Pups in the Parks: Man’s Best Friend in America’s Best Idea

From conservation assistants, celebrities, protectors, and public educators - dogs have done it all in National Parks. Today we honor the stories of incredible canines who have ties to places like Yosemite, Denali, Great Smoky Mountains and more. Good boys and girls who have scaled mountains, crossed continents, navigated glaciers and braved rivers for their people - and would do it all again. COME SEE US ON TOUR! US BARK Rangers Sled Dog’s in the White Mountains For the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials: Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdarkTikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdark Support the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page! Thank you to this week’s partners! Avocado Green: Find an Avocado near you or shop online at Avocado Green Mattress and check out their mattress and bedding sale! Betterhelp: See the reviews, see what stands out, and see if BetterHelp is right for you. Visit betterhelp.com/npadButcherbox: Go to http://ButcherBox.com/NPAD to get $20 off your first box, plus your choice of free ground beef for life, or free chicken thighs or top sirloins in every box for a year with free shipping. Nutrafol: Get $10 off your first month’s subscription and freeshipping when you visit Nutrafol.com promo code NPADPaka: To grab your PAKA hoodie, go to www.pakaapparel.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 1:01Danielle LaRock?

  In June of 2024, a sign went up at a battlefield in central Virginia, and it read, "Dogs working." The site was once home to a plantation, 900 acres along Toddapotamy Creek. Today, it's part of Richmond National Battlefield Park, protecting stories from the Civil War, a stone house from 1725, and a family graveyard well-marked behind a white picket fence. But when the land was donated to the park service, they were told there was a second cemetery on the property, but no one knew where it was. Enslaved people who worked and died on the plantation were buried in unmarked graves, and none of the usual archaeological tools could locate them. So the park turned to those who predate remote sensing tools

• 1:45Danielle LaRock?

  and astound even the most pro-tech advocates around. Those who can detect the scent of decomposition from remains centuries old. They hired dogs. Labrador Retrievers named Abby and Seamus, nicknamed "The Barkiologists." Abby and Seamus worked at dawn, when the sun first warms the ground, sniffing around for four hours a day for two weeks in carefully planned paths across the property. Along the way, Abby and Seamus would stop in their tracks and sit or bark, indicating they had found what they had been trained to locate. The pair ultimately found multiple burial sites that had otherwise been lost to time. Together with park staff,

• 2:27Danielle LaRock?

  their work culminated in remembering and memorializing the people who labored to build what is now the National Historic Site. While worth celebrating, it's just another day's work for these barkiologists and their handlers, who have traveled to sites in over 20 states, including several national park units, and even overseas, where they've been involved in the search for World War II missing in action personnel, all to perform their job locating the lost. This is a remarkable story, but in many ways, it's not an unusual one. Dogs play surprising roles across the park service. A yellow lab named Oscar flunked out of seeing iDog School because he was too interested in food, but he got a second chance aboard America's oldest warship.

• 3:13Danielle LaRock?

  He got a job at Boston National Historical Park as a hazard sniffing dog, sniffing out firearms and explosives, and getting rewarded with plenty of treats along the way. A care and terrier in Texas got a job protecting sea turtles. Padre Island is home to Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtle, the smallest species of sea turtle on earth. They're also one of the rarest, partly because coyotes find and eat their unhatched eggs. Biologists brought a dog of their own, named him Ridley, and trained him to find the nest first, so he could protect them. There are border collies like Belle, who chased Canada geese off the National Mall, and Python Pete, a beagle who spent four years hunting Burmese pythons in the Everglades. Dogs for search and rescue,

• 3:57Danielle LaRock?

  wildlife control, avalanche response, and narcotics, and therapy dogs like Happy, who have sat at the Flight 93 Memorial to let people cry into their fur. In this episode, we're going to meet five dogs who worked in national parks over the years and meet one who sacrificed everything in the line of duty. This is an episode that will remind you that those small, slobbery, and sometimes smelly creatures that we share our days with, that so many of us walk side by side through life with, truly are our very best friends. Welcome to National Park After Dark.

• 4:51Cassandra Yahnian?

  Uh, we're doing a dog episode, and I brought my dog with me today.

• 4:56Danielle LaRock?

  Your very own dog.

• 4:57Cassandra Yahnian?

  Did you hear that? You could have been a barkiologist.

• 5:01Danielle LaRock?

  I think she's more along the line of narcotics dogs. She's got the look.

• 5:06Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, she's intimidating. She's super intimidating.

• 5:09Danielle LaRock?

  Well, welcome back to National Park After Dark, everyone. My name is Danielle.

• 5:13Cassandra Yahnian?

  I'm Cassie.

• 5:14Danielle LaRock?

  And we do have a dog episode for you today. It's a really special one, and it's kind of long because there's so many special dogs that we need to talk about today. But before we get into the dogs across the park service and a little bit beyond, because I did make a stretch, of course.

• 5:35Cassandra Yahnian?

  As one does.

• 5:37Danielle LaRock?

  We wanted to remind you that we are going on tour this fall. And you guys, you guys really showed up in a few cities in particular and sold out the shows in less than two days, which is insane. So thank you very much.

• 5:54Cassandra Yahnian?

  Thank you, yes.

• 5:55Danielle LaRock?

  But.

• 5:56Cassandra Yahnian?

  Absolutely insane.

• 5:57Danielle LaRock?

  We do still have tickets in, as of now, as we're recording this. No promises. Boston and New York.

• 6:06Cassandra Yahnian?

  Seattle is really close. So we've had a lot of people reach out to us about our Seattle tickets right now. Unfortunately, there are only a few left, and someone got ahold of tickets and they bought three rows of them and then resold them for way more than what we charged. So you're going to see two $300 tickets on there. We don't know if there's anything we can do about it. We are going to try and see if there is a way, but right now, those are the only available tickets. Outside of if you're traveling solo or don't care about not sitting with the person you're traveling with, there's a couple normal-priced tickets left, but very limited seats left in Seattle. And also San Francisco, really limited seats left. So if you want to come to San Francisco,

• 6:50Cassandra Yahnian?

  there's not much left to choose from. So grab your tickets quick.

• 6:54Danielle LaRock?

  Yes.

• 6:54Cassandra Yahnian?

  Which is so exciting. Thank you, guys.

• 6:56Danielle LaRock?

  I am obviously pissed about scalpers because that's, you know, really frustrating, not only for you guys, but also for us. But kind of honored. It's like, oh, you think we're...

• 7:08Cassandra Yahnian?

  You think someone's going to pay $300 to see us?

• 7:11Danielle LaRock?

  It's like, okay, that's crazy, but also, thank you. No, but really, we're trying our best to work on that because it's extremely frustrating. But yeah, come to our shows. Boston in particular is so beautiful that time of year, but you're going to be in a sweet spot for New England. So.

• 7:30Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah. And Boston's our home, our home city, which would be really cool to get to see everyone in Boston. We're performing at the Wilbur, which is just an awesome venue. So if you're in Boston or going to be in Boston that time of year, November 1st, come check us out because there are still tickets left.

• 7:50Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah. All right. Well, let's get into this episode. Of course, it's all dog-themed. And I do got to say, I almost caught... So you don't know the title of the episode, but I ended up naming it "Good Dog" or something like that. But... And then a subtitle. But at first, I was going to name it "Good Boy." And then I was like, well, then I feel bad because I'm excluding the girls. I'm like, but it could be "Good Girl." And then I was like, it can't be "Good Girl." Oh, it's... I just, my mind was like, oh, "Good Girl." I'm like, ew, no, I can't do that.

• 8:27Cassandra Yahnian?

  I think this is our first X-rated episode of M-P-A-D.

• 8:30Danielle LaRock?

  It may have gotten us more clicks. I don't know, maybe I messed up. But so, getting into the stories here. For our first park, we are headed up north to the last frontier. Denali National Park is home to the most famous dogs in the National Park Service, and that would be their sled dogs. Their puppy cam attracts millions of views every year, bringing to mind memories of Togo, Balto, and the Iditarod, which we did an episode on back in the day, titled "In Dog We Trust: Iditarod National Historic Trail", way back in March of 2022. So if you want the full story on that and another dog-themed episode, it exists. But how did sled dogs first come to Denali?

• 9:13Danielle LaRock?

