Park rangers don’t get much more Yellowstone than Marguerite “Peg” Lindsley.
In 1901 she was born at Mammoth Hot Springs, Wyoming, the headquarters for Yellowstone National Park, where her father would become an assistant superintendent.
Home-schooled until the eighth grade, she entered Montana State College preparatory school at age 13. In the summers, she was an avid explorer of the park and guided tourists, gaining knowledge that led to her being hired in 1921 as a ranger-naturalist, the third woman in the National Park Service to serve as a temporary park ranger.
A year earlier, in 1920, Isabel Wasson was hired as the first Yellowstone ranger. She was a Brooklyn native with a master’s degree in geology.
Miriam Watson has worked as the curator at the Heritage and Research Center since 2020.
Tribute
This summer the Yellowstone Heritage and Research Center in Gardiner is paying tribute to women in Yellowstone like Wasson and Lindsley, with exhibits highlighting female contributions to the park.
