Cara Chatfield Rohrbaugh is talking with Communications Coordinator, Virginia Gordon
Hometown and Background
I’m from Springfield, Ohio, which is a little under 50 miles west of Columbus. My sister, Annie, is 364 days younger than me, so we never forget each other’s birthdays. I graduated from Springfield North High School in 1995, which had a very good theater department. I especially loved to sing and acted in a number of musicals put on by the department. I sang the very dramatic role of Nancy in a school production of Oliver, the Lionel Bart musical based on the novel Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens.
The famous Grammy Award-winning singer, John Legend, who has been a regular singing coach on The Voice, was a co-student and we sang together at Springfield Civic Theater in a production of Big River, a musical about the life and adventures of Huckleberry Finn. My mom’s mom, my grandma, Barbara McKeever, was a seamstress for the Springfield Civic Theater, a community theater group which also staged a lot of musicals, many of them at the beautiful amphitheater in Springfield’s Veterans’ Memorial Park. My gran encouraged my love of the arts and performing. Although she herself wasn’t an actor or singer, she was a fantastic banjo player and performed with the Springfield Banjo Band. They recorded an album together, and my gran was later invited to perform at Disney World’s Frontierland, which I got to see.
My paternal gran, and grandpa, also played a big part in the lives of Annie and me. Annie is now an art teacher in Springfield and is studying to become a school principal. When we were little, our grandparents frequently took us hiking at John Bryan State Park, the Clifton Gorge State Nature Preserve and the Glen Helen Nature Preserve at Yellow Springs, fueling our love of nature.
My mom and dad separated when I was only three years old. Annie and I lived with mom but she became very sick, too ill to look after us or support us financially. Even though I was still a high school student I moved to my own apartment, and Annie came to live with me. It was an unusual arrangement, but it made me very independent and very goal-oriented.
I had always wanted to go to college. At age 20, I managed to get some financial aid, enough to pay for an apartment, my books, and three terms of study at Ohio University in Athens. But I couldn’t afford to continue and had to drop out. I remained in Athens and lived there for about 10 years. I did lots of odd jobs and continued to perform, becoming the lead singer in an all-girl punk-rock band. The band included my friends Jess, on drums, Chandra on bass, and Kari on rhythm guitar. We would sometimes add a lead guitarist. We played all the venues in Athens and also got a lot of gigs in Columbus. We wrote all of our own songs. I usually wrote the lyrics and we’d develop the music together as a band. Jess’s husband also played in a band and he had a recording studio in Nelsonville. We recorded three albums there, and we also played songs on a number of compilation albums. We played together as a band for about 20 years.
It was still a major goal of mine to go to college and I worked hard at various jobs, including doing piercings at a tattoo parlor, and through my performing, to save money for classes. In my mid-twenties I enrolled at Hocking College, about 20 minutes away from Athens, and studied for an associate degree in Wildlife Management. I studied there for years, off and on, with regular breaks to earn more money to pay for my education. It was always a challenge, but I persisted.
I met my husband, Nick, in Athens. Although he lived in Athens, he worked for a TV station in Parkersburg, West Virginia, about 40 miles away. I’d already been there for a good number of years. Apparently he saw me while I was working one of my many part-time jobs at a coffee bar, and evidently told a friend of his that he really liked me. Eventually he saw me performing with my band, and he started to bring me mix tapes at the restaurant where I worked. We had the same taste in music, and his mix tapes included some of my favorite bands, like Dead Kennedys and the grunge band, L7. We began a friendship first, which led to romance. We’d been dating for about a year, and had decided to get engaged, when we sat down for a serious talk about our futures. Nick thought we should move to Columbus to look for better opportunities to support ourselves in our future married life.
At the time, I had begun working for a cooperative and worker owned restaurant, Casa Nueva, where I did a bit of everything, hostessing, being a line cook, waitressing, and even making our own salsa to sell at a local community warehouse. I really enjoyed living in Athens, a very liberal and community-based town, but I had to ask myself what would be best for us both financially. I was already struggling to complete my associate degree, even though I only had a few classes left to finish it. Financial aid had left me with a lot of student debt.