  When the park was established in 1917, it had no staff, and it would take four years to hire its very first ranger, Harry Carstens. Carstens was a veteran of the Klondike Gold Rush and had pioneered a mail route across the Alaskan interior. So he had experience in the territory, but he arrived at a park in crisis. Caribou, moose, and doll sheep were being slaughtered by poachers. Settlers in Fairbanks to the north and miners at gold camps were hunting in the park to feed themselves and to feed their teams of sled dogs, who needed up to 300 pounds of food every single week. Carstens knew he couldn't do anything about poaching by himself. He needed help,

• 9:56Danielle LaRock?

  so he got some sled dogs of his own. He was an experienced musher, the name for someone who guides teams of sled dogs, which helped because in 1992, there was no other way to get around in Alaska after the snow fell. So in February of 1922, he went up to the Tannana River to Hadley Island and bought seven dogs from a homesteader. The guy was a real live off of the land type, a Nova Scotian bachelor who lived off salmon he caught, moonshine he made, and the kindness of neighbors who realized he'd starve if left to his own devices. Carstens paid him $45 per dog, which was around five grand for the entire team today. Those seven dogs were the start of it all, though we only know five of their

• 10:40Danielle LaRock?

  names today. Bosin, Skipper, Dynamite, Mike, and Rowdy, along with their two siblings, they were called the Seven Brothers. Carstens and his dogs became a model for all future staff. As more rangers in Denali were brought in, they were assigned a district, given a team of seven dogs, and sent out on patrols, a duty that could last months at a time. As they went, they built cabins on park boundaries, rangers cut down trees, dogs dragged the logs, and the resulting structures provided crucial shelter from winter temperatures that would dip to negative 40 degrees easily. One early ranger named Grant Pearson wrote about what the work was like in an autobiography, which he titled My Life in High Adventure.

• 11:24Danielle LaRock?

  He showed up in 1925, happy to have a job, but honestly, a little scared of the dogs, which was a problem since they were a huge part of life and the job.

• 11:35Cassandra Yahnian?

  I think I actually have this book on my bookshelf.

• 11:37Danielle LaRock?

  You do?

• 11:38Cassandra Yahnian?

  As soon as you said that, I can picture the title. I'm pretty sure. Who is it by again?

• 11:42Danielle LaRock?

  Grant Pearson. It's his autobiography.

• 11:44Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, I'm pretty sure. It's old, right?

• 11:46Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, it's from the 20s.

• 11:48Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, I literally have it on my bookshelf. That's so funny. I haven't read it yet. It's just sitting there.

• 11:53Danielle LaRock?

  Well, you'll have to report back because I'm only gonna give you a little bit here. And I would love to know what else is happening.

• 12:01Danielle LaRock?

  So back during that time, there had been some rumors that were spreading around that sled dogs were half domestic, half wild, and 100% dangerous. Like, do not trust them. Basically, like, they're unpredictable. A lot of them are kind of shady, and you don't really want to let your guard down around them. Basically, the story went, if you fell down among your dogs, like, your group of seven sled dogs, they would tear you to shreds. So on his first day, Pearson was sent to make friends with his new coworker, the big gray and black Malamute, who was the leader of his team. The dog's eyes followed him as he approached, glaring like a wolf, as the man held out his nervous hand in a greeting.

• 12:44Danielle LaRock?

  But instead of biting, the dog sniffed him, waved his big fluffy tail in approval, and each dog followed and did the same. And Pearson felt like a fool for believing those rumors. In fact, the dogs were eager to get to work, straining to get into their harness as soon as humans appeared. He learned to communicate with them. When a harness strap wasn't sitting right, the dog would look back over its shoulder and try and lick the spot again and again until someone noticed and came and fixed it. He learned to trim the fur between their paw pads so fresh snow wouldn't form ice balls between their toes, which we call

• 13:18Cassandra Yahnian?

  That's sweet.

• 13:19Danielle LaRock?

  Grinch feet.

• 13:20Cassandra Yahnian?

  Oh, Grinch feet.

• 13:21Danielle LaRock?

  For many self-styled frontiersmen like Pearson, the job itself was a little strange. He'd grown up hunting for food, and at first, the wildlife in the park seemed to him like it was meant to be eaten. You know, he's here to stop poaching, which, for so long, people were subsistence hunting, and it was never, no one ever batted an eye about it. But then, when McKinley slash Denali was established, and all of a sudden, it was off limits, he kind of grappled with that a little bit because he understood. But in time, he began to believe in his mission of stopping poachers. And although perhaps most of all, he grew quite fond of his sled dogs, which was apparently common. Pearson

• 14:02Danielle LaRock?

  wrote about a trapper from the area named Little Johnny. Johnny, by all accounts, which I guess we would know about if you read that book on your shelf, but he was a bit ill-tempered and known to be a bit of an uncooperative kind of guy. When a neighbor died that Johnny didn't like, he refused to even build him a coffin. But when his lead dog passed away, he built a proper coffin for him and buried the dog on the hill behind his cabin.

• 14:30Danielle LaRock?

  By 1929, the park's kennel had a permanent building. By 1936, there were more than 50 dogs and 14 pups, and they had already become one of the most popular attractions for summer visitors. But then, the snow machines came. By the 1940s, they burst onto the scene, and the use of sled dogs was on the decline. Some held the sled teams as a tradition, while others argued that snowmobiles were faster and required much less maintenance. That being said, when a snowmobile breaks down in the backcountry, it is a crisis. The driver could die without help. When a dog gets hurt, he's just considered cargo, depending on who you're talking to, and the rest of his team will pull him home. For decades,

• 15:14Danielle LaRock?

  the park swung between the two modes of transportation. But in 1980, the law caught up and settled the argument permanently. The Alaskan National Interest Lands Conservation Act tripled the size of the park, renamed it Denali, and designated the original 2 million acres as wilderness. And in order to preserve the wilderness, untrammelled by man, as the law states, that meant no machines were allowed. So, over 100 years later, sled dogs remain a huge part, integral part of Denali today. The only employees who get free housing and all of their meals catered to them, kibble and balls of rendered poultry fat, which the kennel's lead ranger once said, "Looked gross, but the dogs love

• 15:58Danielle LaRock?

  it," which, of course. As a team of eight to 12, they can move over 300 pounds, not counting the weight of the sled and the musher. They break trail in deep snow, haul scientific gear, pack out trash, and timbers of collapsed bridges. Each dog runs something like 1,500 miles a year, and they're watched by millions of people every year on the Denali sled dog puppy cam, which, if you haven't seen and you haven't tuned into yet, what are you doing with your life? And because we're on the topic of dog sledding, I have to mention, I have been dog sledding. Have you?

• 16:37Cassandra Yahnian?

  Really? No, where'd you go?

• 16:40Danielle LaRock?

  Thank you for asking. I actually reached out to my mom because it was a gift. When I was young, she got it for me and my sister and my stepdad. It's like a family experience thing to do. She got it for a Christmas present. And I just wanted to know, I'm like, hey, where was that? She's like, not only do I know where that was and when that was, here's our whole, my mom's a scrapbooker. She came in clutch with the scrapbook thing to prove I have touched the summit sign at Mount Washington. And here she is again. She sent me a picture of the scrapbook page of this. But we went in the White Mountains in 2010, and we went to a place called Muddy Paws Sled Dogs. And I looked them up. They're still very much

• 17:22Danielle LaRock?

  active. They offer so many different types of excursions through the White Mountains. It's a totally unique way to experience the national forest. So I highly recommend you do it. They do it in the fall on snowless apparatus. I don't know what it's called, if it's not on snow, but they offer it through the fall and the winter. So you can see the foliage by being pulled, and you like, sit in the little sled while the teams of dogs pull you.

• 17:50Cassandra Yahnian?

  I didn't even know that was a thing in the White Mountains.

• 17:53Danielle LaRock?

  Yep.

• 17:53Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah.

• 17:54Danielle LaRock?

  So I'll post there, or I'll tag them in the episode description if you want to look into their particular facility. But we had a really great experience there, and the dogs were awesome. Well, moving on into another park, and this is my stretch. Okay, I'm just saying that right now.

• 18:14Cassandra Yahnian?

  I think it counts.

• 18:15Danielle LaRock?

  But let's set the scene first.

• 18:16Cassandra Yahnian?

  I don't even know what it is yet, and I already believe you.

• 18:19Danielle LaRock?

  Thank you. In September of 1918, during World War I, American soldier Lee Duncan found himself in France, picking through the rubble of a village after a battle. At one point, he found what was left of a dog kennel. The Imperial German Army had been breeding German shepherds in that area, but amidst the rubble, Duncan only found one sign of life, a mother nursing a litter of puppies. It's hard to know what the discovery meant for Lee. The young man had spent five years of his childhood in an orphanage, a tough situation, but a place alive with noise and company of other kids his age. When his mom came back for him, he moved far away to an isolated home, far from his friends

• 19:01Danielle LaRock?

  and playmates. So he got a dog. It makes sense that when Lee Duncan found some puppies in a bombed-out kennel, he naturally took one of them home. He smuggled the dog back to California and named him Rin Tin Tin, or Rin-Tee for short.

• 19:18Cassandra Yahnian?

  Rin-Tee. Rin Tin Tin.

• 19:20Danielle LaRock?

  And this

• 19:20Cassandra Yahnian?

  This is my dog, Rin Tin Tin.

• 19:22Danielle LaRock?

  Do you know who Rin Tin Tin is?

• 19:24Cassandra Yahnian?

  No.

• 19:26Danielle LaRock?

  Oh my god.

• 19:28Cassandra Yahnian?

  Is it from a movie?

• 19:29Danielle LaRock?

  Yes, he's like the most famous dog of all time.

• 19:32Cassandra Yahnian?

  I don't know. Really?

• 19:34Danielle LaRock?

  No. You get.

• 19:36Cassandra Yahnian?

  I thought it was like Toto.

• 19:38Danielle LaRock?

  No, it's Rin Tin Tin, honey. Before Toto was even a thought, Rin Tin Tin was blazing the trail.

