The article and photos about the Congo’s Virunga National Park took me back to the early 1970s when I was a missionary there (“Park & Restoration,” WSJ. Magazine, Men’s Style, September 2016). When I visited Lake Kivu and the national park 40 years ago, it was a major tourist destination. From time to time it is rendered inhospitable and unreachable because of human conflict. But I never forgot the haunting highlands of the lake district and the places where the highland gorillas live up among the volcanoes.

Emmanuel de Merode has stood fast as the head of a group of incredibly courageous rangers preserving Virunga over the past decade. Perhaps no one has done more to preserve what remains of one of the most fabulous places on earth than these men and women. Congo is rich in resources of all kinds and has been the apple of the eye of many European and Western industrialists as well as the Chinese and Cubans over the years. However, Congo’s potential riches can blind you to its natural beauty. Let’s hope that these rangers can protect the gorillas and what remains. After a lifetime of travel, it is the most fabulous place I ever saw.

William A. Hayes

Middlesboro, Ky.