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00:00:59,068 --> 00:01:02,936
MAN: One learns that the
world, though made, is

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00:01:02,972 --> 00:01:09,810
yet being made, that this is
still the morning of creation,

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00:01:09,846 --> 00:01:14,806
that mountains long conceived
and now being born brought to

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00:01:14,851 --> 00:01:19,550
light by the glaciers,
channels traced for rivers,

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00:01:19,589 --> 00:01:21,420
basins hollowed for lakes.

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00:01:40,310 --> 00:01:43,837
When we try to pick out
anything by itself, we find it

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00:01:43,880 --> 00:01:49,011
hitched to everything
else in the universe.

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00:01:49,052 --> 00:01:52,283
The whole wilderness
in uniry and interrelation

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00:01:52,322 --> 00:01:54,552
is alive and familiar.

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00:01:57,527 --> 00:02:00,052
The very stones
seem talkative,

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00:02:00,163 --> 00:02:02,654
sympathetic, brotherly.

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00:02:08,505 --> 00:02:11,963
Everybody needs beauty,
as well as bread, places to

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00:02:12,008 --> 00:02:17,241
play in and pray in, where
nature may heal and give

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00:02:17,280 --> 00:02:22,843
strength to body
and soul alike.

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00:02:22,886 --> 00:02:26,219
This natural beauty hunger
is made manifest in our

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00:02:26,256 --> 00:02:29,089
magnificent national parks...

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00:02:32,395 --> 00:02:35,956
nature's sublime wonderlands,

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00:02:35,999 --> 00:02:40,436
the admiration and joy
of the world.

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00:02:40,470 --> 00:02:41,835
John Muir.

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00:03:22,512 --> 00:03:24,343
PETER COYOTE: They are
a treasure house of nature's

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00:03:24,380 --> 00:03:29,408
superlatives, 84 million
acres of the most stunning

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00:03:29,452 --> 00:03:32,853
landscapes anyone
has ever seen...

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00:03:39,162 --> 00:03:42,598
including: a mountain so
massive it creates its own

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00:03:42,632 --> 00:03:47,365
weather, whose peak rises more
than 20,000 feet above

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00:03:47,403 --> 00:03:51,203
sea level, the highest point
on the continent...

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00:03:58,147 --> 00:04:02,277
a valley where a river
disappears into burning sands

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00:04:02,385 --> 00:04:07,880
282 feet below sea level,
the lowest and hottest

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00:04:07,857 --> 00:04:10,291
location in the hemisphere...

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00:04:15,064 --> 00:04:19,330
a labyrinth of caves longer
than any other ever measured...

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00:04:22,405 --> 00:04:24,771
and the deepest lake
in the nation

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00:04:24,807 --> 00:04:27,332
with the clearest water
in the world.

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00:04:36,519 --> 00:04:41,980
They contain trees dead
for 225 million years

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00:04:42,025 --> 00:04:43,925
that are now solid rock...

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00:04:48,698 --> 00:04:52,828
and trees still growing that
were already saplings before

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00:04:52,869 --> 00:04:56,100
the time of Christ, before
Rome conquered the known

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00:04:56,139 --> 00:05:00,337
world, before the Greeks
worshipped in the Parthenon,

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00:05:00,443 --> 00:05:05,380
before the Egyptians built
the pyramids, trees that are

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00:05:05,348 --> 00:05:10,547
the oldest
living things on Earth

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00:05:10,586 --> 00:05:14,613
and the tallest and the largest.

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00:05:21,497 --> 00:05:25,024
They encompass a mile-deep
gash in the ground, where the

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00:05:25,068 --> 00:05:29,903
Hopis say the first people
emerged from the underworld

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00:05:29,939 --> 00:05:33,966
and where scientists say
a river has patiently carved its

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00:05:34,010 --> 00:05:40,040
way to expose rocks that are
1.7 billion years old,

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00:05:40,083 --> 00:05:43,109
nearly half the age
of the planet itself...

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00:05:49,559 --> 00:05:53,825
and an island where a goddess
named Pele destroys everything

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00:05:53,863 --> 00:05:57,959
in her path while she
simultaneously gives birth

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00:05:58,000 --> 00:05:59,627
to new land.

48
00:06:09,612 --> 00:06:13,241
They preserve cathedrals
of stone gaily ornamented

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00:06:13,282 --> 00:06:15,773
by cascading ribbons
of water...

50
00:06:19,021 --> 00:06:22,513
Arctic dreamscapes where
the rivers are made of ice...

51
00:06:26,662 --> 00:06:30,792
and a geological wonderland
with rivers that steam,

52
00:06:30,833 --> 00:06:34,234
mud that boils amidst
the greatest collection

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00:06:34,270 --> 00:06:36,431
of geysers in the world.

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00:06:52,455 --> 00:06:55,822
They became the last refuge
for magnificent species

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00:06:55,858 --> 00:07:00,352
of animals that otherwise
would have vanished forever...

56
00:07:05,134 --> 00:07:09,093
and they remain a refuge
for human beings seeking to

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00:07:09,138 --> 00:07:13,871
replenish their spirit,
geographies of memory and hope

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00:07:13,910 --> 00:07:17,073
where countless American
families have forged

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00:07:17,113 --> 00:07:21,049
an intimate connection to
their land and then passed it

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00:07:21,083 --> 00:07:23,449
along to their children.

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00:07:28,658 --> 00:07:34,324
MAN: l think that deep in our
DNA is this embedded memory

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00:07:34,363 --> 00:07:38,026
of when we were not separated
from the rest of the natural

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00:07:38,067 --> 00:07:42,299
world, that we
were part of it.

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00:07:42,338 --> 00:07:45,068
The Bible talks about
the Garden of Eden as that

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00:07:45,107 --> 00:07:48,804
experience that we had at the
beginnings of our dimmest

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00:07:48,845 --> 00:07:54,442
memories as a species, and so
when we enter a park, we're

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00:07:54,483 --> 00:07:57,509
entering a place that has
been--at least the attempt has

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00:07:57,553 --> 00:08:01,614
been made to keep it like it
once was, and we cross that

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00:08:01,724 --> 00:08:06,184
boundary, and suddenly,
we're no longer masters

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00:08:06,162 --> 00:08:07,356
of the natural world.

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00:08:07,396 --> 00:08:12,026
We're part of it,
and in that sense,

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00:08:12,068 --> 00:08:15,162
it's like we're going home.

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00:08:15,204 --> 00:08:16,569
lt doesn't matter
where we're from.

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00:08:16,606 --> 00:08:21,202
We've come back to a place
that is where we came from.

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00:08:30,720 --> 00:08:34,816
MAN: lt is the preservation of
the scenery, of the forests,

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00:08:34,857 --> 00:08:38,884
and the wilderness game for
the people as a whole instead

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00:08:38,928 --> 00:08:42,261
of leaving the enjoyment
thereof to be confined to

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00:08:42,298 --> 00:08:44,766
the very rich.