We made the joint decision to move to Columbus, about 15 years ago. In October the following year we got married in Ash Cave in Hocking Hills. It was frugal, yet in a gorgeous location, and suited my practical nature. I had never wanted to commit hundreds, or even thousands of dollars, to a single event, even one so momentous as getting married. I decided to retain my family name of Chatfield, but add Nick’s surname of Rohrbaugh to it, which is how I became Cara Chatfield Rohrbaugh.
We lived on West Moler Street, close to Scioto Audubon Metro Park. It gave us the benefit of living near to German Village without paying the German Village price tag. I got a job working as an Admin Assistant and I hated it. It led eventually to another serious conversation, as to whether Nick and I could manage financially if I went back to school. Nick was incredibly supportive. I enrolled at The Ohio State University to study Forestry and Wildlife Management. Some of my credits from Hocking College were accepted towards my degree study, but another break was coming into my education life, as I took time out to start a family. Our son, who we named Fox, was born on February 2, 2013.
I wanted to make sure Fox had the best experience I could give him as a young child. I stayed home with him for the next three years. Nick had moved to a company making TV commercials and became a producer. He made commercials for Rosati Windows, Massey’s Pizza Place, and lots of other local companies. Nick’s own eyes and mouth were superimposed onto the talking pizza in the Massey’s commercials. It was quite weird and freaky, actually!
I went back to OSU in 2016. The change from quarters to semesters delayed me somewhat, but I finally graduated in 2019. There was a hiring freeze in place for natural resources positions with the state, so the nearest job opportunity I could find that related to my studies was to work at the Columbus Zoo. There was a job opening in the Zoo’s education department that I obtained, with the hope and ambition that I might eventually become a zoo keeper. My position required me talk with hundreds, sometimes thousands of people a day, often coming out with impromptu spiels to give information about the various animals in the many different regions of the zoo.
Every spiel was a performance, and there were many performances of many different spiels required every day. It was a great experience, but was also quite exhausting. In discussions with management, it emerged that my ambition to become a zoo keeper would require that I first take on an unpaid zoo keeper internship. I decided to go for it. It was a four-month, unpaid internship, which I completed successfully. It led to my being offered a seasonal zoo keeper position, working for ten months in the year. My position was with the Zoo’s North American Region, which meant I would be working with wildlife I knew and had studied in school. It was fantastic, but there was a downside to being a seasonal zoo keeper. Even working for ten months in the year, there was no health insurance or pension plan, and the wages weren’t very high. Speaking to lots of colleagues, I learned that people would often have to serve in a seasonal position for a great many years before finding a full-time position.
I faced another employment choice, as I really felt I needed to earn more, and to find a position with health insurance and retirement benefits. I’d had it my mind for a few years that working at Metro Parks might be a good fit for me and something I’d enjoy. I applied for a ranger position, and although I didn’t get it, I filled in a job interest card and was soon contacted to see if I was interested in applying for a seasonal maintenance technician position at Inniswood. I interviewed and got the job in May 2021. I was ecstatic, as Inniswood had become my favorite park. I’m an avid gardener and had come to love Inniswood, to see the garden’s vast array of plants, to discover all their botanical names and to know as much as possible about them and their best growing conditions. When that seasonal position ended, I was able to move directly to a seasonal ranger position at Highbanks, and had the goal in mind to make this a stepping stone to a full-time position with Metro Parks.
I knew the requirements for a full-time ranger position required candidates to a pass a series of physical challenges, and I put myself to the test and started doing mile and a half runs two or three times a week, and doing daily situp and pushup exercises. When a full-time position opened up I interviewed again, and was lucky enough to be offered my current position of full-time park ranger at Highbanks.
What I do at Metro Parks and what I love most about it
I usually work the late shift, starting at two in the afternoon through to closing time. I love working outside, and although I don’t do much foot patrol, when I do I find it to be perhaps the most satisfying part of my job. I get to interact with park visitors, while also taking in some very beautiful and dramatic scenery. The ravines at Highbanks are especially striking. I’ve seen nothing so beautiful since those days of my childhood when my grandparents took Annie and me to hike at John Bryan State Park and the nature preserves at Clifton Gorge and Glen Helen. Sometimes, if I see a late vehicle parked up when closing up the River Bluff area of the park, I walk the trails in search of the driver and am always enthralled by the scenery. There are many gorgeous wildflowers in that part of the park, lots of wildlife to see and hear, and you get terrific views of the high shale bluffs, rising on the opposite side of the Olentangy. My education has taught me to be watchful of watersnakes when walking the trail by the river. They can be difficult to see at night, and I would never want to step on one.
