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Bob Leonard was born into a military family and had the opportunity to travel the world from Heidelberg, Germany to Ft. Carson, Colorado and became a history buff at the side of his dad, a U.S. Army officer. Trips to Pompeii, Rome, Stonehenge and the like were vacations during the family’s six year tour of duty in Europe. Bob attended Clarke Memorial College, Louisiana College and Colorado State University between 1968 and 1975 majoring in history, anthropology and archaeology. At Colorado State, Bob found and excavated the long-lost ice house at Bent’s Old Fort on the Mountain Branch of the Santa Fe Trail. After graduate school, he became a Park Ranger at Mesa Verde NP in Colorado. In 1980, he accepted the Forest Archaeologist position on the Fishlake NF in south central Utah. During his 40 year career, Bob was named the Intermountain Region Archaeologist of the Year twice, received the National Interpreter of the Year award, was given the Citizen of the Year Award by Utah State Parks and was the recipient of a Certificate of Merit for his work on the Old Spanish Trail. Bob retired from the Forest Service in 2017 and now lives in Marysvale Utah, a stone’s throw from the Old Spanish Trail.