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00:08:44,800 --> 00:08:48,827
lt is noteworthy in its
essential democracy, one

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00:08:48,871 --> 00:08:53,103
of the best bits of national
achievement which our people

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00:08:53,142 --> 00:08:58,205
have to their credit, and our
people should see to it that

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00:08:58,247 --> 00:09:01,910
they are preserved for their
children and their children's

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00:09:02,018 --> 00:09:10,050
children forever with their
majestic beaury all unmarred.

84
00:09:10,026 --> 00:09:11,516
Theodore Roosevelt.

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00:09:25,474 --> 00:09:27,772
COYOTE: But they are more
than a collection of rocks

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00:09:27,810 --> 00:09:32,372
and trees and inspirational
scenes from nature.

87
00:09:32,415 --> 00:09:37,250
They embody something less
tangible yet equally enduring,

88
00:09:37,286 --> 00:09:41,723
an idea born in the
United States nearly a century

89
00:09:41,757 --> 00:09:45,853
after its creation,
as uniquely American as

90
00:09:45,895 --> 00:09:50,992
the Declaration of lndependence
and just as radical.

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00:09:51,033 --> 00:09:53,501
MAN: What could be more
democratic than owning

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00:09:53,536 --> 00:09:59,031
together the most magnificent
places on your continent?

93
00:09:59,075 --> 00:10:01,009
Think about Europe.

94
00:10:01,043 --> 00:10:03,341
ln Europe, the most
magnificent places,

95
00:10:03,379 --> 00:10:08,112
the palaces, the parks,
are owned by aristocrats,

96
00:10:08,150 --> 00:10:10,141
by monarchs, by the wealthy.

97
00:10:10,186 --> 00:10:14,520
ln America, magnificence is
a common treasure.

98
00:10:14,557 --> 00:10:18,516
That's the essence
of our democracy.

99
00:10:18,561 --> 00:10:21,189
COYOTE: ''National parks,''
the writer and historian

100
00:10:21,230 --> 00:10:24,825
Wallace Stegner once said,
''are the best idea

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00:10:24,867 --> 00:10:28,030
we've ever had.''

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00:10:28,070 --> 00:10:30,664
MAN: lt's not the best idea.

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00:10:30,706 --> 00:10:33,607
The best idea came from
Thomas Jefferson, that all human

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00:10:33,642 --> 00:10:36,440
beings, irrespective of the
accident of their birth,

105
00:10:36,479 --> 00:10:39,346
are entitled to enjoy the
aspirations of being fully

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00:10:39,382 --> 00:10:41,441
complete and free
human beings.

107
00:10:41,484 --> 00:10:45,181
That's America's gift
to the world,

108
00:10:45,221 --> 00:10:49,590
but right up there
are the national parks.

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00:10:49,625 --> 00:10:53,288
Jefferson, l think, would say
if you go out into the heart

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00:10:53,329 --> 00:10:57,891
of America and see this
continent in its glory,

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00:10:57,933 --> 00:10:59,958
it will embolden
you to dream

112
00:11:00,069 --> 00:11:05,439
about the possibilities of life,
that American nature is

113
00:11:05,408 --> 00:11:09,469
the guarantor of American
Constitutional freedom,

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00:11:09,512 --> 00:11:13,471
that if you don't have
a genuine link to nature

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00:11:13,516 --> 00:11:16,644
in a serious,
even profound way,

116
00:11:16,685 --> 00:11:19,779
you can't be an American.

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00:11:19,822 --> 00:11:23,053
COYOTE: Like the idea
of America itself, full

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00:11:23,092 --> 00:11:27,461
of competing demands and
impulses, the national park

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00:11:27,496 --> 00:11:31,728
idea has been constantly
debated, constantly tested,

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00:11:31,767 --> 00:11:36,704
and is constantly evolving,
ultimately embracing places

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00:11:36,739 --> 00:11:40,835
that also preserve the
nation's first principles,

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00:11:40,876 --> 00:11:46,542
its highest aspirations,
its greatest sacrifices,

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00:11:46,582 --> 00:11:52,748
even reminders of its
most shameful mistakes.

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00:11:52,788 --> 00:11:56,815
Most of all, the story of the
national parks is the story

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00:11:56,859 --> 00:12:00,795
of people, people from every
conceivable background,

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00:12:00,896 --> 00:12:04,559
rich and poor,
famous and unknown, soldiers

127
00:12:04,533 --> 00:12:10,062
and scientists, natives and
newcomers, idealists, artists,

128
00:12:10,106 --> 00:12:14,202
and entrepreneurs, people
who were willing to devote

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00:12:14,243 --> 00:12:18,236
themselves to saving some
precious portion of the land

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00:12:18,280 --> 00:12:23,411
they loved and in doing so
reminded their fellow citizens

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00:12:23,452 --> 00:12:28,549
of the full meaning
of democracy.

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00:12:28,591 --> 00:12:31,617
From the very beginning as
they struggled over who should

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00:12:31,660 --> 00:12:35,027
control their national parks,
what should be allowed within

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00:12:35,064 --> 00:12:39,501
their boundaries, even why
they should exist at all,

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00:12:39,535 --> 00:12:42,971
Americans have looked upon
these wonders of nature

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00:12:43,005 --> 00:12:47,032
and seen in them the
reflection of their own dreams.

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00:12:52,815 --> 00:12:55,079
MAN: One of the things l think
we witness when we go to the

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00:12:55,117 --> 00:13:01,215
parks is the immensiry and
the intimacy of time.

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00:13:01,323 --> 00:13:04,588
On the one hand, we experience
the immensiry of time,

140
00:13:04,560 --> 00:13:10,089
which is the creation itself,
it is the universe unfolding

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00:13:10,132 --> 00:13:16,594
before us, and yet it is also
time shared with the people

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00:13:16,639 --> 00:13:19,107
that we visit these places
with, and so it's the

143
00:13:19,141 --> 00:13:21,701
experience that we remember
when our parents took us

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00:13:21,744 --> 00:13:25,271
for the first time to these
and then we as parents passing

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00:13:25,314 --> 00:13:30,251
them on to our children,
a kind intimate transmission

146
00:13:30,286 --> 00:13:33,221
from generation to generation
to generation of the love

147
00:13:33,255 --> 00:13:37,248
of place, the love of nation
that the national parks are

148
00:13:37,293 --> 00:13:38,954
meant to stand for.

149
00:13:52,575 --> 00:13:54,475
[Birds chirping]

150
00:13:54,510 --> 00:13:56,034
[Water running]

151
00:13:56,078 --> 00:13:59,479
COYOTE: Early in 1851 during
the frenzy of the California

152
00:13:59,582 --> 00:14:03,484
gold rush, an armed group of
white men was scouring the

153
00:14:03,452 --> 00:14:06,421
western slopes of
the Sierra Nevada,

154
00:14:06,455 --> 00:14:08,286
searching for lndians,

155
00:14:08,324 --> 00:14:13,193
intent on driving them
from their homeland.

