Park Manager Brenda Magers

Park Service Profiles

Incredible Opportunities to Do Amazing Things

Brenda Magers has lived in Murrells Inlet for six years now, where she serves as Park Manager for Huntington Beach State Park. For Brenda, her six years spent residing in Murrells Inlet is a life record. Growing up as an army brat meant Brenda Magers never stayed in one place for long, but now her lifelong dream of living at the beach has finally been obtained.

Brenda found her way to South Carolina in 1997 after graduating from Southern Illinois University with a degree in Forestry.
“When I graduated college the economy was not great and most federal and state agencies were in hiring freezes. South Carolina was the only state I knew who was actively hiring.”

After moving to South Carolina, Brenda worked seasonally with The National Park Service and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. She never considered using her degree to work as a park ranger, until one day she was holding an application for Paris Mountain State Park in her hand.

Brenda was hired on as a Ranger I at Paris Mountain and since then has worked at Rose Hill Plantation State Historic Site and the Mountain Bridge Wilderness Area, where she served as Park Manager at both. When asked what park was her favorite to work at, Brenda says it’s a difficult question to answer.

“Each position I’ve held has had its own incredible opportunities to do amazing things.”

Although she’d never expressed an interest in becoming a park ranger during her college years, Brenda didn’t have a hard time adjusting to her new profession. Her work as a patrol ranger for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, research she performed for the National Park Service and a chance meeting with members of the South Carolina State Park Service at a conference all prepared her for her duties as a state park ranger.

“There were a lot of real cosmic coincidences that led me here.”

Brenda says her duties at Huntington Beach vary by the season, but that’s what keeps the job interesting. She could be doing anything from working on a park project or preparing for the annual Atalaya Arts and Crafts Festival to helping to relocate an alligator or rescuing a shore bird.

“It’s always an adventure.”