Grandpa Ranger
Recently retired State Park Ranger Robert Peek visited the Idyllwild Library on Tuesday, April 8, to discuss his memoir, Grandpa Ranger. Peek talked of the process that aspiring rangers must undergo to become law enforcement officers and the challenges he faced as the oldest applicant in his class. He became a ranger at 53. Peek said the state park system has no age limit for entering the training program, but it requires law enforcement retirement at 65, so his career was short but full of adventure.
Peek knew he wanted to be a ranger in High School and had even won a scholarship to a Forest Service program at Humboldt State, but his father, a banker, pointed out how hard it would be to support a family on a ranger’s salary and convinced him to get a business degree instead.
The dream never faded. In his late 40s, Peek found himself in Idyllwild, working at the bank with Jeri Sue Haney and seasonally as a Park Aid at Mount San Jacinto State Park. On the last day of his season, he asked the superintendent if he could be a ranger next year, a question that his supervisor found funny because it showed a lack of awareness of just how arduous the process is.
The book tells the story of this training, including the hard work and the bureaucracy. Peek persevered, graduated, and served at six different State Parks over 12 years, starting at Lake Perris, including the Salton Sea and Carlsbad State Beach, and returning to Idyllwild in 2018.
Peek’s favorite assignment was at Bodie State Historic Park, in the hills east of the Sierra Nevadas. The site is known as a ghost town, and while Peek said he never saw any ghosts, he does include a few spooky stories in his book. He did, however, take part in an essential part of the legend of that place: reading mail from visitors who believe they have been afflicted by the “curse of Bodie.” This helpful legend states that anyone who removes an artifact from the ghost town, no matter how small, will be followed by bad luck until the object is returned. Letters usually included a recitation of misfortunes and an item, like a nail or bits of glass or metal, but sometimes more substantial artifacts. The most memorable item he ever opened was an entire wood-burning stove. Every item must be treated as stolen, and a law enforcement report must be filed.
Peek said the most essential message of his book is that age is not an obstacle to following your childhood dreams. Grandpa Ranger is an unvarnished memoir that takes readers inside the life of a law enforcement officer, from training to deployment to retirement. Peek still volunteers with RSO and CHP and assists as a “proctor” with tests that potential rangers take. His book is available at the Idyllwild Library or through online booksellers.