156
00:14:13,229 --> 00:14:17,563
They called themselves the
Mariposa Battalion, and late

157
00:14:17,600 --> 00:14:22,162
on the afternoon of March 27,
they came to a narrow valley

158
00:14:22,204 --> 00:14:26,197
lined by towering granite
cliffs where a series

159
00:14:26,242 --> 00:14:29,336
of waterfalls dropped
thousands of feet to reach

160
00:14:29,378 --> 00:14:33,041
the Merced River
on the valley's floor.

161
00:14:33,082 --> 00:14:37,576
One of the men, a young doctor
named Lafayette Bunnell stood

162
00:14:37,620 --> 00:14:42,523
there transfixed.

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00:14:42,558 --> 00:14:44,753
MAN AS LAFAYETTE AS BUNNELL:
As l looked, a peculiar,

164
00:14:44,793 --> 00:14:49,093
exalted sensation seemed
to fill my whole being,

165
00:14:49,131 --> 00:14:53,261
and l found my eyes
in tears with emotion.

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00:14:53,302 --> 00:14:57,932
l said with some enthusiasm,
''l have here seen the power

167
00:14:57,973 --> 00:15:01,374
''and glory
of the Supreme Being.

168
00:15:01,477 --> 00:15:05,470
''The majesry of His handiwork
is in that testimony

169
00:15:05,447 --> 00:15:08,507
''of the rocks.''

170
00:15:08,550 --> 00:15:11,018
COYOTE: Bunnell's enchantment
with the scenery was not

171
00:15:11,053 --> 00:15:15,080
shared by the rest of the
Mariposa Battalion, who busied

172
00:15:15,124 --> 00:15:20,790
themselves setting fire to
any lndian homes they found.

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00:15:20,829 --> 00:15:24,788
Before the Battalion moved on,
Bunnell convinced the others

174
00:15:24,833 --> 00:15:28,633
that as the first white men
ever to enter the valley they

175
00:15:28,671 --> 00:15:31,469
should give it a name.

176
00:15:31,507 --> 00:15:34,965
He suggested Yosemite because
he thought that was the name

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00:15:35,010 --> 00:15:40,380
of the tribe they had
come to dispossess.

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00:15:40,416 --> 00:15:43,317
Later, scholars would learn
that the people living in

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00:15:43,352 --> 00:15:47,618
the valley called it Ahwahnee,
meaning the place of a gaping

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00:15:47,656 --> 00:15:53,754
mouth, and they called
themselves the Ahwahneechee.

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00:15:53,796 --> 00:15:56,458
Yosemite, it was learned,
meant something

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00:15:56,498 --> 00:15:58,625
entirely different.

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00:15:58,667 --> 00:16:02,364
ln the native language,
Yosemite refers to people

184
00:16:02,404 --> 00:16:05,601
who should be feared.

185
00:16:05,641 --> 00:16:08,371
lt means they are killers.

186
00:16:14,583 --> 00:16:19,384
4 years later in 1855,
a second group of white people

187
00:16:19,421 --> 00:16:23,915
entered Yosemite Valley,
this time as tourists,

188
00:16:23,959 --> 00:16:26,792
not lndian fighters.

189
00:16:26,829 --> 00:16:29,559
They were led by
James Mason Hutchings,

190
00:16:29,598 --> 00:16:32,658
an energetic Englishman
who had failed miserably

191
00:16:32,701 --> 00:16:35,693
as a prospector
during the gold rush.

192
00:16:35,738 --> 00:16:39,139
Now he hoped to make a fortune
by promoting California's

193
00:16:39,174 --> 00:16:45,374
scenic wonders through
an illustrated magazine.

194
00:16:45,414 --> 00:16:48,975
When a report about the
lndian campaign in the Sierras

195
00:16:49,017 --> 00:16:52,817
mentioned a waterfall
more than 1,000 feet high,

196
00:16:52,855 --> 00:16:56,518
Hutchings rushed to see
it for himself.

197
00:16:56,558 --> 00:17:00,050
Word and images of
Yosemite quickly spread.

198
00:17:10,873 --> 00:17:14,001
Other tourists began
showing up to witness

199
00:17:14,042 --> 00:17:16,977
its beaury firsthand.

200
00:17:17,012 --> 00:17:20,675
The trip required a two-day
journey from San Francisco to

201
00:17:20,716 --> 00:17:24,743
the nearest town and then,
with no wagon road into

202
00:17:24,787 --> 00:17:30,521
the valley, a grueling 3-day
trek by foot or horseback up

203
00:17:30,559 --> 00:17:34,689
and down steep mountainsides
on narrow, rocky paths.

204
00:17:40,202 --> 00:17:46,505
But for most, the scenic
reward was worth the hardship.

205
00:17:46,542 --> 00:17:48,874
''Looking at the majestic
cathedral rocks

206
00:17:48,911 --> 00:17:51,539
''and cathedral spires,''
wrote a Massachusetts

207
00:17:51,580 --> 00:17:53,946
newspaperman, ''made it easy to

208
00:17:53,982 --> 00:17:57,349
''imagine that you are under
the ruins of an old gothic

209
00:17:57,386 --> 00:18:01,117
''cathedral to which those of
Cologne and Milan are

210
00:18:01,223 --> 00:18:03,555
''but baby houses.''

211
00:18:03,525 --> 00:18:07,052
Upon seeing Yosemite Falls,
the highest free-leaping

212
00:18:07,095 --> 00:18:10,792
waterfall on the continent,
another visitor began

213
00:18:10,833 --> 00:18:12,926
quoting The Bible.

214
00:18:12,968 --> 00:18:20,340
''Now let me die,'' he told his
companions, ''for l am happy.''

215
00:18:20,375 --> 00:18:23,310
15 miles south of
Yosemite Valley,

216
00:18:23,345 --> 00:18:26,940
the Mariposa Grove
of giant sequoias contains

217
00:18:26,982 --> 00:18:28,472
the largest living things

218
00:18:28,517 --> 00:18:33,682
on earth, trees
nearly 3,000 years old.

219
00:18:33,722 --> 00:18:36,452
When Horace Greeley, editor
of the ''New York Tribune,''

220
00:18:36,492 --> 00:18:39,791
saw them, he boasted to his
readers that they were

221
00:18:39,828 --> 00:18:46,256
''of substantial size when David
danced before the Ark.''

222
00:18:46,301 --> 00:18:50,237
Soon, the celebrated painter
Albert Bierstadt arrived

223
00:18:50,272 --> 00:18:55,642
and produced a series
of masterpieces.

224
00:18:55,677 --> 00:19:00,478
One of them would command
a price of $25,000, equal to

225
00:19:00,582 --> 00:19:07,647
the highest amount ever paid
for an American work of art.

226
00:19:07,623 --> 00:19:11,423
While Bierstadt painted,
his friend Fitz Hugh Ludlow

227
00:19:11,460 --> 00:19:15,191
wrote dispatches that appeared
in ''The Atlantic Monthly,''

228
00:19:15,230 --> 00:19:20,031
the nation's most
prestigious magazine.