• 19:46Cassandra Yahnian?

  From where?

• 19:47Danielle LaRock?

  To where?

• 19:48Cassandra Yahnian?

  Okay. What trail?

• 19:49Danielle LaRock?

  Okay, well, I'm about to tell you, and I hope, I never wish ill upon anyone, especially you. Okay? But I really, really want people to back me up with this, okay? And I don't want you to be shamed.

• 20:05Cassandra Yahnian?

  Heard of Rin Tin Tin.

• 20:06Danielle LaRock?

  Be shamed.

• 20:07Cassandra Yahnian?

  No one's heard of Rin Tin Tin.

• 20:10Danielle LaRock?

  Be careful with what you say, okay? So this puppy was no ordinary dog. After he got him home, the two went to a dog show. Rinty leapt over a wall almost 12 feet tall, and onlookers were amazed by this animal. And one of Duncan's friends caught it all on camera. In the 1920s, Hollywood's film industry was young and on the rise. Silent movies were brand new, telling grandiose stories with text on screen and body language of the actors, meaning that the stars of the day were super expressive, they were really physical actors, and capable of doing amazing things. I mean, stunts and exaggerated body movements were huge because that's all you had to visually rely on for the movies.

• 20:55Danielle LaRock?

  And for Lee Duncan, that sounded a lot like what Rin Tin Tin was. His dog was expressive and was full of movement. So he brought Rinty around to movie studios across Hollywood, showing them the footage of him leaping over that 12-foot wall, demonstrating how well-trained his dog was, and that got the attention of Warner Brothers Pictures. Far from the powerhouse it would become one day, Warner Brothers was on the brink of financial ruin. And in walked this dog, alert, athletic, loyal. They're thinking, alright, well, show us what you got. What do we have to lose? Like, we might be going under anyways. So they put out a movie with Rinty as the lead, which almost single-handedly ended up saving their entire business.

• 21:41Cassandra Yahnian?

  Wow, what's the movie called?

• 21:43Danielle LaRock?

  I'm getting into it. So began Rinty's turn as America's canine movie star. Duncan wrote a screenplay of his own titled Clash of the Wolves, where Rinty played a heroic wolf dog. And the whole movie is free to watch on YouTube. We'll put it in the episode description if you care to watch. But maybe you should, because it takes place in what is now Joshua Tree National Park.

• 22:08Danielle LaRock?

  There it is.

• 22:09Cassandra Yahnian?

  Why was this slightly linked?

• 22:12Danielle LaRock?

  I don't know, I just feel like.

• 22:13Cassandra Yahnian?

  That totally counts.

• 22:14Danielle LaRock?

  Okay.

• 22:14Cassandra Yahnian?

  That's, Joshua Tree's like a huge park. It's not even like a.

• 22:18Danielle LaRock?

  I know.

• 22:18Cassandra Yahnian?

  Maybe park, like Gateway Arch or something.

• 22:21Danielle LaRock?

  Well, because I'm talking about dogs who are like working in parks and like really, I don't know, whatever. It does count.

• 22:27Cassandra Yahnian?

  He filmed a movie in the park while he was working.

• 22:30Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, that's true.

• 22:31Cassandra Yahnian?

  As his job.

• 22:32Danielle LaRock?

  True. In this movie, Rin Tin Stars as the leader of a wolf pack that is terrorizing local ranchers until he suddenly befriends a prospector. And all sorts of mischief and stuff ensues. And in some scenes, you'll see him balanced high in the branches of one of the Joshua trees. And another, his owners put this like fake mustache on him so he can blend in? Question mark, as they walk into town like he's an undercover spy. It's really cute, you know, it's like a ridiculous cute, very, you know, 1920s, 1930s era type of thing. But it is kind of considered the best film of his career.

• 23:13Danielle LaRock?

  Though he would film many, many more films, including one that took place in Yosemite called Land of the Silver Fox.

• 23:21Cassandra Yahnian?

  I've never heard of an, when were these movies filmed?

• 23:24Danielle LaRock?

  In the 20s and 30s, this is happening.

• 23:26Cassandra Yahnian?

  And I'm supposed to know about these?

• 23:28Danielle LaRock?

  Rin Tin Tin is just like the most famous dog of entertainment history. I just, I can't even.

• 23:35Cassandra Yahnian?

  Isn't that Lassie or Air Bud?

• 23:40Danielle LaRock?

  I don't know. Maybe we're at different times.

• 23:44Cassandra Yahnian?

  Like, what do you mean, I'm supposed to know the 1920s?

• 23:48Danielle LaRock?

  I don't know.

• 23:48Cassandra Yahnian?

  I just feel like this is the most.

• 23:51Danielle LaRock?

  I don't know, you guys are gonna have to say.

• 23:53Cassandra Yahnian?

  I would never go to, or remember that, that we would get at work sometimes? Uh, famous that would come into work?

• 24:00Danielle LaRock?

  Who?

• 24:01Cassandra Yahnian?

  Am I breaking HIPAA laws right now? Uh, there was a famous that we used to work with.

• 24:08Danielle LaRock?

  The dog or something, or one of the extras.

• 24:10Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah.

• 24:11Danielle LaRock?

  Something.

• 24:12Cassandra Yahnian?

  No, no, no, they were the main.

• 24:13Danielle LaRock?

  Oh, I didn't know this.

• 24:15Cassandra Yahnian?

  Series of movies, yeah.

• 24:17Danielle LaRock?

  Okay, she doesn't hold a candle to Rin Tin Tin. I just can't get over this, but anyway.

• 24:23Cassandra Yahnian?

  Except she's in our, she's alive during our lifetimes and famous, but okay. I've touched a famous before. Just so everyone knows.

• 24:34Danielle LaRock?

  Well, I'm gonna.

• 24:34Cassandra Yahnian?

  If we're talking about dog movie stars.

• 24:37Danielle LaRock?

  Okay, well, I really need you to pay attention to Rin Tin Tin, please, because he's really important.

• 24:43Cassandra Yahnian?

  Okay.

• 24:44Danielle LaRock?

  At this point in time, movies now shared theaters with talkies, film with sound, where you can actually hear the actors and hear the action on screen. So while movies that Rin Tin Tin was in, that he was working on, like Land of the Silver Fox, were well-received, the arrival of sound to the movies wasn't great for his career. In December of 1929, Lee Duncan was on set when a messenger handed him a letter. In it, a lawyer announced that Warner Brothers was terminating their contract with Rinty because, quote, "Making animal pictures was no longer in keeping with the studio's policy for talking pictures, because dogs don't talk." So they are like, hey, sorry, you're out of luck. No one's gonna watch a dog in a movie with sound.

• 25:29Danielle LaRock?

  So Duncan packed up his office, collected Rin Tin Tin, and went home. And he ended up acting at other studios, but his work slowed down. And eventually, he did two, until August 10, 1932, he passed away. Duncan had heard Rinty bark in an odd kind of way and went outside to investigate what was happening. He found him lying on the ground, and within a couple moments, he had passed. And while Rin Tin Tin was mourned in American newspapers and radio bulletins that interrupted the nightly news because it was breaking news because Rinty was so famous, Cassie, it seemed like he may fade from memory as time went on. Clash of the Wolves, the desert picture shot in Joshua Tree, ended up getting lost.

• 26:13Danielle LaRock?

  Like an estimated 80% of all silent films ever made, it seemed to disappear. No copies could be found anywhere, not even in the studio vault. But after decades had passed, old film prints turned up in South Africa, where Warner Brothers had apparently shipped them in the 1920s. So in 2004, the film was restored, and the Library of Congress added it to the National Film Registry as culturally significant. Their surviving print is preserved by the Library of Congress, and of course, now it is on YouTube for free. Rin Tin Tin is also involved in a bit of a scandal. In 2012, Susan Orlean published a book, one that has actually been, if you go on my Goodreads right now,

• 26:58Danielle LaRock?

  it has been on my want-to-read list for so long. It's his story.

• 27:04Cassandra Yahnian?

  His memoir.

• 27:06Danielle LaRock?

  His autobiography. It's titled Rin Tin Tin, The Life and the Legend. And in it, the author explains both what we know of his life and the different stories that have kind of grown into legends about him, um, just because he was so famous and rumors started about him, and it was a whole thing. But during her research for the book, she discovered that in the very first Oscar Awards, which was in 1929, the award for Best Actor should have truly been given to Rin Tin Tin. He was nominated, and it should have gone to him, but he was robbed by a guy named Emil Jennings, a German silent film actor.

• 27:47Danielle LaRock?

  And Susan has actually advocated for Rin Tin Tin nearing a century after his death, that in fact, the Academy should correct this injustice by giving him a posthumous Best Actor Prize, or at the very least, some sort of tribute to him during the Oscar ceremony, because he was by far the biggest four-legged movie star of all time. And not only does he deserve it because he was a far more popular actor or star than Jennings at the time, but because Jennings was a Nazi piece of shit. When silent films turned into talkies, it ended up being like, so he was successful as a silent film actor. Uh, you know, not as famous as Rin Tin Tin, but he was making a living that way.

