Why are we doing this?
A concept for the book cover
Shelton Johnson (pictured above) grew up in Detroit, a black youth in a poor neighborhood. Out of the cacophony of urban life, he emerged a poet. “I was a star-gazer,” he says. “Books would always float me away from a bad place and take me anywhere but Detroit.”
A national park ranger at Yosemite National Park in California, where he interprets the story of the Buffalo Soldiers, African-American troops sent out west to protect the new national parks after the Civil War, Johnson appeared in several episodes of the PBS series “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea.” In one memorable interview, he describes coming across a herd of snow-dusted bison on a snowmobile trip through Yellowstone to pick up the mail. In the subzero cold, he says, the huge animals’ breath emerged in clouds, falling in a cascade of ice crystals around them.
I immediately imagined myself there, with Johnson and the bison in the brilliant white of the Wyoming landscape. I thought about the unique and personal relationship rangers share with the landscapes they protect, and how difficult it is for visitors to replicate that intimacy.
Convinced that stories like this could be as meaningful to others as Johnson’s was to me, I began to envision a book, and I asked my friend, the photographer Simon Griffiths, to add his creative talents to the project. Simon's contributions have been immeasurable as we've traveled the country collecting stories from a diverse and fascinating group of people. We hope you will join us in this journey, and through the stories of the men and women who dive among shipwrecks, explore ice caves and win storytelling contests — but who also struggle with their identities, worry about their children and think about their legacies - you may find a story that touches you as Shelton's did me.
- Daniel Howe, Raleigh North Carolina
A national park ranger at Yosemite National Park in California, where he interprets the story of the Buffalo Soldiers, African-American troops sent out west to protect the new national parks after the Civil War, Johnson appeared in several episodes of the PBS series “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea.” In one memorable interview, he describes coming across a herd of snow-dusted bison on a snowmobile trip through Yellowstone to pick up the mail. In the subzero cold, he says, the huge animals’ breath emerged in clouds, falling in a cascade of ice crystals around them.
I immediately imagined myself there, with Johnson and the bison in the brilliant white of the Wyoming landscape. I thought about the unique and personal relationship rangers share with the landscapes they protect, and how difficult it is for visitors to replicate that intimacy.
Convinced that stories like this could be as meaningful to others as Johnson’s was to me, I began to envision a book, and I asked my friend, the photographer Simon Griffiths, to add his creative talents to the project. Simon's contributions have been immeasurable as we've traveled the country collecting stories from a diverse and fascinating group of people. We hope you will join us in this journey, and through the stories of the men and women who dive among shipwrecks, explore ice caves and win storytelling contests — but who also struggle with their identities, worry about their children and think about their legacies - you may find a story that touches you as Shelton's did me.
- Daniel Howe, Raleigh North Carolina