adding lists of artifacts, accession reception forms, and photo printouts to the existing file. Sent new accession information to Kelly’s supervisor for approval.
11:00 – 12:00: Conducted inventory on selected accession forms. Checked to see if they had accession reception forms (10-95A) and/or receipts.
1:00 – 3:00: Finished inventory. Reviewed research permit database in ICMS and Microsoft Database with Kelly.
3:00 – 4:00: Began to sort and alphabetize folders of research permits in the collection. The research permit collection is a composite of several sets of permits received at different times. They are dispersed throughout the building and are inconsistent with each other, as well as inaccessible to the public. Kelly wants me to first address several dozen boxes of permit files in the back of the collection, ordering them by the last name of each researcher instead of by their catalog number. I am removing the files from their boxes and placing them in a large file cabinet. This is the first step in making the permits more accessible to the public and other researchers.
4:00 – 5:00: Stopped working on the permits so I could fill out an application for an E-QIP card, an access card for the park’s computer system.

May 17, 2018

7:00 – 11:00 am: Resumed alphabetizing the permit files.
11:00 – 12:00: Curatorial meeting. Kelly invited me to sit in on a phone conference between numerous NPS museum curators. Most of the meeting consisted of news updates and instructions on how to fill out the latest paperwork, but it was helpful to see the more administrative side of curatorial work.
1:00 – 5:30: Continued alphabetizing the permit files.

WEEK 2

May 21, 2018

7:00 – 8:30 am: Finished alphabetizing the permit files in collections storage.
8:30 – 12:00: Updated the alphabetized files in ICMS. Kelly created a special folder in ICMS dedicated to research permits. It is much more consistent with its metadata and search criteria than the standard accessions folder that governs most of the collection. I added ROMO’s research permit identification numbers to nearly every entry in the permit folder, gathering the information from ICMS and from IRMA (Integrated Resource Management System), an online NPS database that also contains permit numbers.
1:00 – 3:30: Began to condense the file cabinet of 150 alphabetized permit files with the larger permit collection. Also began updating files with materials from two binders full of different 2014 documents where necessary. Aside from filtering out redundant permit files, I am also looking for documentation of artifacts or objects collected from various research expeditions so that we can crosscheck the information with items in the actual collection. Every updated permit has been placed in a new folder and will be organized in alphabetical order. Once every permit has been examined and updated, I will put them in special storage boxes for easy access.

May 22, 2018

8:00 am – 12:15: Continued to condense and update permit files. Familiarizing myself with the collection. Most of the updated documents I am adding are investigation reports for different projects.
1:10 – 4:35: Continued to condense and update permit files.

May 23, 2018

8:00 am – 12:30: Continued to condense and update permit files.
1:30 – 4:15: Continued to condense and update permit files. Kelly gave me a formatting outline to place on every new file folder. I will write the researcher’s name, permit number, and project name on them and organize them by researcher.

May 24, 2018

8:00 am – 10:45: Finished updating research permit files with supplementary documents from 2014 binders. Several different permit files were condensed into single units during this process, making the collection a bit neater.
10:45 – 12:30: Going through all the remaining permit files, putting them in new folders, tracking permits that have correlative materials in the collection, and breaking up single folders containing multiple different research studies.
1:30 – 4:00: Took break from permit files. Shot archival macro photos of collection’s beetle and fly specimens.
4:00 – 4:30: Began cropping and renaming photos for future uploads to ICMS.

May 25, 2018

8:00 am – 9:30: Finished cropping and renaming photos. Uploaded them to ICMS.
9:30 – 10:30: Double-checked all insect cases for bad pin boards. Took counts of bad boards that the collection needs to order more of.
10:45 – 12:30: Continued to work on organizing the permit collection.
1:30 – 4:00: Continued to work on the permit collection.

