In 1851, word spreads across the country of a beautiful area of California's Yosemite Valley, attracting visitors who wish to exploit the land's scenery for commercial gain and those who wish to keep it pristine. Among the latter is a Scottish-born wanderer named John Muir, for whom protecting the land becomes a spiritual calling. In 1864, Congress passes an act that protects Yosemite from commercial development for "public use, resort and recreation"—the first time in world history that any government has put forth this idea—and hands control of the land to California. Meanwhile, a "wonderland" in the northwest corner of the Wyoming territory attracts visitors to its bizarre landscape of geysers, mud pots and sulfur pits. In 1872, Congress passes an act to protect this land as well. Since it is located in a territory, rather than a state, it becomes America's first national park: Yellowstone.
By the end of the 19th century, widespread industrialization has left many Americans worried about whether the country—once a vast wilderness—will have any pristine land left. At the same time, poachers in the parks are rampant, and visitors think nothing of littering or carving their names near iconic sites like Old Faithful. Congress has yet to establish clear judicial authority or appropriations for the protection of the parks. This sparks a conservation movement by organizations such as the Sierra Club, led by John Muir; the Audubon Society, led by George Bird Grinnell; and the Boone and Crockett Club, led by Theodore Roosevelt. The movement fails, however, to stop San Francisco from building the Hetch Hetchy dam at Yosemite, flooding Muir's "mountain temple" and leaving him broken-hearted before he dies.
In the early 20th century, America has a dozen national parks, but they are a haphazard patchwork of special places under the supervision of different federal agencies. The conservation movement, after failing to stop the Hetch Hetchy dam, pushes the government to establish one unified agency to oversee all the parks, leading to the establishment of the National Park Service in 1916. Its first director, Stephen Mather, a wealthy businessman and passionate park advocate who fought vigorously to establish the NPS, launches an energetic campaign to expand the national park system and bring more visitors to the parks. Among his efforts is to protect the Grand Canyon from encroaching commercial interests and establish it as a national park, rather than a national monument.
While visiting the parks was once predominantly the domain of Americans wealthy enough to afford the high-priced train tours, the advent of the automobile allows more people than ever before to visit the parks. Mather embraces this opportunity and works to build more roads in the parks. Some park enthusiasts, such as Margaret and Edward Gehrke of Nebraska, begin "collecting" parks, making a point to visit as many as they can. In North Carolina, Horace Kephart, a reclusive writer, and George Masa, a Japanese immigrant, launch a campaign to protect the last strands of virgin forest in the Smoky Mountains by establishing it as a park. In Wyoming, John D. Rockefeller Jr. begins quietly buying up land in the Teton Mountain Range and valley in a secret plan to donate it to the government as a park.
To battle unemployment in the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt creates the Civilian Conservation Corps, which spawns a "golden age" for the parks through major renovation projects. In a groundbreaking study, a young NPS biologist named George Melendez Wright discovers widespread abuses of animal habitats and pushes the service to reform its wildlife policies. Congress narrowly passes a bill to protect the Everglades in Florida as a national park—the first time a park has been created solely to preserve an ecosystem, as opposed to scenic beauty. As America becomes entrenched in World War II, Roosevelt is pressured to open the parks to mining, grazing and lumbering. The president also is subjected to a storm of criticism for expanding the Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming by accepting a gift of land secretly purchased by John D. Rockefeller Jr.
Following World War II, the parks are overwhelmed as visitation reaches 62 million people a year. A new billion-dollar campaign—Mission 66—is created to build facilities and infrastructure that can accommodate the flood of visitors. A biologist named Adolph Murie introduces the revolutionary notion that predatory animals, which are still hunted, deserve the same protection as other wildlife. In Florida, Lancelot Jones, the grandson of a slave, refuses to sell to developers his family's property on a string of unspoiled islands in Biscayne Bay and instead sells it to the federal government to be protected as a national monument. In the late 1970s, President Jimmy Carter creates an uproar in Alaska when he sets aside 56 million acres of land for preservation—the largest expansion of protected land in history. In 1995, wolves are re-established in Yellowstone, making the world's first national park a little more like what it once was.
This short film celebrates the diverse history of the national parks, bringing together stories of extraordinary people from a variety of backgrounds who devoted their lives to the national park ideal-to preserve and protect these special places for everyone. Narrated by Ken Burns.
Filmmaker and his longtime colleague Dayton Duncan take us on a behind-the-scenes tour of their series The National Parks: Americas Best Idea.
Ken Burns, Dayton Duncan, and their crew on location at Denali, the Grand Canyon and other national parks.
Find out about the work of ranger Shelton Johnson and his rediscovery of the story of the African American soldiers who patrolled the parks of the High Sierra at the turn of the last century. Shelton tells the story in the dramatis personae of a Buffalo Soldier himself, directly engaging visitors in a way that is immediate and often high impact.
San Antonio Missions National Historical Park is a thriving hub for the city's Latino community, the park hosts Spanish and English language masses throughout the week, celebrates traditional Hispanic festivals year-round, and educates more than 50,000 school children annually about our nation's Hispanic heritage.
Discover the new interpretive program at Mount Rushmore National Memorial, spearheaded by Supt. Gerard Baker.
Take a look at the interconnected stories of Japanese internment during World War II, Sue Kunitomi Embrey's efforts to commemorate Manzanar internment camp, and the ongoing work of Manzanar National Historic Site to educate visitors about civil rights.
Explore efforts to bring inner city kids into the parks, often for their first encounters with wilderness. The film tells the story through the lens of two programs -- Biscayne National Park and Death Valley National Park.
A Navajo family balances modern life with the traditional "Navajo Way," teaching their children their language, culture, and ceremony within the sacred walls of Canyon de Chelly National Monument. This short film from National Park Experience is part of a series highlighting the powerful and diverse stories of people who are forging incredible relationships with the National Parks.
