A ranger at Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah died Friday after being injured while attending to visitors at an annual astronomy event.
According to the National Park Service (NPS), 78-year-old park ranger Tom Lorig was assisting visitors at Bryce Canyon’s annual astronomy festival around 11:30 p.m. on Friday when he fell while directing visitors to a shuttle bus.
During the fall, Lorig hit his head on a large rock.
Visitors quickly called the nearby police park ranger as Lorig was lying unresponsive on the ground.
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Bryce Canyon National Park ranger Tom Lorig died after tripping and falling during an astronomy festival on June 7, 2024. (National Park Service)
Several park rangers, medically trained bystanders and local emergency personnel attempted life-saving measures but were unable to revive Lorig.
“Tom Lorig served Bryce Canyon, the National Park Service and the public as an interpretive park ranger, forging connections between these special places he loved and the world,” Park Ranger Jim Ireland said in a statement. “As our community processes and mourns this tragic loss, we offer our deepest condolences to all of Officer Lorig’s family and friends. We also want to thank the National Park Service and Garfield County emergency services staff who responded, as well as the bystanders who assisted the National Park Service emergency personnel.”
According to the National Park Service, Lorig worked as a registered nurse in the Seattle area for 40 years and also worked as a full-time, seasonal and volunteer park ranger for more than 10 years.
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Ranger Tom Lorig was showing a visitor around when the visitor fell and hit his head on a large rock. (National Park Service)
Lorig began working for the NPS in June 1968 at Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico.
Over the next several decades, he worked in thirteen national parks, including the Badlands, Bryce Canyon, El Malpais, Florissant Fossil Beds, Glen Canyon, Klondike Gold Rush, Mount Rainier, New River Gorge, Olympic, Saguaro, Yosemite, Zion and Dinosaur National Monuments.
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“Tom was a dedicated public servant and he will be greatly missed by the many who knew him throughout the National Park Service,” the Bryce Canyon National Park Service Facebook page reads.