229
00:19:20,068 --> 00:19:22,059
MAN AS FlTZ HUGH LUDLOW:
We did not so much seem to be

230
00:19:22,104 --> 00:19:27,098
seeing from that crag of
vision a new scene on the old

231
00:19:27,142 --> 00:19:32,239
familiar globe as a new heaven
and a new earth into which

232
00:19:32,281 --> 00:19:37,275
the creative spirit had
just been breathed.

233
00:19:37,319 --> 00:19:42,018
l hesitate now, as l did then,
at the attempt to give my

234
00:19:42,057 --> 00:19:44,025
vision utterance.

235
00:19:44,059 --> 00:19:48,393
Never were words as beggared
for an abridged translation

236
00:19:48,430 --> 00:19:51,228
of any scripture of nature.

237
00:20:04,379 --> 00:20:06,904
JENKlNSON: Jefferson looked
across America from the

238
00:20:06,949 --> 00:20:10,544
portico at Monticello, and
he saw wilderness all the way

239
00:20:10,586 --> 00:20:15,956
out, so he couldn't conceive
of a national park because,

240
00:20:15,991 --> 00:20:18,983
for Jefferson, America
was a national park.

241
00:20:19,027 --> 00:20:23,691
This country is Eden, and we
Americans had this glorious

242
00:20:23,732 --> 00:20:28,999
opportuniry to see the world
in its infancy so that America

243
00:20:29,037 --> 00:20:32,939
in a sense had been kept as
a symbol of what

244
00:20:32,975 --> 00:20:36,308
the world once was.

245
00:20:36,345 --> 00:20:39,439
COYOTE: As Thomas Jefferson's
nation had grown,

246
00:20:39,481 --> 00:20:43,110
the country's sense of itself
and its possibilities had

247
00:20:43,151 --> 00:20:47,588
grown, as well, not only
in the political sphere

248
00:20:47,623 --> 00:20:51,286
but in the arts, literature,
and in its citizens'

249
00:20:51,326 --> 00:20:56,059
relationship to God.

250
00:20:56,098 --> 00:20:58,623
MAN: At the gates of the
forest, the surprised man

251
00:20:58,667 --> 00:21:01,932
of the world is forced to
leave his ciry estimates

252
00:21:02,037 --> 00:21:06,599
of great and small,
wise and foolish.

253
00:21:06,575 --> 00:21:11,012
The knapsack of custom falls
off his back with the first

254
00:21:11,046 --> 00:21:13,606
step he takes.

255
00:21:13,649 --> 00:21:19,087
Here is sanctiry which shames
our religions and realiry

256
00:21:19,121 --> 00:21:22,818
which discredits our heroes.

257
00:21:22,858 --> 00:21:27,192
Here, we find nature to be
the circumstance which dwarfs

258
00:21:27,229 --> 00:21:32,963
every other circumstance
and judges like a god all men

259
00:21:33,001 --> 00:21:35,765
that come to her.

260
00:21:35,804 --> 00:21:40,741
Ralph Waldo Emerson.

261
00:21:40,776 --> 00:21:44,177
COYOTE: The transcendentalist
writer Ralph Waldo Emerson had

262
00:21:44,212 --> 00:21:48,148
been telling Americans for
years that God was more easily

263
00:21:48,183 --> 00:21:53,644
found in nature than
in the works of man.

264
00:21:53,689 --> 00:21:56,658
His disciple,
Henry David Thoreau,

265
00:21:56,692 --> 00:22:00,719
had called for ''little oases
of wildness in the desert

266
00:22:00,829 --> 00:22:03,889
''of our civilization.''

267
00:22:03,865 --> 00:22:07,665
CRONON: What emerges in the
middle of the 19th Century is

268
00:22:07,703 --> 00:22:15,610
this idea that going back to
wild nature is restorative,

269
00:22:15,644 --> 00:22:18,977
it's a way of escaping the
corruptions of urban civilized

270
00:22:19,014 --> 00:22:22,279
life, finding a more innocent
self, returning to who you

271
00:22:22,317 --> 00:22:27,414
really are, returning to a
kind of authenticiry, and if

272
00:22:27,456 --> 00:22:30,687
you want to know God at
firsthand, the way to do that

273
00:22:30,726 --> 00:22:33,923
is not to enter a cathedral,
not to open a book, but to go

274
00:22:33,962 --> 00:22:38,592
to the mountaintop, and on the
mountaintop, there you will

275
00:22:38,633 --> 00:22:41,363
see God as God truly is
in the world.

276
00:22:46,808 --> 00:22:50,175
COYOTE: But it was all
in danger as the nation,

277
00:22:50,212 --> 00:22:54,046
in the name of manifest
destiny, marched inexorably

278
00:22:54,082 --> 00:22:58,143
across the continent,
systematically dispossessing

279
00:22:58,186 --> 00:23:01,622
lndian peoples from their
homelands and transforming

280
00:23:01,723 --> 00:23:05,284
the land to new uses.

281
00:23:05,260 --> 00:23:08,957
The artist George Catlin
worried that the vast herds

282
00:23:08,997 --> 00:23:12,899
of buffalo and the lndians who
depended on them would someday

283
00:23:12,934 --> 00:23:17,496
be gone forever, and he called
for the creation of a nation's

284
00:23:17,539 --> 00:23:21,066
park to save them both.

285
00:23:21,109 --> 00:23:23,509
No one listened.

286
00:23:23,545 --> 00:23:28,676
By the 1860s, the country's
most famous natural landmark,

287
00:23:28,717 --> 00:23:32,949
Niagara Falls, had
already been nearly ruined.

288
00:23:32,988 --> 00:23:36,321
Every overlook was owned by
a private landowner

289
00:23:36,358 --> 00:23:38,553
charging a fee.

290
00:23:38,593 --> 00:23:41,858
Tourists could expect to
be badgered and oftentimes

291
00:23:41,897 --> 00:23:46,061
swindled by the hucksters
and self-appointed guides who

292
00:23:46,101 --> 00:23:50,094
swarmed the railroad depot
and carriage stands.

293
00:23:50,138 --> 00:23:53,505
European visitors publicly
belittled Americans

294
00:23:53,542 --> 00:23:57,171
for allowing such a majestic
work of nature to become

295
00:23:57,212 --> 00:24:01,114
blighted by commercial
development and offered it as

296
00:24:01,216 --> 00:24:04,447
further evidence that the
United States was still

297
00:24:04,419 --> 00:24:09,789
a backward,
uncivilized nation.

