Park Ranger Seth Caughman
Park Ranger Seth Caughman
Each Day is an Adventure
Being outside and getting to fish on a regular basis is about as good as it gets for Seth Caughman, a Senior Ranger at Dreher Island State Park on Lake Murray just northwest of Columbia, SC.
Caughman grew up in the small town of Saluda, SC, and was a 1995 graduate of Saluda High School. He attended Piedmont Technical College in Greenwood with full intentions of transferring to Clemson University for a degree in forestry. But that never happened. Instead, he enrolled at Horry-Georgetown Technical College where he earned an associate’s degree in forestry.
Following school, he was hired as a temporary employee at Paris Mountain State Park near Greenville where he worked as a park tech. Hard work and good performance landed him a full-time job when one became available.
During his eight-year career, Caughman has also worked at Dreher Island as a Ranger I, where he served as the marina operator, keeping track of monthly payments for marina slips, filling slip vacancies, working in the park’s retail facilities and on maintenance projects. 
After nearly two years, he was promoted to Ranger II and reassigned to Santee State Park on scenic Lake Marion, where he assisted in basic park maintenance as well as in enforcing and explaining park rules and regulations.
As a Senior Ranger back at Dreher Island, Caughman assembles the work schedule, project list and general maintenance. He also is responsible for ordering and storing items for the retail shops.
Caughman didn’t know he wanted to be a park ranger until that first job at Paris Mountain.
“I needed a job. They had one, and it kind of stuck. I never had any great dreams or life-long ambitions of being a park ranger. It just happened,” he said.
Not only did it stick, it’s been extremely satisfying. “Being outside is always a plus for me and being at a park on an island on a lake doesn’t hurt either,” he said. “We have tons of wildlife and there’s always a lot of fishing that needs to be done. After all, I have to keep up with the fishing in order to tell park visitors what’s biting and what to use to catch their target species. That’s just good customer service,” Caughman concluded.
The other satisfying point in his life is his “amazing and beautiful" daughter, Macy, who turns 4 years old in April. “One look at her and she makes the bad days go away and a good day even better,” he beamed.
Hands down, Caughman said Dreher Island is the most fun park of his career so far.
“There’s always something to do, and the park staff is one of the best I’ve been around. We get along great and each day is an adventure.”
Seth has since been promoted to Assistant Manager at Cheraw State Park.