Summary: The National Park Service is recruiting two, 640-hour summer interns to provide cultural resource and museum collections support at Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument in Hagerman Idaho. The members will serve with the museum and archeological teams within the Cultural Resources Division.

About Northwest Youth Corps (NYC):

Northwest Youth Corps was created in 1984 to offer teenagers and young adults an education-based, work experience modeled after the historic Civilian Conservation Corps of the 1930's. Today, we serve over 1,000 youth and young adults each year across a four-state region who restore critical habitat, build trails, lead volunteers, educate youth, and respond to local and national disasters.

Located in Hagerman, Idaho, the museum collections for the South Idaho National Parks (Craters of the Moon National Monument and Reserve, Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument, Minidoka National Historic Site, and City of Rocks National Monument and Reserve) are consolidated and managed within the cultural resources program. Under the purview of the parks’ museum curator, the collections for the four parks are cared for and preserved to provide access to visitors, researchers, and NPS staff. The museum collections consist of both natural history specimens and cultural specimens including fossils, archeological artifacts both prehistoric and historic, archives, and historic photos. The cultural resources program manages and preserves historic structures, historic landscapes, ethnographic resources, and museum collections.

Duties and Responsibilities: Major duties are related to learning and working alongside personnel in the Museum Program at Hagerman Fossil Beds. Intern will support cultural resource preservation and management projects that can include: museum collections care, artifact cataloging, archeological survey work, historic building research, preservation maintenance of historic structures and landscapes, historical research, archival management and processing, cultural resource surveys, GIS, museum exhibit planning and care. A cultural resources intern will have an interest in history, preservation, museum collections, or archeology/anthropology. Work may be project focused or more broadly scoped to provide support and work in a variety of cultural resource objectives.  

Specific activities include: 

• South Idaho Collection Rehousing: The primary focus will be on labeling and rehousing the approximately 500 items in the Minidoka collection. Additional rehousing of fossil specimens and other museum objects from the other parks may occur as well.
• Collections Digitization: Using scanners and other hardware, intern will digitize archival records, historic photos, historic drawings, plans, and maps and create a digital archive accessible to park staff and researchers.
• Archeological Support and Assistance: Work with park archeologist and archeological technician to clean, label, and catalog archeological artifacts. May be involved in floating samples and processing archeological materials.
• Housekeeping/Integrated Pest Management: Perform general museum housekeeping duties including vacuuming, sweeping, mopping and dusting to ensure collection and research areas remain clean. Monitor and replace pest traps using IPM worksheet. Replace traps as needed.

Required Qualifications: 

• Ages 18-30 (up to 35 for veterans)
• S. Citizen or lawful, permanent resident
• Must pass a background/driver check
• Attention to detail and ability to carefully handle delicate objects of cultural significance.
• Ability to work independently with minimal oversight.

Desired Qualifications: 

• Driver’s License
• Personal transportation
• Passion for cultural resource protection and preservation.
• Interest in museum studies or related fields.
• Ability to work with diverse group of people.

Duty Location: 

Duties are performed within Hagerman, Idaho at the Hagerman Fossil Beds Museum Collections Building and Paleontology Laboratory.  

Terms of Employment: 

Interns will complete the sixteen (16) week program from May to August 2025. The member will average 40 hours of labor per week, minus holidays. Interns are responsible for providing their own housing and food. Personal transportation needed.

Program Benefits:

Interns will earn $10,240 living allowance dispersed on a monthly basis throughout the sixteen (16) week term of service. The living allowance is taxable.

Interns will receive on-site training and education in museum collections management.

Interns will work in multiple diverse collections spanning archeological materials, paleontological specimens, archives, and more.