It was Friday afternoon, July 27, 1956. I was all alone placing plant and flower identification markers on the as yet unopened trail to Crater Lake.

At about 3:15 two park employees came down the trail checking on the telephone line, getting it ready for any emergency or routine needs.

At 3:30 one of the workers, Gene Cott, breathing heavily from rushing up trail, came up to me at a switchback below the telephone box at the halfway point on the lake trail.

In his cupped hands lay a tiny, baby, golden-mantled ground squirrel he had found lying on the trail where he had been hit by a falling rock. On his left flank was a mark made by the blow.

The little fellow was trembling. I placed him in a cardboard box in which I had been carrying signs and placed him on a ledge above the trail while I finished my labeling work to the lake.

At park headquarters I picked up a medicine dropper and a live trap from the naturalist laboratory to use as a cage.

"Adult golden-mantled ground squirel. N.P.S. photo."

At our cabin we warmed milk and fed him one and a half droppers full of milk. We put a sleeve of flannel pajamas into the can part of the live trap and laid him gently in. The warmth from the milk and my cupped hands seemed to help stop his trembling.

Next morning he was again shivering. He took only a little warm milk and made a squeaking sound when fed. That afternoon the little fellow was still not hungry and had one eye open end one eye shut. We placed some cotton batting in his cage and he went about making a nest in which he curled up.

When we again took him out to feed at about 6:00 P.M. he was asleep and kept his eyes closed when we attempted to feed him.

On Sunday, the following day at 10:00 A.M., the baby ate three half-medicine droppers full of warm milk with a bit of sugar added. He became more active, took a sun bath and walked around in the cage. At 2:00 P.M. he took two whole medicine droppers full of warm milk with a little added sugar. Both eyes were open; he lay in the sun and was quite active.

On Monday, July 30th, we found him gone from this world into the beyond of the "Golden-Mantled Ground Squirrel." He was too tiny and the rock was too big.