MOUNT RAINIER NATIONAL PARK, Wash. — Rangers and volunteers embraced as Mount Rainier National Park reopened to the public Saturday for the first time since an Iraq war veteran shot and killed a park ranger there on New Year’s Day.
“We’re here to take back the mountain today,” park spokeswoman Lee Snook said.
Margaret Anderson, who had worked as a ranger with her husband at the park for three years, was shot dead by Benjamin Colton Barnes, 24, after he busted through a snow-tire checkpoint. He was found dead the next day after drowning in a creek.
On Saturday, small groups of visitors headed to the mountain’s freshly powdered trails to snow- shoe and cross-country ski. The flag at the rangers’ kiosk remained at half-staff, and uniformed rangers wore black bands across their badges.
“This is a place to come to be happy,” said Allan Evans, a volunteer from Graham, Wash. “This is what this park is about. This is the first stop to trying to get everything as whole as can be.”
The Associated Press; AP photo