298
00:24:09,825 --> 00:24:12,089
CRONON: Americans feel that
the United States is somehow

299
00:24:12,127 --> 00:24:16,791
inferior to Europe, where the
United States doesn't have the

300
00:24:16,832 --> 00:24:19,824
ruins of Rome or of Greece,
it doesn't have the Acropolis,

301
00:24:19,868 --> 00:24:22,393
it doesn't have the Parthenon,
and so it seems like we're

302
00:24:22,437 --> 00:24:28,501
an inferior nation, and yet
the one thing we do have is

303
00:24:28,543 --> 00:24:31,740
a nature that looks closer to
the new morning of God's own

304
00:24:31,780 --> 00:24:35,807
creation, closer to paradise
than anything that Europe has

305
00:24:35,851 --> 00:24:40,379
to offer, and so the thought
is that if we're to preserve

306
00:24:40,422 --> 00:24:44,756
anything that stands for the
glory of America, then these

307
00:24:44,793 --> 00:24:48,085
overwhelmingly beautiful,
sacred spots are the ones we

308
00:24:48,130 --> 00:24:50,857
ought to preserve.

309
00:24:50,900 --> 00:24:55,803
COYOTE: On May 17, 1864,
in the midst of the Civil War,

310
00:24:55,838 --> 00:24:59,740
with Union casualties
averaging 2,000 a day,

311
00:24:59,842 --> 00:25:03,505
the junior senator from
California, John Conness,

312
00:25:03,479 --> 00:25:08,940
rose to explain a bill
he had just introduced.

313
00:25:08,985 --> 00:25:11,977
lt had nothing to do
with the war that threatened

314
00:25:12,021 --> 00:25:15,422
to destroy his nation.

315
00:25:15,458 --> 00:25:17,358
MAN AS JOHN CONNESS: l will
state to the Senate that this

316
00:25:17,393 --> 00:25:21,056
bill proposes to make a grant
of certain premises located

317
00:25:21,097 --> 00:25:25,557
in the Sierra Nevada Mountains
in the state of California

318
00:25:25,601 --> 00:25:30,903
that are for all public
purposes worthless but which

319
00:25:30,940 --> 00:25:35,570
constitute perhaps some of the
greatest wonders of the world.

320
00:25:35,611 --> 00:25:39,206
lt is a matter involving
no appropriation whatever.

321
00:25:39,248 --> 00:25:43,742
The properry is of no
value to the government.

322
00:25:43,786 --> 00:25:46,721
COYOTE: Conness' bill
proposed something totally

323
00:25:46,756 --> 00:25:50,783
unprecedented in human history,
setting aside not

324
00:25:50,826 --> 00:25:55,422
a landscaped garden or a
ciry park but a large tract

325
00:25:55,464 --> 00:26:01,733
of natural scenery for the
future enjoyment of everyone.

326
00:26:01,771 --> 00:26:05,901
More than 60 square miles of
federal land, encompassing

327
00:26:05,942 --> 00:26:10,379
the Yosemite Valley and the
Mariposa Grove of big trees,

328
00:26:10,413 --> 00:26:13,143
were to be transferred to
the care of the state

329
00:26:13,182 --> 00:26:17,983
of California on the condition
that the land never be opened

330
00:26:18,020 --> 00:26:22,150
for private ownership
and instead be preserved

331
00:26:22,191 --> 00:26:28,027
for public use, resort,
and recreation.

332
00:26:28,064 --> 00:26:32,194
After only a few questions
and no objections, the Senate

333
00:26:32,234 --> 00:26:37,194
passed Conness' bill and
moved on to other business.

334
00:26:37,239 --> 00:26:44,975
A month later, the House did
the same, and on June 30, 1864,

335
00:26:45,014 --> 00:26:48,450
a day in which he also
signed bills increasing import

336
00:26:48,484 --> 00:26:52,147
duties and broadening the
income tax in order to

337
00:26:52,188 --> 00:26:55,715
continue a war to
preserve the Union,

338
00:26:55,758 --> 00:27:00,491
President Abraham Lincoln signed
a law to preserve forever

339
00:27:00,596 --> 00:27:04,999
a beautiful valley and a grove
of trees that he had never seen

340
00:27:04,967 --> 00:27:10,837
thousands of miles
away in California.

341
00:27:10,873 --> 00:27:13,000
JENKlNSON: And so Lincoln,
who realizes that it's the

342
00:27:13,042 --> 00:27:17,775
West that is the dynamo of
American life, it's the fuel

343
00:27:17,813 --> 00:27:23,945
of American idealism--Lincoln
wants to save some significant

344
00:27:23,986 --> 00:27:29,652
portions of it from what he
sees as the North's runaway

345
00:27:29,692 --> 00:27:35,187
industrial idea of the
future of the continent.

346
00:27:35,231 --> 00:27:38,758
ln a sense, the whole history
of America is a lament that

347
00:27:38,801 --> 00:27:42,567
this Garden of Eden which we
have discovered is going to

348
00:27:42,605 --> 00:27:44,573
slip away from us somehow.

349
00:27:54,550 --> 00:27:58,384
MAN: When l think of a grove
of giant sequoia, l think

350
00:27:58,487 --> 00:28:03,288
of a cathedral or a church,
a place where you're not

351
00:28:03,259 --> 00:28:07,457
necessarily worshipping
the name of something

352
00:28:07,496 --> 00:28:11,125
but the presence
of something else.

353
00:28:11,167 --> 00:28:14,068
There's no need for someone
to remind you that there is

354
00:28:14,103 --> 00:28:16,970
something in this world
that is larger than you are

355
00:28:17,006 --> 00:28:22,603
because you can see it,
and you look up in a storm,

356
00:28:22,645 --> 00:28:24,510
and you can't even see
the rim of the valley.

357
00:28:24,547 --> 00:28:27,107
All you can see our clouds
gathered there at the rim

358
00:28:27,149 --> 00:28:29,879
of the valley, and Yosemite
Falls seems to flow out

359
00:28:29,919 --> 00:28:34,322
of the clouds itself
as if out of nowhere.

360
00:28:34,356 --> 00:28:36,722
lt's a gathering place
of water, all the waters

361
00:28:36,759 --> 00:28:39,626
of the sky flowing into that
one spot, which makes it

362
00:28:39,662 --> 00:28:43,223
a gathering of life and a
gathering of spirit, as well,

363
00:28:43,265 --> 00:28:45,790
and all of those things,
are flowing through Yosemite,

364
00:28:45,835 --> 00:28:49,737
and so l think what better
place is there that has such

365
00:28:49,772 --> 00:28:52,468
a confluence of so many
things flowing together

366
00:28:52,508 --> 00:28:54,032
and the result is music?

367
00:29:05,454 --> 00:29:08,617
MAN: Men who are rich enough
provide places of needed

368
00:29:08,657 --> 00:29:10,921
recreation for themselves.

369
00:29:10,960 --> 00:29:13,224
They have done so from
the earliest periods known

370
00:29:13,262 --> 00:29:16,891
in the history of the world.

371
00:29:16,932 --> 00:29:20,834
The enjoyment of the choicest
natural scenes in the country

372
00:29:20,870 --> 00:29:27,002
is thus a monopoly of a
very few, very rich people.

373
00:29:27,042 --> 00:29:30,500
The great mass of sociery,
including those to whom it

374
00:29:30,546 --> 00:29:35,779
would be of the greatest
benefit, is excluded from it.