• 28:31Danielle LaRock?

  But when sound started getting introduced into film, he had a really thick German accent, and it made it difficult for a lot of English-speaking, English-speaking communities to, you know, understand him. So he was essentially like out of work. And so he ended up going back to Germany, and he started to make propaganda films for the Third Reich and his close friend, Joseph Goebbels. And for all you Inglourious Basterds fans, are you? Have you seen Inglourious Basterds?

• 29:03Cassandra Yahnian?

  I have seen Inglourious Basterds.

• 29:04Danielle LaRock?

  Okay, so Jennings, this Emil Jennings guy that stole the Oscar from Rin Tin Tin, kind of makes a very small appearance in the film. You know, when they're in the movie theater and they, spoiler alert, set it on fire and everyone, all the Nazis die? He's in it, he's there with Hitler and like a bunch of those other guys. He's actually there very briefly, or the, you know, he's depicted.

• 29:28Cassandra Yahnian?

  Actor who plays him.

• 29:29Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah.

• 29:29Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah.

• 29:30Danielle LaRock?

  So anyway, um, but back to Rinty. You can watch the loyal, unlikely star in silent movies or read about him in Susan's book. But we should all take a moment to remember Rin Tin Tin, the dog who saved Warner Brothers. And I'm buying and shipping you the, his autobiography, because I can't believe you.

• 29:51Cassandra Yahnian?

  Can't believe I've never heard of him. Yeah, he's just not who I first come to think of. I was also thinking of like Old Yeller, Broke All Our Hearts.

• 30:00Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, sad. Oh, uh, Where the Red Fern Grows?

• 30:05Cassandra Yahnian?

  Oh.

• 30:05Danielle LaRock?

  I cannot believe they made us read that in elementary school.

• 30:09Cassandra Yahnian?

  I know.

• 30:10Danielle LaRock?

  Do they still do, I feel like they've not done that for a while.

• 30:14Cassandra Yahnian?

  It's probably a banned book now or something.

• 30:17Danielle LaRock?

  Stupid reason, it's a great story. It's just was very sad for a young child to read, but anyway.

• 30:24Cassandra Yahnian?

  I read a lot of sad books as a child.

• 30:28Danielle LaRock?

  You were reading about World War II when you were like 12, so that.

• 30:32Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, I, I remember fourth grade, we read Night by Eli Wiesel. And after that, I was like hooked on learning about World War II. That was fourth grade, uh, we read it, so.

• 30:44Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah.

• 30:44Cassandra Yahnian?

  Started young.

• 30:49Danielle LaRock?

  When I first got my banking cards as a young adult, I wish more than anything I could customize them. Maybe plaster my favorite things on them, like my dog's faces or the Titanic. And even though I can't put the Titanic on my Cash App card, they do something arguably better. Cash App does more than you think when it comes to having your back and making sure your money stays your money. Cash App just released a new status program for the way people actually spend called Cash App Green. Now, when you spend at least $500 a month with the Cash App card, you earn green status, which unlocks benefits like up to $200 of free overdraft coverage. If you overdraft unexpectedly, there are no hidden fees. You also unlock higher borrow limits and custom personalized cash back offers every Friday at places you love to shop.

• 31:33Danielle LaRock?

  Turn everyday spending into status with Cash App Green. Download Cash App today or visit cash.app to learn more about this and other financial benefits. New Cash App customers can earn $10 if they use Cash App 10 in their profile at signup and send $5 to a friend within 14 days. Terms apply. Download Cash App today and make your money work for you. Visit our link in bio. I used to think my home was safe with a video doorbell camera, but then, when I thought about it more, those are great for monitoring and recording, but that's kind of where it ends. They can watch a break-in, but not stop one. With SimpliSafe, their cameras detect threats like wandering intruders and alert a live US-based agent who will intervene. Of course, I love my home and the things in it, but what really matters is my boys,

• 32:18Danielle LaRock?

  and I want to make sure that they are always safe. It's so important to me that when I'm not home and they are, that if something was to go awry, they would have backup if I couldn't be there. I used to get sick to my stomach thinking about something happening to them when I was away, but SimpliSafe genuinely gives me such peace of mind. Unlike traditional security systems that alert you after a break-in is already underway, SimpliSafe is built to stop it before it starts by utilizing cameras to watch for potential threats and alert those security specialists who will intervene in under 30 seconds, speaking through the camera to stop an intruder mid-stride while also calling 911. Join the more than 6 million people who entrust SimpliSafe with their home security. Right now, save 60% off with professional monitoring when you visit simplisafe.com/NPAD.

• 33:03Danielle LaRock?

  That's simplisafe.com/NPAD. And when you order, please write National Park After Dark in the checkout survey. It lets them know that we sent you, and it really helps support the show. SimpliSafe, ahead of crime in real time.

• 33:19Danielle LaRock?

  Well, our next story takes us to the Smoky Mountains in a time before mini golf and Titanic museums. A purer time, a simpler time.

• 33:30Cassandra Yahnian?

  The good old days.

• 33:31Danielle LaRock?

  In 1925, Knoxville, Tennessee, there was a young man named Paul Abrams, and he was driving a Model T down the road. And sitting in the passenger seat beside him was a large, black German shepherd. Suddenly, on the sidewalk outside, policemen run by them, shouting at and chasing a guy who's sprinting away from them. And before Paul can really process what was happening, the dog next to him leapt out of the open car window and started running after them. It was technically Paul's dog, but he had only owned him for about 10 minutes, and Paul was having a real, "Oh shit" moment. "What just happened? And where is this dog going? And can I get him back?"

• 34:13Danielle LaRock?

  Paul watched with fear as the dog caught up to the running men. It ran out ahead of the man fleeing the police, got in his way, and growled until he stopped, which gave the police enough time to make an arrest. It turns out, Paul had just acquired a very, very smart dog. Paul Adams was born in 1901, the son of a minister, an Eagle Scout, and co-founder of the Smoky Mountains Hiking Club. And at the time, the campaign to make Smoky Mountains into a national park was gathering steam. One of the strategies to garner support for this new national park in the Great Smoky Mountains was to build infrastructure within the mountains, including a cabin on top of Mount LaConte.

• 34:55Danielle LaRock?

  6,500 feet tall, the third highest peak in the range, and someone needed to go live up there, someone to greet visitors, newfound visitors that were starting to make their way up there more and more often, cut and maintain trails, and look out for fires. And Paul Adams wanted the job. He had first hiked Mount LaConte when he was 17, but the posting was for one employee. So Adams knew that if he did get the job, he would be up there by himself, kind of doing a solo job for the most part. And his mom didn't like the idea of her son being up there all by himself. So she's like, "You should get a dog. You need some company, you know?

• 35:35Cassandra Yahnian?

  Fair.

• 35:35Danielle LaRock?

  You need to get a dog." So he went out looking for one, and pretty soon, he found one that he really liked, but he was far too expensive. The dog's registered name was Cumberland Jack II of Edelweiss.

• 35:48Cassandra Yahnian?

  I love that.

• 35:48Danielle LaRock?

  And as a pup...

• 35:49Cassandra Yahnian?

  I love long names for dogs.

• 35:51Danielle LaRock?

  Very fancy, very formal. It gives like, usually, racehorses have very long names like that.

• 35:59Cassandra Yahnian?

  Or Chihuahuas.

• 36:00Danielle LaRock?

  Or Chihuahuas. We gotta bulk up Gator's name.

• 36:05Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, yeah. Sir Gator Lancelot Jr. III.

• 36:12Danielle LaRock?

  Great. I'll remember that. As a puppy, Jack was bought by a detective on the Knoxville Police Force and sent to Police Dog School for training. But while he was being shipped back to his owner after he had finished the program, the detective was killed in a gunfight. The detective's widow put Jack up for sale at $500, and there were no takers. And Paul pled with the dog's trainer for a bargain, hoping to cut the asking price in half and promising to pay installments with each paycheck he made up on Mount LaConte. The widow only agreed to this deal after asking around town about Paul, specifically asking if he was the kind of man who whipped a dog.

• 36:54Danielle LaRock?

  Like, she was really protective over him and wanted him to go to a really good home. And he had people vouch for him. He was a good guy, so a deal was made. Paul ended up renaming Cumberland Jack II of Edelweiss, opting for a name that honored the mountains that they began to look over, and he named him Smokey Jack.

• 37:15Cassandra Yahnian?

  That's cute. So kept part of his name. Smokey Jack.

• 37:20Danielle LaRock?

  Smokey Jack did more than keep Paul company. He was more of a coworker than a babysitter. Paul's boss recalled that during World War I, the Army trained dogs to carry loads in specifically designed harnesses. So Paul went to an Army surplus store, bought some gear, and got it rigged to fit Smokey. They were actually saddlebags, old, like, horse saddlebags that he ended up fashioning to fit Smokey Jack. And then he taught Smokey Jack a very particular route, from the top of Mount LaConte, down a trail to Charlie Ogles General Store, which was in Gatlinburg, where he could gather supplies necessary to build the very first camp on top of the mountain.

• 38:00Danielle LaRock?

