A VISIT TO IDAHO

The A. Paul Knight Internship, Henry’s Fork Foundation, and W&L’s Southeast Idaho Alumni Chapter.

This past summer, i visited W&l’s unofficial Southeast Idaho alumni chapter in Island Park, Idaho. It might be unofficial and there may not be a chapter president, but if you visit between late June and the first cold winds of winter, you are sure to run into more than a few folks who know their way around campus. Most visitors to this part of Idaho come for outdoor recreation, and particularly to fish for rising trout on the Henry’s Fork of the Snake River. Although there is a lot of interest in fly fishing among W&L’s students and alumni, the connections between Lexington and Island Park are ultimately due to the A. Paul Knight Internship Program in Conservation.

We profile the “Knight Interns” in our newsletters, but some of you may not know the history of this program. It was established in 1988 by Al Knight (’51L) in memory of his late son Paul (’85), who passed away in a backcountry hiking accident in Yellowstone National Park in 1985. Each year, the program hosts four undergraduate interns in Idaho to work at the Henry’s Fork Foundation, Harriman Ranch State Park and the Nature Conservancy’s Flat Ranch Preserve. The nature of their work changes from year to year, but the focus is always on natural resource conservation and access. The W&L Alumni Magazine featured a great article about the program on its 30th anniversary in 2018.

My summer visit was long overdue; former W&L wrestling coach Gary Franke had been inviting me out to visit him there for over 12 years, but my summer research plans always seemed to get in the way. Al Knight was active in shepherding the program and its interns each year, from recruiting new students in the fall to helping them get settled in Island Park in the summer. Al passed away in 2019. After 30 years and over 130 W&L student participants, it was hard to imagine the program without Al’s presence. As the article in the W&L Magazine attests, most students who have gone through the Knight Internship program have described the experience as transformative. So, after the dust of the pandemic settled and the interns returned to Idaho, I traveled to Island Park to meet with the program’s supporters in person and to ensure that the Knight Program will continue to offer that experience to our students.

What I found there was more than reassuring. Our internship partners are committed to the experience of our students and to the continued success of the program. They offer the opportunity for students to work on a variety of projects, while also providing the flexibility and freedom to explore the area. And the area is indeed unique and stunning. Situated just west of the Tetons and within a short drive of Yellowstone National Park, it’s a landscape you can’t help but be inspired by whether fly fishing is your thing or not. And of course, it is woven together by the river itself, which is indeed special (the legend is real — that’s all I’ll say). But the real kicker is the community of people that it attracts: fun, welcoming and liberally peppered with W&L folk. In my four days in the area, I connected with at least 10 different Lexington expatriates. All of them were very familiar with the Knight program, and most were former interns themselves. They all readily spoke of the impact it had on their lives and the connection they forged with this special place, and they expressed a desire to see the program continue to thrive.

I hope to make it back out to the Henry’s Fork sooner than later — I know I don’t want to wait another 12 years. But there will be four new interns traveling to Idaho this summer, and I am glad to know they will be welcomed by the community of friends that the Knight program has created there. And I won’t be surprised if I run into this crop of interns again on my next visit to Island Park. 

– Robert Humston