I especially enjoy interactions with visitors, and chatting with regulars. Little kids are always thrilled to meet a ranger and they sometimes ask the weirdest and also most wonderful questions, which often leads to a teaching moment. Our park naturalists handle most of the public programs, but rangers get to participate in some programs too. I especially enjoy helping at the creeking programs in the fall, or doing an occasional school visit, when we take animal pelts and one of the nature center turtles to help teach kids about the wildlife they might encounter at the parks. Scout groups and volunteer groups often ask if a ranger can come and talk to them before a program, or actually lead them on a hike.
I get many opportunities to utilize my skills and the knowledge I have acquired from my education. Highbanks, and the other parks, are places where people love to come to visit. It makes it rewarding for us, as employees, to interact with people who are enjoying being at the park. I get a vibe, knowing the visitors are happy to be here, and I also develop an inner sense of pride that when I help people with information, or just stop with them for a short chat, I am helping, if only in a small way, to make the world a slightly better place for them.
I became a commissioned officer in May 2023. To earn the commission, I went to the Night Academy, which involves eight months of study on nights and at weekends. As rangers, we have both law enforcement and customer service responsibilities, and I’m proud to discharge my duties in both areas.
My favorite Metro Parks story that includes a memorable visitor interaction
Here’s a story with a memorable ending. A little over a year ago, a woman approached me at Highbanks to report that she’d seen a little red dog running around and that it seemed to be terrified. We did a search, but couldn’t find the dog. Just a couple of days later, a gentleman came up to me and said he too had seen a little red dog that appeared to be lost and very afraid. He led the way to one of the park ravines, where we saw this little dog, partly sheltered under a rotted tree. It barked at us furiously and wouldn’t come out.
I called our Second Shift Supervisor Dan Saul for advice. Dan came out to our location, and had brought some needle proof gloves with him, as possible protection against bites or scratches. He had brought a catch pole with him, which had a loop on the end of the pole and I was using this to try to get close to this poor, terrified little animal. I also had pepper spray close to hand, in case I might need it. I was down on my haunches, talking to the dog, trying to calm him, and also trying to latch on to him with the catch pole, when he suddenly darted out at me and onto my lap. He had seemed so aggressive and agitated just moments before that for a second I thought he was going to bite my face off, but instead he just settled down quietly on my lap. I stroked him and talked to him, and then we managed to take him with us to the old barn at the Dragonfly Day Camp area. We kept food there, to be used if we found injured wild animals, or abandoned pets.
We took our terrified little red dog to the Delaware County Dog Warden. He’d been there for three days when they called me, to say that no one had claimed the dog. They asked me if I wanted to take it, and I said I would, “absolutely!”
He’s a puggle, or a pug beagle, and he’s about two years old now. He’s settled in fine with us at home, alongside our other dog, Clementine, a beagle shepherd mix, and also our two cats, named Baby and Star. We also have a couple of guinea pigs, who live in a two-storey cage and have their own big run outside.
Traveling – places I’ve been, places I’d love to go
The most memorable vacation I ever had, for both wonderful and terrifying reasons, was a trip to Europe with my sister Annie. I was 20 at the time and Annie was 19. Our mum had died that year and we got a couple of thousand dollars each left to us. Annie suggested we use the money and go to Europe. This was in the days before cell phones, and neither of us had a computer at the time. So we bought a guide book and a Euro Rail pass. We flew into Amsterdam and spent a few days there, then took a train to France. We went to Biarritz on the French Atlantic coast and loved it there, with its glorious sandy beaches and gorgeous views of the ocean and the Bay of Biscay. We also had a wonderful time in Grenoble, in a mountainous region, and in Monaco, a tiny city-state on the French Riviera. Monaco is the second-smallest city-state in the world, with only Vatican City being smaller. It’s famous for Grace Kelly, the American actress who gave up Hollywood to marry the Prince of Monaco, for its yachts and wealth, and for its casino in the principality’s most famous district, Monte Carlo. We also went to Italy and saw the Leaning Tower of Pisa and loved the Italian countryside.