  The hike itself takes about four hours, and Smokey Jack could make it both ways all by himself. So it was saving Paul a ton of time and effort. So he would tuck money and a shopping list into Smokey's saddlebags and send him off on the trail. And then, once he was at the bottom, he dutifully went to Charlie Ogles Store. The shopkeeper would read the note, balance the pouches with whatever the list contained, strap him back up, pat the dog on the head, and point him right back up the mountain with the words, "Go to Paul." And much like the sled dogs leaping at their harness, Smokey Jack knew the pockets meant work. On one trip, a hiker who had met and, you know, petted Jack before,

• 38:43Danielle LaRock?

  and plenty of times, he stepped onto the trail, like, to say hello. He's like, "Oh, hi. What are you doing here?" You know? And Jack stopped and growled, because, as Paul later explained, the man had never interacted with him with the saddlebags on, and the dog kind of just knew when he was working, and he had something to protect. So he was kind of a different dog when he was in work mode. One day, on a hike up the mountain, Paul was stopped by a man in a false mustache and a wig. The bandit had stepped out from behind a tree and robbed Paul at gunpoint. As he left, he made Paul face uphill for five minutes as he backed away slowly and disappeared into the forest. Weeks later, while Smokey was off chasing a rabbit, it happened to him again.

• 39:29Danielle LaRock?

  So after those two incidents, Paul started sending cash down in the dog's saddle pockets rather than carry it on his person, guessing that nobody would even think to look in the dog's saddlebags for money and/or maybe be a little bit more hesitant of approaching him.

• 39:44Cassandra Yahnian?

  Scared of a dog.

• 39:45Danielle LaRock?

  Because he's this, and he was big. He was over 100 pounds. He was pretty...

• 39:50Danielle LaRock?

  He wasn't aggressive, but he does describe in his book that, you know, people didn't mess with Smokey Jack. They kind of respected his face. One day, Paul left Smokey chained outside the General Store while he went in, and then he started hearing some commotion, the chain rattling around, a bark, and then a snarl. So he ran out, trying to see what was going on, and he found Smokey Jack with his front feet up on a man's shoulders, and he was literally holding him up against the wall. And Paul had, you know, interacted with his robber before, even though he was wearing some half-assed disguise, and it was kind of a quick, you know, interaction.

• 40:31Danielle LaRock?

  But he had also taken some paper tracings of these very distinct boot prints left behind of different robbers, you know, lurking around his cabin and the ones that had interacted with him. And it ended up being this perfect match to the boot prints that, to the man that Smokey had pinned up against this wall. So, long story short, Smokey arrested this guy.

• 40:54Cassandra Yahnian?

  He knew. Yeah. He's like, "This is your attacker. This is your assailant robber."

• 40:59Danielle LaRock?

  This is your man.

• 41:00Cassandra Yahnian?

  "I got him. I got him, Dad."

• 41:02Danielle LaRock?

  Another time, in the middle of the winter, Adam slipped on ice and shattered his flashlight. A mile from his shelter, in the dark, in sub-freezing temperatures, he took off his belt, buckled it to Smokey's collar, and let the dog lead him back up the last mile of the trail. And soon, Smokey soon became a bit of a celebrity. A photographer with the New York Times was guided up the mountain by both Paul and Smokey Jack, and he ended up publishing pictures of both of them in an article about the push to establish this area as a new national park. But after just a year, Paul was reassigned off the mountain. Worried life in town wouldn't suit Smokey Jack, Paul left him at the Mount LaConte camp. Because I want to make this very clear,

• 41:47Danielle LaRock?

  the cabin that is up at Mount LaConte right now, the historic cabin, that was built after Paul and Smokey were there, because when they were there, it was just the very, very beginnings, like canvas tent and just clearing the area for that historic cabin later on.

• 42:05Danielle LaRock?

  But that transition didn't go as smoothly as Paul was thinking it would. At first, Jack would just slip away from his route and go find Paul in town. He's like, I don't know why you left me up here. But eventually it started getting worse. Paul had a strict limit for Jack's pack. No more than 30 pounds were to be added into it because he was, even though he wasn't on the mountain, he kind of instructed the others that were taking over of what he could do with these roots, these, you know, pack roots essentially. But they weren't really paying attention to the parameters he put in place. And they kept overloading his bags and he started getting really wobbly and he would fall over. And he ended up starting to hurt himself.

• 42:50Cassandra Yahnian?

  Oh, no.

• 42:52Danielle LaRock?

  And once Paul learned of that, he started beating himself up about it. You know, he felt really bad. He felt like he just kind of abandoned him there and left him in harm's way. So as the years went on, Paul got new jobs in the area and Jack kept sneaking out to find him. He took work far away for a bit, but when he came back, they ended up being inseparable. Finally, he's like, okay, this is definitely my dog through and through. I'm going to keep him, no more of him just like trying to live away from me.

• 43:25Cassandra Yahnian?

  But it took years to get to that point?

• 43:27Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, it took a couple of years.

• 43:28Cassandra Yahnian?

  Wow.

• 43:29Danielle LaRock?

  But eventually, like I said, they were inseparable. Paul eventually got married and settled down in Cumberland County, Tennessee, and Smokey Jack went with him. Jack grew older. He had lost his hearing and one of his own pups began to act as his eyes and ears, a dog named Nicodemus, or Nick for short. Smokey Jack was just over 14 years old, but still very independent, walking with Nick from the house and jumping across the stream to greet Paul whenever he got home. One evening, when Paul drove in, only Nick came bounding up the hill. Paul found Smokey Jack on the far side of the stream with dried mud on his hind feet.

• 44:10Danielle LaRock?

  He had jumped it like he always had, but died in the same instant mid-stride. And here's how Paul wrote it. "He was coming to meet us. What a natural way to be overtaken by death." They buried him on the property. A local who loved the dog carved him a headstone. And for years, whenever Paul or his wife passed by the grave, they stopped to set a pebble or rock on it. In time, the pile grew there and Paul called it a landmark, a reminder of his very best friend. Adams himself lived until 1985 and put their story down in writing. For more details, you can read his memoir. It's titled, "Smokey Jack: The Adventures of a Dog and His Master on Mount Lacon."

• 44:55Danielle LaRock?

  And it's very short and sweet. I bought it actually in the visitor center of the Smoky Mountains. So Great Smoky Mountains National Park. So if you want to ever read it, they did a lot up on the mountain and their story is very, very sweet. And up next is a dog that made a very, very long journey. For most of the 20th century, historians thought that this dog's name was Scannan, but they were wrong. A sergeant's journal with the dog's name was published back in 1916, but the handwriting was wonky, leading to it being misread. And the typo stuck.

• 45:33Danielle LaRock?

  60 years later, in 1976, it was cast into a bronze statue honoring Meriwether Lewis and his dog. When historian Donald Jackson was researching the Lewis and Clark Expedition, he was mapping the names Lewis and Clark gave Montana streams and was really hung up on one in particular. And that was Seaman's Creek off the Blackfoot River in Montana. And he was perplexed because for all of these other names, the team had named features of whatever they were, rivers, creeks, canyons, whatever it was. They were naming them for members of their expedition, but no man named Seaman was on the team.

• 46:18Danielle LaRock?

  Jackson's first guess was that it was a garbled Scannan's Creek, named after the dog. But when he went through Lewis's journals to confirm, he found the opposite. The creek's name wasn't misspelled, the dog's was. The dog's name was in fact Seaman.

• 46:34Cassandra Yahnian?

  S-E-A or S-E-M?

• 46:36Danielle LaRock?

  S-E-A-M-A-N, Seaman. Like somebody who works on a boat.

• 46:43Cassandra Yahnian?

  On the sea.

• 46:43Danielle LaRock?

  On the sea.

• 46:45Cassandra Yahnian?

  Just wanted to clarify.

• 46:47Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, I understand. I want you to be clear on that.

• 46:51Cassandra Yahnian?

  People have weird names and nowadays people are spelling things wild for names.

• 46:56Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, trying to be.

• 46:57Cassandra Yahnian?

  They're making up their own spellings.

• 46:58Danielle LaRock?

  Unique and fresh.

• 46:59Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah. So I just wanted to see if these dog owners were trying to be unique and fresh or if they were ocean people, boat people.

• 47:08Danielle LaRock?

  Do you know who we're talking about right now?

• 47:10Cassandra Yahnian?

  Nope.

• 47:10Danielle LaRock?

  What? Meriwether Lewis, the Lewis and Clark Expedition?

• 47:15Cassandra Yahnian?

  I know him, I don't know the dog.

• 47:18Danielle LaRock?

  Okay. Yeah, right. Yes, yes, yes. I think the name will click once we get into who this dog was and his breed in particular. Okay. Meriwether Lewis took detailed notes about their journey in his journal, which is how we know that he bought Seaman in Pittsburgh the summer of 1803. While he waited for the boats for the expedition to be finished, he paid half a month's salary for a Newfoundland, a big dog with black fur and a lot of energy. And Lewis's very first note about him calls him "very active, strong and docile", AKA a very, very good boy.

• 47:57Cassandra Yahnian?

  Active and docile is a fun combo.

• 48:01Danielle LaRock?