WEEK 3

May 29, 2018

8:00 am – 12:30: Continued to work on refiling and organizing research permits.
1:30 – 4:30: Started the next phase of building the permit collection. Kelly supplied me with a laptop with an ICMS database file containing information for approximately 1,300 research permits from throughout the park’s history. Most are from the past 20 years and were organized by park catalog number rather than by the name of the researcher. Furthermore, the park’s database was incomplete for these permits, with many not even existing on the digital record. What I am trying to do is gather all of the permits from throughout the collection under a single, unified system that is complete and simple to use. First I am checking to make sure that each physical file has an official research permit, noting entries that lack one. I also try to discern whether any collections were made for each entry, that way I can correlate that information with objects in the collection. After organizing the physical permit file, I update the corresponding information in ICMS. Sometimes I need to make an entirely new entry, and other times I need to make notes regarding any peculiarities. Many files are a mish-mash of different documents, and after setting them in order, I place the contents in a new folder with the researcher’s name on it. These folders will eventually go into special archival boxes that will be also organized by last name. Ideally a researcher should be able to quickly look up an entry in ICMS and find a physical entry with equal ease. I’m generally delineating different types of documents in each folder. The order of folder contents typically goes as follows: Permit/Annual Reports/Applications, logistical documents/finances, email correspondences, manuscripts/Final Reports, data/research findings, and miscellaneous documents/secondary sources.

May 30, 2018

8:00 am – 4:30 (with one hour for lunch and breaks): Organized, analyzed, and alphabetized permit files. Simultaneously updated digital database, making additional entries when necessary.

May 31, 2018

8:00 – 8:45: Got photo and fingerprints taken in order to get an access card for the park’s computer system.
8:45 – 4:00 (with one hour for lunch and breaks): Continued to update permit files and database.

June 1, 2018

8:00 – 8:45: Drove with Kelly to Holzwarth Ranch, RMNP’s only major site for cultural history. This site consists of several cabins from the 1920s. Kelly, several volunteers, additional park staff and I prepared the site for public access for the summer.
8:45 – 1:00: Helped volunteers prepare cabins, laying out objects and building structures for public programs. I also monitored Kelly’s process for opening the cabins. She populated the cabin with materials from the 1920s. I also learned one of the challenges of maintaining a cultural site in a national park, as part of the central cabin was found to be heavily contaminated with animal droppings. We had to halt the preparation process after this discovery.
1:00 – 2:45: Drove back to the collection building. Along the way we stopped by the Alpine Visitor Center and looked at the exhibits on display there.
3:00 – 3:45: Learned how to check out park vehicles. I will be driving one on my own a few times next week.

WEEK 4

June 4, 2018

7:30 – 9:00: This week I am sporadically attending orientation workshops for the park’s seasonal interpretation employees. These are mainly interns and volunteers (about 25 in number) who are going to educate the public with special programs and tours throughout the park. I will learn how the programs department interacts with the public, which can have obvious applications in the world of public history. I will also get to tour the park, which I haven’t gotten to do much of yet. I arrived at the administrative center at 7:30 and attended an introduction to the week’s events.
9:00 – 10:00: Drove to Bear Lake and learned about RMNP’s policies towards the public from one of the interpreters. The goal is to develop a deeper appreciation for the park among visitors, as well as providing them with an engaging lesson about every location.
10:00 – 1:45: Drove to Sprague Lake and participated in a few exercises geared towards developing our own understandings of why educating the public is important. We discussed what some of the driving motivations behind programs should be, such as using the park to promote equality, appreciation for natural resources, and responsibility for the maintenance of nature. We then split up and individually analyzed the landscape of Sprague Lake, noting as many characteristics as possible. This is a common element in many park programs
1:45 – 4:00: Had lunch and returned to the collections facility, where I continued to work on permits.

June 5, 2018

8:00 – 1:00: Worked on permits.
1:00 – 2:45: Had lunch and then drove to Moraine Park, where the interpretation team listened to a lecture by the park’s elk specialist on the topic of the relationship between elk, moose, and the local wetland ecology. Though the subject matter of her lecture was interesting, I tried to focus more on how she engaged with the audience, condensing a complex topic into a digestible format without losing much quality in her content.
2:45 – 4:00: Listened to a short lecture by the park’s Wilderness Programs Manager on the definition of the term “wilderness” and its cultural connotations. Also listened to a talk by one of Rocky Mountain’s firefighters on fire safety.