The terrifying aspects of our trip occurred in the French cities of Marseille and Paris. We were on the rail station platform in Marseille and we saw a group of about six thugs who were wandering on the platform and seemed to be intimidating and threatening people. A couple of them came up to me and they seemed to be trying to get at my necklace. My French was very limited but I yelled at them to “Back off!” Fortunately, they did. But they weren’t done with us. Our train finally arrived and we got on board. It was a night train to Paris, and many of the people in our carriage were falling asleep. I think I was one of only a few people still awake when this same group of thugs entered our carriage. They used knives to cut the straps of the purses and bags of sleeping passengers. I was terrified, but they didn’t bother with people who were awake.
In Marseille, Annie and I had teamed up with two German women, who had also been terrified on the rail platform. We traveled together, and spent some time in Paris, then had another terrifying experience when leaving the city. We were on another rail platform, waiting for our train out, and knew that at least one of us should stay awake and guard all our belongings. But we were all exhausted and I think we all fell asleep. I woke up being ‘cuddled’ by some bum with no teeth. I was super freaked out, and after he’s gone I realised that my bag had been taken, which had had all my money and my passport in it. I had to go to the US Embassy in Paris, who provided me with emergency travel documentation so I could get back to Amsterdam and fly home. So yeah, that was certainly a memorable vacation! Many wonderful moments and memories, and those awful book ends. I felt like quite the accomplished adventurer after that trip.
I have never been back to Europe since, but I would love to go to England and Scotland in the future. I have many old family connections to those countries, and I loved reading the Jane Austen novels so much that I want to see all the places she wrote about. I’d also like to go to Japan and see some of the ancient temples there.
Nick and I usually go to the east coast for our vacations, although last year we went to Michigan and absolutely loved it there. In particular, we both could see ourselves living in Saugatuck if the stars align for us in our futures. It’s a wonderful place, with a rich history of arts and crafts, and with terrific art galleries and stunning lakeside beach scenery. It has a lovely touristy vibe and small-town feel, which I love so much. We also had a lovely time on Mackinac Island.
This year, we’ve planned a different kind of vacation, which we’re looking forward to greatly. We’re going to start in Catskill, New York, as Nick particularly wants to visit the home and studio of his favorite artist, Thomas Cole. Cole was born in England in 1801 but moved to America with his family when he was a teenager. He founded the Hudson River School, a famous art movement, and is considered to be America’s first great landscape artist. Then we’re heading to Niagara Falls and intend to sail on the boat, The Maid of the Mist, which goes under the flow of the great waterfall. After the mist, we’ll be going to Salem, Massachusetts, for some witchy history, and then on to Bar Harbor, Maine, and Acadia National Park.
Fun facts about me and my family
- I’m a Poet! I belong to an internet group of people in Europe and America who are deeply interested in ancient lore and horror stories. The group, Folk Horror Revival, published several books, including one called “Folk Horror Revival: Corpse Roads,” about rural roads in England and other countries that were used to transport corpses in olden days. It’s filled with poems by some classic poets of the past, but the editor sought submissions from group members, and I submitted several of my own poems. A few of them were accepted and were published in the new edition of the book, available from Amazon and other book sellers.
THE WAY YOU VANISHED
The window swells with morning light
Still dim with trace of parting night
Who lifts her skirts to fade away
With soft footsteps into the day.Voice of velvet, movements slight
The way you held a cigarette
The way you vanished from my sight.I am ill and done with sleep
I have no name, it’s yours to keep
Never will I be the same
For on this day the angels came.At your dewy grave to weep
Sweet seraphim in golden tame
Hearts whose thorns are rooted deep.
- Gardening! I’ve always been an avid gardener. For a time we lived in Minerva Park, where we inherited a 1-acre area with a forest, prairie and massive garden. The house was built in the 1920s, and we were told that the last owner of the house had become world-renowned for the dahlias he grew in the garden. There was an apple orchard there too. As a gardener, it was inspiring for me to live there. We have since moved to another house very near to Inniswood Metro Gardens. My own favorite flowers to grow are roses and German bearded irises. I got into growing irises last year and I now have over 30 varieties in my garden. Raptor red is one of my favorite irises and it was in bloom earlier this spring. One of my favorite roses that I grow is the Wollerton Old Hall English climbing rose, by David Austin. It’s a deeply cupped rose with the cabbage-style close petals that I most admire. These roses are a beautiful apricot color, fading towards cream.