  And strong.

• 48:02Cassandra Yahnian?

  And strong.

• 48:03Danielle LaRock?

  In a later quote, Lewis writes, "He was a dog which I prized much for his docility and qualifications generally for my journey." Which I think is a pretty old timey way of just saying he was a good dog and he liked him. "And the dog was the only animal to make the entire trip, St. Louis to the Pacific and back. Every single mile, the men walked, Seaman walked, or swam right alongside them." And like all of the other dogs we're talking about in this episode, he worked. On the Ohio River, before the expedition officially began, Seaman swam after squirrels to bring them back for Lewis's dinner. He dragged home wounded deer and caught geese so often that Lewis stopped bothering to write about it

• 48:48Danielle LaRock?

  in his journal because he was chronicling everything. He's like, all right, this dog is just doing this so much, it's going to get repetitive. He caught a pronghorn on land and drowned a swimming one in the Missouri River. Newfoundland's are water dogs built for swimming. They sport webbed feet, oily coats, and have tremendous strength. History is full of stories of Newfoundland's saving people in the water. So hence the name Seaman, I think is like, I'm connecting the dots.

• 49:17Cassandra Yahnian?

  So water dog.

• 49:18Danielle LaRock?

  Yep. A man of the water, a man of the sea. And.

• 49:23Cassandra Yahnian?

  It's a shivers.

• 49:23Danielle LaRock?

  This is worth a side tangent, and I'm just putting it in here right now because.

• 49:29Cassandra Yahnian?

  Okay.

• 49:30Danielle LaRock?

  It has to do with my most favorite obsession of all time.

• 49:34Cassandra Yahnian?

  The Titanic?

• 49:35Danielle LaRock?

  The Titanic. Yes.

• 49:39Danielle LaRock?

  And a Newfoundland, not Seaman, but a Newfoundland.

• 49:44Cassandra Yahnian?

  Okay.

• 49:44Danielle LaRock?

  The story goes, in April of 1912, days after the Titanic sank, the New York Herald ran a story about a Newfoundland named Rigel, a big black dog said to belong to the ship's first officer, William Murdock. When the rescue ship, the Carpathia, came to find survivors, they passed a lifeboat in the dead of night. The survivors were too cold and weak to call out and the ship started to pass them. But the dog swam out ahead of the Carpathia, barking until the captain heard and cut the engines. It's a wonderful story, even though it probably, most likely, never happened. No survivors were called a dog matching this story.

• 50:26Danielle LaRock?

  He never appeared in ship manifests and nobody on the Carpathia ever backed it up. But it was believable because it was exactly the kind of thing a Newfoundland would do. In reality, 12 dogs were officially documented aboard the Titanic, but only three survived, two Pekinese and a Pomeranian.

• 50:46Cassandra Yahnian?

  Oh, it's because those owners just.

• 50:48Danielle LaRock?

  Bundled them right up. First class passengers are like, my, my dog is coming in my furs right now.

• 50:55Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah. It's like, I'm going to zip them up in my, button them up in my jacket and you won't even notice they're here.

• 51:01Danielle LaRock?

  And another book shout out, another kind of side tangent, but I have been waiting for this. You know, that thing, it's like, ooh, I've been waiting for this. I have been waiting for this for so long. And it has to do with Caitlin Doughty, the mortician that has authored three books that I've talked about on this show before. She is releasing her newest book. She just announced it. It is coming out in April of 2027 and it is titled, "Dead in the Water: The Lost Passengers of the Titanic."

• 51:32Cassandra Yahnian?

  Oh.

• 51:33Danielle LaRock?

  So maybe she'll address this dog rumor because it had to do kind of with like the survivor, the deceased and the survivors floating in the ocean. And, and she's focusing her book on what happened after the sinking, what happened to the victims, how they processed the bodies and. All of that stuff. So

• 51:54Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah.

• 51:54Danielle LaRock?

  Anywho, I guess we'll find out in April. I'll tell you all about it, I'm sure. But back to our new fee, Seaman. He had lots of duties on the expedition, but the most important was as a watchdog. One night on the Great Plains, a bison came running into camp, it crashed through a canoe and was barreling straight towards the sleeping men until Seaman stood up in its way. Barking and running, he managed to steer this bison away, which ended up missing the men's heads by just a foot and a half. Like they, he wrote, he felt like the breeze passed through them as this bison.

• 52:32Cassandra Yahnian?

  So scary.

• 52:33Danielle LaRock?

  So scary. And he did write it, play in his day in his journal. He said, my dog saved us. You know, end of story. And later, when they were camped in grizzly country, Seaman barely slept. And Lewis wrote of this, "My dog seems to be in a constant state of alarm with these bears and keeps barking all night." With a gentleness Lewis rarely showed for his fellow men, he wrote about the struggles Seaman faced too. Barbed seeds from high plains grasses worked their way into his dog's fur. And Lewis said, "My poor dog suffers with them excessively. He's constantly biting and scratching himself as if in pain." And at one point, somebody even tried to steal Seaman. Theft.

• 53:15Cassandra Yahnian?

  Cause he's such a good boy.

• 53:17Danielle LaRock?

  At every stage of the Lewis and Clark expedition, the group met indigenous people, over 70 different tribes, who often provided knowledge and supplies that the explorers needed to survive. With many groups, like the Shoshone, they traded goods and shared camps. During that stay, Lewis wrote down that their Shoshone hosts were fascinated by a few things. White men with beards, York, which was the black man in their party, their weapons, their canoes, and the intelligence of their dog. But on April 11th, 1806, as the expedition worked its way back up the Columbia River, three men slipped into camp that evening. Men who had taken an interest in the dog and led him away from camp towards

• 54:01Danielle LaRock?

  their own village. A native interpreter got word to Lewis and Lewis did not hesitate. He sent three men after the dog with an order he put in writing, quote, "With orders if they made the least resistance or difficulty in surrendering the dog to fire on them." The legacy of Lewis and Clark and Native lands is a very complicated one. Lots has been written about their journey and its impact. But Lewis's reaction here about what to do if they, you know, gave them any sort of trouble when they're trying to get his dog back, it's very telling. When canoes or supplies, or any of their things along

• 54:41Danielle LaRock?

  the expedition were stolen by any indigenous peoples, Lewis was notorious for sending warnings. And he stressed amongst the people who were sent out to go and try and collect things that were stolen to get them back. He stressed the importance of keeping a peaceful relationship with different indigenous groups, even if it meant swallowing your pride, or having to let things go, or whatever it may be. But when Seaman was taken.

• 55:08Cassandra Yahnian?

  What? The wild animal I would become if someone tried to steal Ember from me. Oh my, or Tucker or something. If I

• 55:17Danielle LaRock?

  The first John Wick, essentially.

• 55:20Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah.

• 55:20Danielle LaRock?

  He's like, you don't mess with my dog. I'll kill everyone.

• 55:22Cassandra Yahnian?

  Like as he should, as, as you should.

• 55:25Danielle LaRock?

  Well.

• 55:26Cassandra Yahnian?

  You don't steal someone's dog. That's so fucked up.

• 55:29Danielle LaRock?

  Well, long story short, Seaman was returned. The men somehow came to an agreement.

• 55:35Cassandra Yahnian?

  Survived.

• 55:36Danielle LaRock?

  He came back. He trotted into camp like nothing ever happened. He's like, oh, I almost went with them for a second. They seemed nice.

• 55:41Cassandra Yahnian?

  Like, oh, I met some nice friends today.

• 55:44Danielle LaRock?

  But he came back and the expedition went on.

• 55:49Cassandra Yahnian?

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• 56:34Cassandra Yahnian?

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• 57:52Danielle LaRock?

  In September of 1806, the expedition returned to St. Louis to triumphant cannon fire and crowds of applause, and Seaman was with them. The only member who had gone the entire distance on four legs came home with his people. But from there, the record stops, at least for Seaman. Nobody wrote down when Seaman died, or where, or how. The dog who crossed the continent twice and has a creek name for him in Montana just vanishes from historical record. A man in 1814 wrote that he had found Seaman's collar in a Virginia museum, and it was inscribed, "The greatest traveler of my species. My

• 58:35Danielle LaRock?

  name is Seaman, the dog of Captain Meriwether Lewis." And this man who found the collar, he claimed that after Lewis died, which actually happened really soon thereafter, after the expedition, which I did not know this, I kind of went down, I didn't write it in here, but personally, I went down kind of a side rabbit hole. He died three years after the expedition from a gunshot wound to the head along the Natchez Trace, which is part of the National Park Service. And there is kind of, it could be an episode on its own, I'm not sure yet, but there is question whether he died by suicide or if it was a murder.

• 59:16Danielle LaRock?

  But anyhow, that's neither here nor there for this. But what I'm trying to say is, the story goes that when that happened, Seaman refused to leave him at his grave. He refused to eat, drink, go with anyone else, and essentially just died there, standing vigil by Meriwether Lewis.

• 59:35Cassandra Yahnian?

  That's so sad.

• 59:36Danielle LaRock?

