John H. Riffey The Last Old-Time Ranger

When John H. Riffey was assigned to the Tuweep Ranger Station on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon in 1942, his main task was to manage the grazing permits of homesteaders in Tuweep Valley who ran livestock in the then National Monument. Occasionally he was called on by the couple of dozen tourists a year looking for the Toroweap Overlook where they could gaze down on Lava Falls, hike up Vulcan s Throne and enjoy the scenery and peace of a place eighty miles from a paved highway. By the time he died in 1980, the livestock were no longer allowed in Grand Canyon National Park, Riffey s neighbors, the homesteaders, had left for greener pastures or were part-time residents, and there might be more than two dozen tourists a day barreling along the dirt road by his ranger station. He was still the only representative of the National Park Service there. His friends and acquaintances knew a man who watched out for his fellow men as well as protecting the high desert environment. He was always there to help, cajole or haul livestock, machinery and people out of the mud, snow, heat or water. This is his story told by the daughter of a neighboring homesteader who remembers Riffey s arrival and departure and the decades of friendship and respect in between.