June 6, 2018

8:00 – 10:00: Participated in an interpretive workshop at the administrative center. The goal was to figure out how to create an engaging theme and ask open-ended questions about otherwise dense subject matter without overwhelming or underwhelming a public audience.
10:00 – 11:30: Drove to Lily Lake, where one of the senior interpretive rangers took us on one of her programs. As we walked around the lake, we noted how she framed her program around a central theme, relationships, and had us think about the various way in which that concept played out in the surrounding landscape.
11:30 – 12:00: Lunch
12:00 – 1:45: Analysis of the morning’s nature walk program and a workshop on program narrative structure.
2:00 – 2:30: Visited the Longs Peak ranger station and learned basic facts about the mountain (this was more for the benefit of the actual interpretation team, who are expected to provide guests with general information about the park).
2:30 – 4:30: Went to Wild Basin and learned about forest ecology and the threat of the pine beetle from a park entomologist. In a similar manner as the elk lecture from the day before, I noted that the speaker carefully broke down his subject matter into an easy-to-understand format.

June 7, 2018

8:00 – 3:00 (with an hour for lunch and breaks): Worked on permits.

June 8, 2018

7:45 – 9:45: Drove with interpretation team up Trail Ridge Road to Alpine Visitor Center and toured the facility. I examined the museum exhibits once again.
9:45 – 11:00: Participated in another nature walk program out on the alpine tundra.
11:00 – 12:00: Drove to Timber Lake Trailhead and had lunch.
12:00 – 1:15: Engaged in a facilitated dialogue about the cultural importance of the park and about preserving the landscape. This is a common device used by interpretive staff to get their audiences to participate and think about important questions. The facilitators then gave us several tips and methods for engaging others in this type of dialogue in an orderly, comfortable manner.
1:15 – 2:15: Visited the Holzwarth Ranch site again. The central cabin is still closed off due to rodent infestations.
2:25 – 2:45: Visited Kawuneeche Visitor Center on the western side of the park.
2:45 – 4:15: Took a short hike near Grand Lake, then returned to the administrative center on the east side.

WEEK 5

June 11, 2018

8:00 – 4:30 (with one hour for lunch and breaks): Worked on updating research permits and database.

June 12, 2018

8:00 – 1:00: RMNP Seasonal Orientation. I went to the YMCA of the Rockies to attend a parkwide orientation of about 270 seasonal employees. Senior park staff gave presentations, though I found a talk by the CRM director to be most interesting. She laid out the park’s policy for recording and studying new cultural resource finds in the park.
1:45 – 4:30: Resumed research permit work.

June 13, 2018

8:00 – 4:30 (with one hour for lunch and breaks): Continued to update and organize research permits.

June 14, 2018

8:00 – 4:30 (with one hour for lunch and breaks): Continued to update and organize research permits. Found a collection of old photographs and postcards that I can use for Parks as Portals to Learning later this summer.

June 15, 2018

8:00 – 4:30 (with one hour for lunch and breaks): Continued to update and organize research permits. I now have over 400 completed files. Scott Esser, the park’s research coordinator, stopped by at 9 to check in on the status of the internship. He learned how I am organizing the permits and dropped off a box of recently deactivated research permits.

WEEK 6 (This week and the next primarily consist of gathering together research permit materials)

June 18, 2018

8:00 – 4:30 (with one hour for lunch and breaks): Worked on research permits. Continuing to condense and improve the organization of older files. Many of these require that I manually create new entries for them in Access, which takes time for some of the more disordered folders.

June 19, 2018

8:00 – 4:30 (with one hour for lunch and breaks): Worked on research permits.

June 20, 2018

8:00 – 4:30 (with one hour for lunch and breaks): Worked on research permits.

June 21, 2018

8:00 – 4:30 (with one hour for lunch and breaks): Worked on research permits.

June 22, 2018

8:00 – 4:30 (with one hour for lunch and breaks): Worked on research permits. Approximately 650 permits files are finished.

WEEK 7

June 25, 2018

8:00 – 12:30: Worked on research permits.
1:30 – 3:30: Conducted inventory in park library. Found several missing books.
3:30 – 4:30: Worked on research permits.

June 26, 2018

8:00 – 4:30 (with one hour for lunch and breaks): Worked on research permits.

June 27, 2018

8:00 – 4:30 (with one hour for lunch and breaks): Worked on research permits. Found material for PPL in one of the files.

June 28, 2018

8:00 – 4:30 (with one hour for lunch and breaks): Worked on research permits. 815 files completed in total.

