Papers of Joseph R. Miller

Joseph Ray (Joe) Miller served in nearly a dozen national parks throughout the country during his forty-year career with the National Park Service (NPS). A son of long-time NPS employee Thomas Carol (T.C. or Cal) Miller, Joe grew up in the National Parks. He and his father served the NPS for a combined total of 83 years.

Cal Miller was Superintendent of Chaco Canyon National Monument in New Mexico at the time of Joe's birth on March 19, 1935. Joe Miller spent much of his childhood at Aztec Ruins National Monument in New Mexico and Platt National Monument in Oklahoma. He began his own NPS career in Kentucky in 1952 as a tour guide at Mammoth Cave National Park while his father was serving as park superintendent. From Mammoth Cave, Joe moved to Grand Teton National Park in 1954. While serving as maintenance foreman there, he met his first wife, Jeannine Driskell (who lived in Jackson Hole, Wyoming). Joe and Jeannine's three daughters, Carol, Cheryl, and Cathy, were born during the eleven years he worked at Grand Teton.

Joe Miller transferred to Bandelier National Monument in New Mexico in 1965 before moving on to Arches/Natural Bridges/Canyonlands National Parks in 1968, where he served as the maintenance superintendent. In that role, Joe was responsible for operational maintenance, construction, and planning in all three parks. He was also briefly stationed at Glacier National Park in the late 1960s, where he helped suppress the 1967 Wall Fire as well as the 1969 Sun Mountain Fire.

By 1971, Joe Miller had accepted a position as a park safety officer at Yellowstone. He met his second wife, Sheila Gate of Logan, Utah, in 1972 while working as a safety officer at the Midwest Regional Office in Nebraska. Their daughter Melinda arrived in 1973 while Joe was Superintendent of Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park in Georgia. While at Kennesaw, Joe introduced several new initiatives to the popular Civil War battlefield park outside Atlanta. He expanded the interpretive programs, created a living history program, increased ranger patrols and implemented a new signage system. Most significantly, he developed a bus program for Kennesaw during the energy crisis of the 1970s. By placing interpretive rangers on the buses with guests, Joe Miller was able to simultaneously save fuel, reduce traffic, and improve the quality of visitors' experiences in the park.

Following Kennesaw, Joe moved to Grand Canyon National Park in 1975. From 1979-1980, he served as Superintendent of Virgin Islands National Park before moving to Glen Canyon National Recreation Area in Utah. After accepting a second duty assignment at Yellowstone and then at Canyonlands in the late 1980s, Joe concluded his NPS career in 1992 as Associate Regional Director for Management and Operations in the Mid-Atlantic Regional Office in Philadelphia. In that position he supervised more than 30 areas of the National Park Service in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, and West Virginia.

Joe Miller received many awards from the NPS during his four decades of service, including the Meritorious Service Award, Superior Service Award, Special Act Award, and Special Achievement Award. After nearly fifteen years of retirement, Joe died at his much-loved cabin at Strawberry Valley in Duck Creek Village, Utah, on February 13, 2008.

Joe's father Thomas Carol (T.C. or Cal) Miller was born December 5, 1896 in Bandera, Texas. In 1900, he moved to the New Mexico territory with his parents who were early ranchers in the area. At the age of 14, Cal began working as a water boy at mining operations near Carlsbad. He served in World War I before beginning his 43-year career with the NPS as Chief Ranger at Carlsbad Cavern National Monument in 1926. Cal married Amelia Mayes in Carlsbad in 1923, and they had five children: Arthur, Joseph, Jean, Eunice, and Mary.

During his tenure with the Park Service, Cal Miller met four U.S. presidents: Hoover, Roosevelt, Truman, and Eisenhower. Cal was well-recognized within the Park Service for his dedication and efforts to increase park visitation following World War II.

Cal Miller served at Carlsbad until 1932. From 1932 to 1934, he was superintendent of Petrified Forest National Monument in Arizona. As the superintendent of Chaco Canyon National Monument in New Mexico from 1934 to 1936, he also supervised Hovenweep and Yucca House National Monuments in Colorado and Utah. When Chaco Canyon constructed a new visitor's center in the 1950s, a cornerstone was placed to recognize Cal's dedication to the park.

In 1956 Cal Miller returned to Carlsbad as the assistant superintendent. He suffered a heart attack while making a climb to Lake of the Clouds, which led to his decision to retire in 1961. During the following decade Cal helped to develop and manage a privately-owned cavern and tourist attraction 22 miles from Carlsbad in Seligman, Arizona. He passed away on February 8, 1971.