375
00:29:35,818 --> 00:29:40,050
Thus, unless steps are taken
by government to withhold them

376
00:29:40,089 --> 00:29:44,150
from the grasp of individuals,
all places favorable

377
00:29:44,193 --> 00:29:48,095
in scenery to the recreation
of the mind and body will be

378
00:29:48,130 --> 00:29:52,590
closed against the great
body of the people.

379
00:29:52,635 --> 00:29:56,867
Frederick Law Olmsted.

380
00:29:56,906 --> 00:30:00,467
COYOTE: 4 months after the
Civil War ended, a small group

381
00:30:00,509 --> 00:30:04,605
gathered in Yosemite Valley
to hear Frederick Law Olmsted,

382
00:30:04,647 --> 00:30:08,208
the celebrated designer of
New York Ciry's Central Park,

383
00:30:08,250 --> 00:30:11,651
read a report he had written
about the future of the land

384
00:30:11,687 --> 00:30:17,182
that had just been entrusted
to the state of California.

385
00:30:17,226 --> 00:30:20,161
He called for strict
regulations to protect the

386
00:30:20,196 --> 00:30:25,065
landscape from anything that
would, in his words, ''obscure,

387
00:30:25,100 --> 00:30:30,197
''distort, or detract from
the digniry of the scenery.''

388
00:30:30,239 --> 00:30:33,970
''ln a place as special as
Yosemite,'' Olmsted said,

389
00:30:34,009 --> 00:30:37,342
''the rights of posteriry
were more important than

390
00:30:37,379 --> 00:30:42,373
''the desires of the present.''

391
00:30:42,418 --> 00:30:44,215
MAN AS FREDERlCK LAW OLMSTED:
Before many years if proper

392
00:30:44,253 --> 00:30:47,120
facilities are offered,
these hundreds will become

393
00:30:47,156 --> 00:30:51,149
thousands, and in a century,
the whole number of visitors

394
00:30:51,193 --> 00:30:54,856
will be counted by millions.

395
00:30:54,897 --> 00:30:59,095
An injury to the scenery so
slight that it may be unheeded

396
00:30:59,201 --> 00:31:05,606
by any visitor now will be one
multiplied by those millions.

397
00:31:05,574 --> 00:31:08,771
COYOTE: But once Olmsted
returned to New York, a small

398
00:31:08,811 --> 00:31:11,507
group of Yosemite
commissioners secretly

399
00:31:11,547 --> 00:31:15,313
convened, decided his
recommendations were too

400
00:31:15,351 --> 00:31:19,981
controversial to bring to the
state legislature, and quietly

401
00:31:20,022 --> 00:31:23,549
shelved his report.

402
00:31:23,592 --> 00:31:27,392
Among those who studiously
ignored Olmsted's suggestions

403
00:31:27,429 --> 00:31:32,958
on the future of Yosemite
was James Mason Hutchings.

404
00:31:33,002 --> 00:31:35,698
No one had done more than
Hutchings to bring the valley

405
00:31:35,738 --> 00:31:40,004
to the nation's attention,
but now that the nation had

406
00:31:40,042 --> 00:31:43,136
moved to protect it in
perpetuiry by declaring it

407
00:31:43,178 --> 00:31:46,477
public, no one
fought that decision

408
00:31:46,515 --> 00:31:49,643
with greater vehemence.

409
00:31:49,685 --> 00:31:52,017
MAN: James Mason Hutchings
loved Yosemite, no doubt

410
00:31:52,054 --> 00:31:55,353
about that, and every national
park will have somebody who

411
00:31:55,391 --> 00:31:59,157
loves it deeply and then wants
to exploit the hell out of it.

412
00:31:59,261 --> 00:32:02,196
The thing about James Mason
Hutchings is that once he gets

413
00:32:02,164 --> 00:32:04,530
control of Yosemite Valley
he does exactly what most

414
00:32:04,566 --> 00:32:07,592
concessionaires do with a
beautiful place like that.

415
00:32:07,636 --> 00:32:10,537
He begins to make it into
another Niagara Falls.

416
00:32:10,572 --> 00:32:12,267
You have to pay him for
the privilege of seeing

417
00:32:12,308 --> 00:32:13,673
Yosemite Valley.

418
00:32:16,545 --> 00:32:19,537
COYOTE: He had already given
up his publishing business

419
00:32:19,581 --> 00:32:23,312
and bought one of the valley's
two hotels, which he quickly

420
00:32:23,352 --> 00:32:27,254
renamed The Hutchings House.

421
00:32:27,289 --> 00:32:30,019
He enjoyed lecturing his
guests and leading them

422
00:32:30,059 --> 00:32:33,586
on sightseeing tours,
yet sometimes failed to

423
00:32:33,629 --> 00:32:37,190
provide them with knives and
forks at dinner or forgetfully

424
00:32:37,232 --> 00:32:41,032
filled their coffee
cups with cold water.

425
00:32:41,070 --> 00:32:43,800
''Guests would be better
served,'' one of his early

426
00:32:43,839 --> 00:32:47,138
customers wrote, ''if the
proprietor paid less attention

427
00:32:47,176 --> 00:32:50,839
''to describing the beauties and
more to providing comfortable

428
00:32:50,879 --> 00:32:55,578
''beds and properly
prepared meals.''

429
00:32:55,617 --> 00:32:58,643
WOMAN: Upstairs, the rooms
were only divided by pieces

430
00:32:58,754 --> 00:33:03,782
of cotton cloth, and it
required some little strategy

431
00:33:03,759 --> 00:33:07,195
to place the candle so that
one's figure should not appear

432
00:33:07,229 --> 00:33:11,689
on the cloth partition hugely
magnified for the amusement

433
00:33:11,734 --> 00:33:15,135
of one's neighbors.

434
00:33:15,170 --> 00:33:17,570
COYOTE: Hutchings was
technically a squatter

435
00:33:17,606 --> 00:33:21,542
in Yosemite, but in brazen
defiance of the law, he went

436
00:33:21,577 --> 00:33:24,637
about expanding
his operations.

437
00:33:24,680 --> 00:33:28,081
To provide the lumber he
needed would require a sawmill

438
00:33:28,117 --> 00:33:34,022
Hutchings decided and
someone to run it.

439
00:33:34,056 --> 00:33:39,688
Just at that moment in the
fall of 1869, a 31-year-old

440
00:33:39,728 --> 00:33:44,688
Scottish-born wanderer would
show up to apply for the job.

441
00:33:44,733 --> 00:33:49,500
He called himself ''an unknown
nobody,'' but he would do far

442
00:33:49,538 --> 00:33:53,474
more than Hutchings to extol
the beaury of Yosemite,

443
00:33:53,509 --> 00:33:57,206
more than Frederick Law
Olmsted to protect it,

444
00:33:57,246 --> 00:34:02,650
and with his lyrical voice
infuse the national park idea

445
00:34:02,684 --> 00:34:05,983
with the passion of
religious fervor.

