At Moro Rock in Sequoia National Park, naturalists began in 1922 to help early visitors understand the landscape through walks, talks, and campfire programs that combined information with inspiration. For many people, parks were beautiful but mysterious, and this tradition of helping visitors join fascination with knowledge has continued, fostering commitment to parks in untold numbers of people. As Colonel J.R. White wrote in 1926, the expansion of museums, nature walks, and campfire lectures was the surest protection against degeneracy into jazzy amusements. Walter Fry, who had come to the Sierra Nevada as a young man to log, turned to protecting the trees after counting more than 3,000 rings on a cut sequoia. He later became the first civilian superintendent of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. In 1920, Stephen Mather, the first director of the National Park Service, decided that every park needed naturalists, and two years later the Sequoia Nature Guide Service began when Superintendent John White asked his predecessor Walter Fry to volunteer, making Fry Sequoia National Park’s first naturalist.