  And that collar that this man allegedly found in the 1800s has never been located. The museum that it was found in is long gone, and the story was never confirmed. But we do know that this dog lived quite the incredible life. He's memorialized in several different statues along the Lewis and Clark National Historical Trail in places including Washington, Oregon, and Missouri. So know that if you stop anywhere along the Lewis and Clark National Historical Trail, you're following in his paw prints.

• 1:00:10Cassandra Yahnian?

  That's really cute. If I die, bury me with Ember, even if she's still alive. My girlie.

• 1:00:16Danielle LaRock?

  Okay. What if? That's fine.

• 1:00:19Cassandra Yahnian?

  I'm just kidding. I don't want to be buried.

• 1:00:21Danielle LaRock?

  Oh, right. We still don't know.

• 1:00:22Cassandra Yahnian?

  Neither does she, especially alive.

• 1:00:25Danielle LaRock?

  I wouldn't bury her. What? I wouldn't do that.

• 1:00:31Danielle LaRock?

  Okay, great. We'll circle back on what you need done to your body after. It's important that people know. Your loved one knows and

• 1:00:40Cassandra Yahnian?

  We've been talking about it for

• 1:00:41Danielle LaRock?

  As your loved one, I

• 1:00:42Cassandra Yahnian?

  It's not going well.

• 1:00:43Danielle LaRock?

  Don't know.

• 1:00:44Cassandra Yahnian?

  That's me either. It'll be a surprise to us all.

• 1:00:48Danielle LaRock?

  It will be, yes. And now we've come upon our last and most recent story, which took place in Yosemite National Park. On Monday, August 1st, 1994, 48-year-old Jerry Dragoo was car camping near a trailhead just north of Yosemite. The high school superintendent had a plan: hike three mountain passes in two days and rendezvous with his cousin at Bigelow Lake. That Saturday, Jerry's wife called the cousin to check in and learned that Jerry had never arrived. A search started the next day. By Wednesday, the 10th, three days of helicopters and ground teams had come up with nothing. But the search team had a theory. The previous year, Jerry's 18-year-old son had flipped his car and

• 1:01:33Danielle LaRock?

  was killed in the accident. The family was really afraid that Jerry had gone into the mountains he and his son both loved in order to end his grief. Standard protocol at that time in the 90s was three days of intensive searching, and then the effort was scaled back essentially to a recovery mission. And Jerry's search was past that mark. But Yosemite Search and Rescue wasn't ready to make the call. They had one last thing up their sleeves. A helicopter carried two dog handlers, Mike Bigelow and Terry Buttram, and a two-year-old Australian Shepherd named Ranger into the wilderness and dropped them off. The group

• 1:02:13Danielle LaRock?

  scoured an area at 9,400 feet of elevation near Forsyth Peak, where Jerry was thought to have gone. From the ground, they kicked their feet to climb a steep snow field and scaled the mountains for a view. Ranger was working 60 yards ahead of his handlers when his nose came up and his head snapped down slope. He cocked his head, deep in thought, stood up on his hind legs, and bit at the air. Then, he bolted down the snow field, slipping in the slush before disappearing behind a jumble of boulders. Neither handler let himself hope. If Ranger had found someone, he would have come back out to get them. After a tense moment of waiting, Ranger came back out of the boulders, caught up

• 1:02:58Danielle LaRock?

  to his handlers, and sat down at their feet. Amidst the lichen-covered rocks, still wet from the morning's rain, was Jerry. Wearing nothing but a light rain jacket, he was hours from death, but miraculously was still clinging to life. Turns out, he hadn't gone up there to die. He had climbed a ridge to build a memorial to his son, but when he was descending, he'd slipped on a loose rock, fell 25 feet headfirst, and shattered his ankle, six ribs, and a lung, and banged up his forehead pretty good. Too much was broken for him to get back to his camp, so he survived for six days off of lake water, rationed trail mix,

• 1:03:40Danielle LaRock?

  and the very little warmth that was retained by the rocks around him. He heard the helicopters passing overhead, hoping they might see him, but it was Ranger that finally found him. And he was greeted by a cold spray of water as the eager dog shook off the rain from his fur. And that rescue changed how Yosemite did business. When the park relied on dogs in the past, they called the California Rescue Dog Association, the largest search dog group in the country. In turn, they would send whatever dog team was nearest, regardless of whether that team had any mountaineering experience. It's like, this is who we have. They're trained in search and rescue. Maybe not in the environment you're hoping for,

• 1:04:22Danielle LaRock?

  but it's a start. More often than not, it went poorly. The park's search and rescue manager at the time, Evan Jones, said in a few cases, the dogs actually slowed down the search effort, and sometimes they even had to be rescued themselves. With Ranger's success and a few more failed searches, Yosemite built its own pup patrol unit: wilderness-qualified handlers, dogs that could ride a helicopter and rappel onto knife-edge ridges, and they nicknamed the team "YoDogs." And Ranger was the very first member. But unfortunately, only held that title for two months. The night before Thanksgiving, 1998, Mike Bigelow

• 1:05:04Danielle LaRock?

  and Terry Buttram were called out for a missing hunter and brought Ranger with them. On the scene, the Australian Shepherd cut across the landscape, running confidently in one direction, which was a very good sign, and disappeared around a bend before Mike saw a flash. Ranger had found the missing hunter, but high winds had brought down a power line. The hunter had tripped on the line and had been electrocuted, and his body was still in contact with the line when Ranger put his paw on him. The handlers pulled Ranger's body away from the power line. Mike drove 95 miles an hour towards the nearest veterinarian while Terry gave Ranger CPR in the back. Years later, Mike still can't get through

• 1:05:48Danielle LaRock?

  the story without choking up. They knew that he was gone, and Ranger had died in the line of duty. It's never fair to lose a dog, or to lose someone too soon, and it feels especially cruel when that person, or that dog, dies trying to help someone. For Mike and Terry, Ranger's handlers, a part of them always wondered if they could have saved Ranger, if they had kept him closer, or somehow anticipated the downed power line. Maybe if they did that, things would have been okay. But while Ranger's loss was tragic, his example inspired the YoDogs program, a program that to this day has saved lives

• 1:06:28Danielle LaRock?

  ever since its founding. And this next bit, I just pulled right from their website because it just encapsulates so perfectly what this program does, and I think it's so incredible. The YoDog group is made up of state-certified dog handlers that respond to the park and assist with search and rescue operations with their canine partners. The group of experienced canine search dog handlers have strong backcountry search skills, they have knowledge of the park, and are able to operate in the park's remote environment with minimal support. Backcountry canine dog search teams can typically search large areas and are able to operate in most weather conditions. And the use of backcountry canine search teams in conjunctions with other types of resources that are occurring, like air and

• 1:07:13Danielle LaRock?

  other ground teams, it allows the Yosar team to maximize the chances of finding lost and missing people as quickly and as efficiently as possible. And the dogs that make up the YoDogs are of many different breeds, but they all share some common traits. Mostly, they like people, and they really like to find them. They're trained to ignore wildlife and are comfortable working around visitors. The dog teams are sometimes transported by helicopter into remote areas throughout the park and are used to being rappelled or belayed with their handlers into or out of otherwise inaccessible areas. And there's a bunch of different criteria that both the dogs and the handlers have to meet, both

• 1:07:58Danielle LaRock?

  with fitness requirements, medical training, their resume of different backcountry experience and stuff. And to make the team is pretty difficult stuff. So the certification typically takes about three years of training with five to 10 hours a week to be able to pass this test to get on the YoDogs team. And this last bit, I think, is really important because we've never actually talked about this, but it makes a lot of sense. Yosemite Search and Rescue has dog teams trained in certain disciplines: trailing, area search, and human remains detection. And there is

• 1:08:37Danielle LaRock?

  a difference in what those terms actually mean and what that training is. So I think human remains detection is pretty self-explanatory. And this case comes to top of mind, just because it's one of those cases that I just want the answers to so bad. But Treni Gibson, for example, they brought in dog teams. And I think we say that term really broadly when we're talking about search and rescue and things. We're like, oh yeah, and then dog teams were brought in, and whatever. But in her case in particular, and a lot of times with missing persons, trailing dogs will be brought in because they are trained specifically to follow a person's scent from the point where he or she was last seen.

• 1:09:20Danielle LaRock?

  But area search dogs, instead of following a specific scent trail for a specific person, like trailing dogs do, they are actually assigned to a specific defined area with their handlers, and their job is to find every person and every scent in that area.

• 1:09:37Cassandra Yahnian?

  How interesting.

• 1:09:38Danielle LaRock?

  Right? Since the 1990s, YoDogs has recovered two bodies and have saved nearly a dozen lives. The dogs are trained to track scents on land and work in the water, and even when they don't find someone during a search, they clear huge swaths of the park so that other people, other teams, can come in and be like, okay, that's checked off. Let's pivot and focus our searches elsewhere. All in all, dogs continue to work across the park service. And back to the very beginning in Denali, kind of to just like circle back and close this loop, on the 30th of March of 2026,

• 1:10:18Danielle LaRock?

  so just a few months ago, five puppies were born in Denali National Park. And each sled dog litter at Denali gets a theme, kind of like at rescues. You know, it's like, your vegetables. Everyone gets a vegetable name, or whatever, you know?

