Philadelphia Inquirer: New Heroes in Ken Burns' National Parks Series

By JONATHAN STORM
THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER
September 27, 2009
PASADENA, Calif. — Ken Burns' mega-docs have spawned a star or two. Shelby Foote rose from obscurity after his bravura performance on "The Civil War." Buck O'Neil, a pretty darn good baseball player in the Negro Leagues and the first African-American major league coach, found the greatest stardom of his life after being a major voice on "Baseball."

Now comes Shelton Johnson, a wonderfully astute park ranger who sounds as if he would be just as at home on a college campus as he is on the back trails of Yosemite National Park, where he has been stationed for 15 years. Quick on his feet, too.

Somebody asked about the notoriously low pay of park rangers.

"I was called to this work, and it had nothing to do with financial recompense of any kind," Johnson said. "People bandy about the expression within the parks that we are paid in sunsets. I think with inflation, I need sunrise, and I need moonrise as well. But for me, in my purposes, it's been adequate for 22 years. More than adequate."

Johnson is a leading voice in Burns' "The National Parks: America's Best Idea," which runs for 12 hours (a blink of an eye in Burns time) on PBS, two hours a night, tonight through Friday. It's a lavish (what do you expect from almost 400 amazing natural and historical wonders?) production, tracing the history of the parks. Lots of politics and historical footage, as well as trees.

A critic asked about the rowdiness that sometimes raises its head at big parks such as the Grand Canyon.

"You run into those folks there," Johnson said, "and I think that it says a lot about the democratizing effect of the whole idea of national parks, that you can find this incredible diversity in these parks."

Born and raised in Detroit, Johnson is not your typical park ranger. He graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in English literature, won a Major Hopwood Award in poetry, served as a seventh-grade teacher in Liberia in the Peace Corps, and has performed at the International Storytelling Center in Tennessee.

Is he eagerly anticipating all the benefits of Burns stardom? "I think there may be a passing phase of some notoriety. And then I will go back to being a federal employee."