446
00:34:08,924 --> 00:34:10,653
MAN AS JOHN MUlR: l know
that l could under ordinary

447
00:34:10,692 --> 00:34:13,559
circumstances accumulate
wealth and obtain a fair

448
00:34:13,595 --> 00:34:19,329
position in sociery, but l
am sure that the mind of no

449
00:34:19,368 --> 00:34:22,769
truant schoolboy is more free
and disengaged from all the

450
00:34:22,805 --> 00:34:26,969
grave plans and purposes and
pursuits of ordinary orthodox

451
00:34:27,009 --> 00:34:29,842
life than mine.

452
00:34:29,878 --> 00:34:32,540
John Muir.

453
00:34:32,581 --> 00:34:35,141
l don't know how you ever
account for an extraordinary

454
00:34:35,184 --> 00:34:38,119
individual like John Muir.

455
00:34:38,153 --> 00:34:39,814
lt's one of the
enduring human mysteries.

456
00:34:39,855 --> 00:34:49,526
Out species is capable of such
pathetic, appalling narrowness

457
00:34:49,565 --> 00:34:54,059
and occasionally of such
magnificent generosiry.

458
00:34:54,102 --> 00:34:58,471
l don't know how to
account for that.

459
00:34:58,574 --> 00:35:02,169
COYOTE: John Muir was born in
Dunbar, Scotland, and raised

460
00:35:02,177 --> 00:35:06,170
in Wisconsin, where he had
suffered a harsh childhood

461
00:35:06,215 --> 00:35:09,207
at the hands of a ryrannical
father, an itinerant

462
00:35:09,251 --> 00:35:13,278
Presbyterian minister who
insisted that Muir memorize

463
00:35:13,322 --> 00:35:18,123
The Bible and repeatedly beat
him until by age 11 he was

464
00:35:18,160 --> 00:35:22,256
able to recite 3/4
of The Old Testament

465
00:35:22,297 --> 00:35:27,234
and the entire
New Testament by heart.

466
00:35:27,269 --> 00:35:30,966
He was a natural-born
scientist, studied geology

467
00:35:31,006 --> 00:35:34,635
and botany at the Universiry
of Wisconsin, and coming

468
00:35:34,676 --> 00:35:38,544
of age at a time when new
industries were transforming

469
00:35:38,580 --> 00:35:42,744
post-war America, Muir also
showed great promise as

470
00:35:42,784 --> 00:35:46,379
an inventor, increasing the
productiviry of every one

471
00:35:46,421 --> 00:35:49,652
of the businesses
that hired him.

472
00:35:49,691 --> 00:35:51,386
DUNCAN: He went to work in
a carriage factory

473
00:35:51,426 --> 00:35:57,023
in lndianapolis and did a sort
of time-motion study that said

474
00:35:57,065 --> 00:36:01,297
the factory is like a machine
itself and the human beings

475
00:36:01,370 --> 00:36:03,600
are parts of that.

476
00:36:03,639 --> 00:36:05,300
He could have been
Andrew Carnegie, he could have

477
00:36:05,340 --> 00:36:08,241
been--with his inventive genius,
he could have been

478
00:36:08,277 --> 00:36:14,375
Thomas Edison, but something
inside of him drew him to

479
00:36:14,416 --> 00:36:18,318
a different destiny.

480
00:36:18,353 --> 00:36:20,913
COYOTE: A factory accident
temporarily blinded him

481
00:36:20,956 --> 00:36:22,856
for several months.

482
00:36:22,891 --> 00:36:27,123
When he regained his sight,
Muir fled his workday world

483
00:36:27,162 --> 00:36:33,931
and set out on a thousand-mile
walk to Florida, pursuing his

484
00:36:33,969 --> 00:36:37,735
passion for the natural
sciences, studying plants

485
00:36:37,773 --> 00:36:43,075
and flowers, and beginning
a journal he would keep

486
00:36:43,111 --> 00:36:44,874
for the rest of his life.

487
00:37:02,564 --> 00:37:04,998
MAN: When Muir began that walk,
he was intending to walk

488
00:37:05,033 --> 00:37:08,992
to South America and to
eventually find the headwaters

489
00:37:09,037 --> 00:37:12,473
of the Amazon, build himself
a raft, and float down the

490
00:37:12,507 --> 00:37:14,839
entire length of the Amazon.

491
00:37:14,876 --> 00:37:19,176
Happily, he was discouraged
from doing so by a fever,

492
00:37:19,214 --> 00:37:22,706
probably malaria that so
weakened him he decided that

493
00:37:22,751 --> 00:37:25,311
going to the west coast and
what he had heard vaguely

494
00:37:25,354 --> 00:37:28,448
of Yosemite might
be a better idea.

495
00:37:28,490 --> 00:37:31,459
COYOTE: After getting off a
boat in San Francisco, he was

496
00:37:31,493 --> 00:37:34,758
asked, ''Where do
you wish to go?''

497
00:37:34,796 --> 00:37:40,666
Muir answered,
''Anywhere that's wild.''

498
00:37:40,702 --> 00:37:42,169
POPE: And he walks.

499
00:37:42,204 --> 00:37:46,334
The essence of John Muir
is the John Muir who walks.

500
00:37:46,375 --> 00:37:50,072
He immediately sets off across
Pacheco Pass, across the

501
00:37:50,112 --> 00:37:56,483
Central Valley to Yosemite,
and it is this act of walking

502
00:37:56,518 --> 00:38:01,615
which actually creates a
faith for him, a new version

503
00:38:01,657 --> 00:38:05,286
of Christianiry,
a Christianiry rooted in place

504
00:38:05,327 --> 00:38:08,296
and wildness and nature.

505
00:38:08,330 --> 00:38:13,495
lt's a Christianiry that is
not about the built worship

506
00:38:13,535 --> 00:38:16,971
of God but about the
worship of God's creation.

507
00:38:24,112 --> 00:38:27,673
COYOTE: Soon, he was rambling
across the Sierra Nevada,

508
00:38:27,716 --> 00:38:32,016
the vast mountains he called
''the range of light, surely

509
00:38:32,054 --> 00:38:36,753
''the brightest and best of
all the Lord has built.''

510
00:38:41,963 --> 00:38:44,454
MAN AS JOHN MUlR:
We are now in the mountains,

511
00:38:44,499 --> 00:38:49,402
and they are in us,
kindling enthusiasm, making

512
00:38:49,438 --> 00:38:54,398
every nerve quiver, filling
every pore and cell of us.

513
00:38:58,013 --> 00:39:01,813
Our flesh-and-bone tabernacle
seems transparent as glass to

514
00:39:01,850 --> 00:39:10,383
the beaury about us, neither
old nor young, sick nor well,

515
00:39:10,425 --> 00:39:12,154
but immortal.

516
00:39:16,164 --> 00:39:22,467
COYOTE: Then he descended
into Yosemite Valley.