June 29, 2018

7:15 – 7:50: Update with Dr. Cauvin.
8:00 – 12:30: Continued to work on research permits. I am on the final drawer of unorganized files.
1:30 – 3:00: Took archival photographs of artifacts from Holzwarth. I used a horizontal camera mount to ensure consistency in the photographs.
3:00 – 4:30: Continued to work on permits. Asked Kelly for clarification on the desired end result of the permit project. After all the data is entered, the ideal next step will be to upload the information in re:Discovery to a cloud-based server and eventually to nps.gov/museums. Active permits are not available to the public and are blocked via a firewall, but inactive permits like the ones in the collection are public domain. Once they are fully digitized, then the public should be able to access them from home.

WEEK 8

July 2, 2018

8:00 – 12:30: Worked on permits.
1:30 – 3:30: Started going through the earlier files and reorganized them to make them consistent with the later files.
3:30 – 4:30: Worked on permits.

July 3, 2018

8:00 – 4:30 (with one hour for lunch and breaks): Worked on research permits. 903 files completed in total.

July 5, 2018

8:00 – 12:30: Finished organizing research permits.
1:30 – 4:40: Compiled list of missing permits, found them in IRMA and ICMS and printed them.

July 6, 2018

8:00 – 1:00: Added newly printed permits to collection and reorganized earlier permit files to make them consistent with the later entries.
2:00 – 4:00: Shot archival photos of artifacts from the Holzwarth site.

WEEK 9

July 9, 2018

8:20 – 6:50 (With an hour for lunch and breaks): Read monthly superintendent’s reports from the 1940s – 1960s. Wrote short summaries for inclusion in ICMS. These summaries of the reports will make searching for the reports online much easier for researchers.

July 10, 2018

8:00 – 6:30 (With an hour for lunch and breaks): Finished writing summaries for monthly reports. Also received list of assignments from Kelly for the remaining two weeks, including finishing the annual reports, numbering and finalizing the research permits, working with the park’s historic preservation team, and working with the park’s archaeology/cultural resources team.

July 11, 2018

8:00 – 1:00: Wrote several annual report summaries.
2:00 – 3:30: Went to park library and gathered research theses and took them back to the museum collection for storage.
3:30 – 6:30: Continued annual report summaries.

July 12, 2018

8:00 – 10:00: Shot archival photos for the remainder of the Holzwarth objects
10:00 – 10:05: Received more permit files from Scott Esser
10:05 – 11:30: Organized books from the library and stored them in Museum Storage.
12:30 – 6:30: Worked on annual report summaries.

WEEK 10

July 16, 2017

7:30 – 4:30 (with an hour for lunch and breaks): Spent the day with the park’s historic preservation team. We went to a historic Mission 66 comfort station in Moraine Park campground and modified the site. We carved away part of the landscape and prepared the ground for a new asphalt walkway to the building. The old walkway is no longer up to modern codes for wheelchair access, and the new path is built at a shallower grade. Though I learned techniques for trail construction, such as land clearing, grading, and foundation compression, part of our task was to build the new path using historic-looking materials. The new path blends very well into the preexisting construction.

July 17, 2018

8:00 – 12:15: Went to the Cultural Resource Office and worked with park archaeologist Cody Dalpra. He showed me how he works with construction crews in the park, monitoring their activities to make sure that any unknown historical artifacts aren’t accidentally destroyed during their work. This is not a glamorous part of the job, but is a necessary element of park archaeology.
1:00 – 2:00: Helped conduct inventory of Cultural Resource Office.
2:00 – 4:00: Went on Landscape Survey in a few prehistoric and historic sites near the park entrance. Learned how to examine the landscape for former building sites and look for artifacts. Learned how to examine lithic tools.

July 18, 2018

8:00 – 10:30: Worked on Superintendent Annual Report Summaries
10:30 – 12:30: Entered Scott Esser’s extra research permits into the collection.
1:30 – 4:30: Finished processing Scott Esser’s extra files.

July 19, 2018

8:00 – 11:20: Moved remaining theses and rare books from the park library to the collection building. Roughly 152 books in total were moved.
11:20 – 12:00: Entered Scott Esser’s extra permit files into ICMS.
12:40 – 1:30: Organized storage room to accommodate library books and made room for permit boxes.
1:30 – 4:30: Put all of the permit files in archival boxes and organized them by alphabetical order. All of the physical permits in the collection are accounted for in a digital database.

July 20, 2018

8:00 – 2:30: Moved all of the park’s theses and rare books into the collection itself, organizing every thesis by the last name of the authors. This was my final task for the internship.
2:30 – 3:30: Packed up and moved out of Rocky Mountain National Park.