• 1:10:35Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah.

• 1:10:36Danielle LaRock?

  And this year, since the country turned 250, the theme was national parks. So the

• 1:10:42Cassandra Yahnian?

  Oh, fun.

• 1:10:43Danielle LaRock?

  The puppies were named Sequoia, Mammoth, Rainier, Teton, and Mesa. And a sixth, Acadia, came from a partner kennel to come in and join them.

• 1:10:53Cassandra Yahnian?

  That's really cute.

• 1:10:54Danielle LaRock?

  These puppies don't know about Smokey Jack on Mount Lacon, who could carry supplies all by himself and caught the man who robbed his owner. They don't know about Seaman, the Newfoundland who herded a charging bison and helped chart the American West. They don't know about Rin Tin Tin, the movie star, Ranger, the rescue dog, or the seven dogs who started the sled dog program at Denali. But they do know there are people who feed them kibble and balls of poultry fat. They can see and smell and taste a world outside that they yearn to be a part of. And given the chance, we know they'll help someone someday. Not because we told them to, but because that's just who they are. And this is a perfect

• 1:11:38Danielle LaRock?

  episode to end it by revisiting some of the information about bringing your own pets into our national parks, because as much as we want to experience every single place the world has to offer with our animals, there are certain rules and regulations that we have to follow and abide by if you're visiting a park with your dog. So we just wanted to go over them really quick and give a couple of resources, because we have in our presence, our very own bark ranger.

• 1:12:09Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah. Here she is. She's sleeping on the job.

• 1:12:14Danielle LaRock?

  But here she is.

• 1:12:15Cassandra Yahnian?

  Hi, Amber. She's a bark ranger. She's been a been, she's been a bark ranger since she was 16 weeks old.

• 1:12:22Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah. And we have photo proof of it.

• 1:12:25Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yep.

• 1:12:25Danielle LaRock?

  And she was so small.

• 1:12:26Cassandra Yahnian?

  She's a bark ranger. She's not even just a bark ranger, but she's a bark ranger in multiple parks.

• 1:12:31Danielle LaRock?

  Okay. Well, she got her first certification in Cape Cod National Seashore.

• 1:12:38Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, Cape Cod National Seashore, but she's also a bark ranger in New River Gorge National Park.

• 1:12:43Danielle LaRock?

  Awesome. I love that.

• 1:12:45Cassandra Yahnian?

  She's back to bed.

• 1:12:47Danielle LaRock?

  Yep, she's over it. In most national parks, the rules are pretty strict. Basically, your dog can go where your car can go. In Glacier, for example, dogs are welcome on all the paved areas, like road sides and parking lots and certain campgrounds and things, but they're not allowed on any trails or in the backcountry at all. And there are really real reasons behind that. However, you know, much we want them to be with us, and they might be chill with us. Sometimes they're not so chill with wildlife or big predators. And even leashed and silent dogs leave scents that can impact wildlife and put different animals on edge. And they also can carry some diseases that native wildlife

• 1:13:31Danielle LaRock?

  has no defenses against. So we need to be pretty cognizant of that. And then, of course, if you multiply one dog by millions of visitors, that impact can become, you know, enormous. It has the potential to become a really big issue. And of course, there is exceptions for service animals. But emotional support animals or comfort animals don't qualify for those, those exceptions. So this is kind of the reason that a lot of people, if they want to go outside with their dogs, they seek out national forests or BLM land or different state parks that have different rules and regulations that allow dogs more places or even off-leash and things like that, which is a big no-no in even the most

• 1:14:14Danielle LaRock?

  pet-friendly national parks out there. So just keep that in mind. We actually got a couple of emails about that over the summer in particular, you know, just people curious about pet regulations.

• 1:14:26Cassandra Yahnian?

  Where to take their dogs.

• 1:14:27Danielle LaRock?

  And where to take their dogs. And luckily, we have friends for that. We have friends that run USbarkrangers.com. And they're actually trying to make, they're in the process right now of making a formal app. But right now, they do have a website and like a big Facebook group and things like that. But kind of similar to our website, where we have that big global interactive map that you can like toggle around and look at different locations. They have something very similar to that, that shows all of the different sites around that are dog-friendly and where you can bring your pets. And they're, you know,

• 1:15:07Cassandra Yahnian?

  Very cool.

• 1:15:07Danielle LaRock?

  They're very national park-based. And you can find like, a lot of their stuff, if you're big on Instagram and the hashtag, you can do hashtag USbarkrangers. They have a Facebook community page, like I said, it has over 50,000 members. So lots of resources for advice, you know, and community members that are willing to chat with you about their experiences with dogs in the parks. And their map has over 330 sites all across the United States. So you should look into it.

• 1:15:38Cassandra Yahnian?

  It's definitely been on my, since I've been road tripping and kind of all over the summer, and I've had Amber with me the whole time, I've definitely been facing a little bit of the roadblocks of where I can bring her. But one thing that I was pleasantly surprised about is that in Great Basin National Park, which I visit this year, they are the same as most national parks, where they're only allowed on pavement and campgrounds, not inside the visitor center, anything like that. However, they have one designated trail in the whole park where you can take your dog. And it's like a seven mile hike.

• 1:16:14Danielle LaRock?

  Oh, nice.

• 1:16:15Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, like a rugged seven mile hike. Like, it's an actual adventure, not just a little like boardwalk or something.

• 1:16:22Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, I was just gonna say, sometimes they're just like, a loop, half mile loop, quarter mile loop trail, which is fine if you want to stretch their legs. But yeah, that's cool. Yeah. And I mean, up our way, Acadia

• 1:16:36Cassandra Yahnian?

  Acadia.

• 1:16:37Danielle LaRock?

  is one of the most pet-friendly.

• 1:16:38Cassandra Yahnian?

  The most dog-friendly.

• 1:16:39Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah. But just, I don't want to put you on the spot or anything, but I thought maybe you could like, close out the episode. As a certified bark ranger, what bark actually stands for? You know, those like pledges? Because it's an acronym, right?

• 1:16:56Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yes.

• 1:16:56Danielle LaRock?

  So every letter.

• 1:16:58Cassandra Yahnian?

  You're right. I just don't know what it means. Yes, as a professional owner of a, or a parent, I should say, I gave birth to this dog next to me. As a pet parent of a bark ranger, I know this very well. Don't worry if I'm looking down at my phone right now. So the B means bag your dog's waste. It's basically being a bark ranger commits to following the rules in the park and being respectful with your dog there. So the B is to bag your pet's waste. A is for always leashing your pets. They cannot be off-leash in a national park. R is to respect wildlife. And the K is to know where you are allowed to go.

• 1:17:43Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah. So I want to see everybody's pictures of their bark rangers. I have never, Chaska's never been, never taken the pledge. Or Blue, or Gator.

• 1:17:57Cassandra Yahnian?

  My God, you gotta take them to Cape Cod National Seashore.

• 1:17:59Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, I will.

• 1:18:01Cassandra Yahnian?

  It's so close, kind of.

• 1:18:03Danielle LaRock?

  It's closer than a Cape. Yeah. That's for sure. Maybe not right now in the thick of summer. The Cape's like, the worst place to be for traffic and tourism, but.

• 1:18:12Cassandra Yahnian?

  They were super nice about it, though. They have the bandanas, and then they'll fill out the form for you. And it was really cute.

• 1:18:19Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah. And if you want, I think this is our fourth dog-themed episode. If you're like, I love dogs, I want more dog content. We have, Cassie did Stikine, kind of recently.

• 1:18:31Cassandra Yahnian?

  She did.

• 1:18:32Danielle LaRock?

  I did the Iditarod story with Togo at the forefront from March of 2022. And if you are a subscriber, and you haven't gone through the entire catalog yet, one of my favorite stories I've ever researched that happened to come through just browsing the library, and I saw this book, and it was titled Bringing Jade Home, or Bring Jade Home. And it was the story of this dog named Jade, who went on their own adventure throughout Yellowstone National Park for months.

• 1:19:06Cassandra Yahnian?

  And survived.

• 1:19:07Danielle LaRock?

  Survived and stressed everyone out in the process. But it's a very wholesome story. And I covered that a few years ago as well. So we love dogs. We want to bring them everywhere, but we know that there are certain limitations when it comes to parks. But dogs have a long history with parks and working for us and the parks in a myriad of ways. And we can't think of them enough for being the best.

• 1:19:36Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah. And with that, we will see you all next time. In the meantime, enjoy the view.

• 1:19:42Danielle LaRock?

  But watch your back.

• 1:19:44Cassandra Yahnian?

  Bye, everyone.

• 1:19:45Danielle LaRock?

  Bye.

• 1:19:48Danielle LaRock?

  Thanks for joining us for another episode. We hope you learned something new and have another location to put on your list. If you want more NPAD content, make sure to follow along with our adventures on all socials at National Park After Dark. For more stories just like this one, with the added bonus of exclusive content, you can join us on Patreon or Apple subscriptions. If you prefer to watch our episodes, head over to our YouTube channel. And if you're enjoying the show, please take a moment to rate, review, and subscribe on your favorite listening platform.

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