- An actor I shall be! I don’t know if you’ll get to see it, but if any of you get to watch a video on business ethics, you might see me in it. Nick’s latest job is as an education and communication specialist for the Ethics Commission. He creates online training videos for state employees who need to learn about ethics law. He gives in-person speeches as well. For one of his videos, made in the Covid years, he wasn’t able to cast all the roles he needed to, so I was brought in to act the part of a woman accepting an award from a Mayor. It was quite a long script and I was on screen for a fair chunk of time. Fortunately, mine was an ‘ethical’ role. I mentioned earlier that Nick had produced various TV commercials, including some for Massey’s Pizza. I also appeared in one of those, although it was a non-speaking part. I could be seen dancing silly in the background as the ‘talking pizza’ sold us on the benefits of eating Massey’s Pizza.
My favorite food and dessert
I love crab legs, but edging those out as my favorite food of all would definitely be scallops, rightly called the marshmallows of the ocean. I like the smaller bay scallops, but my favorites are the larger sea scallops, which are more chewy. They’re a little more salty but are still sweet. The Cameron Mitchell restaurant, Hudson 29, serves scallops in a salad with oranges and avocado and a light citrus dressing. I loved it and would definitely order it again next time we go there. Nick knows how much I love scallops and he usually cooks them for me for my birthday. Nick’s scallops are my favorites, because he makes them with ‘love!’ For my birthday last year he served them with asparagus, and with butter, rosemary and pepper on the scallops.
For dessert, I love a really good chocolate cake. I prefer ones with a dark chocolatey taste, rather than a sugary taste. Koblé, a Greek restaurant in Westerville, makes a fabulous chocolate cake. I do some baking of my own, but mostly pies rather than cakes. One year I baked a pie shaped like a tree. I mostly make berry pies or pumpkin pies. I have various wild animal cookie cutters, and one year I baked a hedgehog edge to my pumpkin pie.
My favorite entertainment
I love music, art, tv and reading. My favorite genres are scifi, horror and fantasy, although I was in a self-edification mood recently and tackled Les Miserables, the novel by Victor Hugo. It runs to almost 1,500 pages, so it was quite a task, but a very enjoyable one. I have some Stephen King novels lined up for my immediate future, so I’m heading back to the horror genre. An author I’ve come to really enjoy is Grady Hendrix. I went to hear him give a speech at Villa Milano in May, mostly talking about his latest novel, “Witchcraft for Wayward Girls.” The event was organized by Westerville Public Libraries. Hendrix writes really fun horror stories, many of them from a female perspective. I got him to sign three of his books, that I own, which I highly recommend. These are “We Sold Our Souls,” whose lead character is a woman who fronted a rock band, so that struck a chord with me. “Final Girl Support Group” is about those types of morally-upright women who always make it to the end and survive most horror films. But in this fantasy horror story, an evil antagonist tries to pick off the survivors in the support group. And the third novel he signed for me was “The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires,” which is about a group of book club women in South Carolina who discover that one of their new neighbors is a vampire.
On TV, I’ve just finished watching “Andor,” which is a Star Wars spin-off, and I also enjoyed watching “The Witcher” and “The Last of Us.” I was in tears in one episode of “The Last of Us” when two characters fell in love and then one of them died. The actor who survived, Nick Offerman, was so wonderful in this dramatic role, but I remember him and loved him for his wonderful lead comedic role as Ron Swanson in “Parks and Recreation.”
What Highbanks Park Manager Matt Kaderly says about Cara
“Cara brings a variety of valuable contributions to the team, including experience, work ethic, and a positive attitude. Cara’s passion for the outdoors extends well beyond her responsibilities of a Park Ranger; as she is continually called upon to make tangible differences in our community outreach efforts. Cara regularly collaborates with her peers to create positive impacts and continually looks at ways to improve park operations. Cara’s a pleasure to work with and a true advocate for the park district.”