517
00:39:22,504 --> 00:39:24,904
''lt was,'' Muir wrote,
''by far the

518
00:39:24,940 --> 00:39:28,933
''grandest of all the special
temples of nature l was ever

519
00:39:28,977 --> 00:39:33,812
''permitted to enter,

520
00:39:33,849 --> 00:39:37,012
the sanctum sanctorum
of the Sierra.''

521
00:39:39,855 --> 00:39:43,916
When Hutchings offered him the
job, he realized he could make

522
00:39:43,959 --> 00:39:49,192
Yosemite his home.

523
00:39:49,231 --> 00:39:52,894
Muir built Hutchings' sawmill
and began producing lumber

524
00:39:52,934 --> 00:39:56,062
for the many projects his
new employer directed him to

525
00:39:56,104 --> 00:40:00,131
undertake: replacing the
muslin sheets with wooden

526
00:40:00,175 --> 00:40:04,111
partitions in the hotel's
sleeping quarters; improving

527
00:40:04,146 --> 00:40:08,048
a space called The Big Tree
Room built around the trunk

528
00:40:08,083 --> 00:40:13,578
of a giant cedar; and erecting
two additional cottages to

529
00:40:13,622 --> 00:40:16,489
accommodate the increasing
number of tourists,

530
00:40:16,525 --> 00:40:21,360
now exceeding 1,000 a summer.

531
00:40:21,396 --> 00:40:25,264
For himself and a fellow
worker, Muir built a one-room

532
00:40:25,300 --> 00:40:28,701
cabin near the base of
Yosemite falls complete

533
00:40:28,737 --> 00:40:32,639
with a single window facing
the falls, a floor paved

534
00:40:32,674 --> 00:40:36,940
with stones spaced far enough
apart to allow ferns to

535
00:40:36,978 --> 00:40:40,971
continue growing, and a
small ditch that brought part

536
00:40:41,016 --> 00:40:44,042
of the creek into a corner of
the cabin ''with just enough

537
00:40:44,085 --> 00:40:47,748
''current,'' Muir wrote,
''to allow it to sing

538
00:40:47,789 --> 00:40:52,385
''and warble in low, sweet
tones, delightful at night

539
00:40:52,427 --> 00:40:57,831
''while l lay in my bed
suspended from the rafters.''

540
00:40:57,933 --> 00:41:01,630
Every free moment Muir devoted
to exploring the valley

541
00:41:01,603 --> 00:41:05,039
and the mountain ramparts
surrounding it, traveling

542
00:41:05,073 --> 00:41:09,203
for days with only a few
pounds of crackers, oatmeal,

543
00:41:09,244 --> 00:41:13,203
and tea for nourishment,
the soles of his shoes studded

544
00:41:13,248 --> 00:41:17,514
with nails for clamoring up
rocky slopes, pondering

545
00:41:17,552 --> 00:41:21,613
the geology of the Sierras,
closely inspecting everything

546
00:41:21,656 --> 00:41:26,116
he encountered, thinking
nothing of covering 50 miles

547
00:41:26,161 --> 00:41:30,962
in a two-day excursion.

548
00:41:30,999 --> 00:41:34,298
MAN AS JOHN MUlR:
l drifted from rock to rock,

549
00:41:34,336 --> 00:41:40,639
from stream to stream,
from grove to grove.

550
00:41:40,675 --> 00:41:43,803
When l discovered a new plant,
l sat down beside it

551
00:41:43,845 --> 00:41:48,646
for a minute or a day to make
its acquaintance and hear

552
00:41:48,683 --> 00:41:50,651
what it had to tell.

553
00:41:53,655 --> 00:41:57,386
l asked the boulders l met
whence they came and whither

554
00:41:57,425 --> 00:41:59,120
they were going.

555
00:42:02,998 --> 00:42:04,966
CRONON: One way to think
about John Muir is as a kind

556
00:42:05,000 --> 00:42:09,494
of ecstatic holy man, a man
who is sort of in a berserk

557
00:42:09,537 --> 00:42:12,802
rapture out there in nature
doing bizarre things that l

558
00:42:12,841 --> 00:42:15,503
think most of us can't
imagine ever doing.

559
00:42:19,180 --> 00:42:21,239
DUNCAN: He decided he
wanted to go see the brink

560
00:42:21,283 --> 00:42:24,684
of Yosemite falls a few
thousand feet or so above

561
00:42:24,719 --> 00:42:28,382
the canyon floor, and
something, he said,

562
00:42:28,423 --> 00:42:32,154
impelled him not just to go
look but to crawl out over the

563
00:42:32,193 --> 00:42:37,495
edge and bring himself along
the side of the canyon face

564
00:42:37,532 --> 00:42:40,501
so he could be--experience
what the water felt when it

565
00:42:40,535 --> 00:42:43,333
goes, leaps over the edge.

566
00:42:43,371 --> 00:42:46,238
He went behind
Yosemite Falls, l mean,

567
00:42:46,274 --> 00:42:49,539
crawling up just these very,
very dangerous,

568
00:42:49,577 --> 00:42:50,703
slippery rocks.

569
00:42:50,745 --> 00:42:53,373
l mean, he didn't have
pitons and ice axes.

570
00:42:53,415 --> 00:42:55,713
He didn't have gear.

571
00:42:55,750 --> 00:43:00,710
He climbed up so he could
stand right behind the falls.

572
00:43:00,822 --> 00:43:05,054
He said, ''l wanted to hear
the song of the waterfall.''

573
00:43:05,026 --> 00:43:07,085
STETSON: Some of the more
astonishing things he did

574
00:43:07,128 --> 00:43:10,325
there was to ride a snow
avalanche to the bottom

575
00:43:10,365 --> 00:43:12,799
of the valley, having spent
all day climbing to the top

576
00:43:12,834 --> 00:43:16,065
of the Yosemite Valley walls
and then being swished to

577
00:43:16,104 --> 00:43:20,200
the foot of that canyon in
just less than a minute.

578
00:43:20,241 --> 00:43:22,732
DUNCAN: He was interested in
the animals, and he saw a bear

579
00:43:22,777 --> 00:43:28,147
in a meadow and decided ''lf
l run at it, l can view it as

580
00:43:28,183 --> 00:43:30,549
''what it looks like
when it's running.''

581
00:43:30,585 --> 00:43:33,554
Well, so he scampered and
made a bunch of noise.

582
00:43:33,588 --> 00:43:36,455
The bear raised up
an didn't run at all.

583
00:43:36,491 --> 00:43:41,554
He later called it ''my
interview with the bear.''

584
00:43:41,596 --> 00:43:46,056
STETSON: An earthquake hit
Yosemite Valley, and Muir was

585
00:43:46,101 --> 00:43:48,569
bounced from his bed and
ran outside, shouting,

586
00:43:48,603 --> 00:43:50,468
''Noble earthquake!''

587
00:43:50,505 --> 00:43:54,464
And as soon as a great section
of the wall had collapsed,

588
00:43:54,509 --> 00:43:55,999
he was racing to see it.

589
00:43:56,044 --> 00:43:57,477
[Thunder]

590
00:43:57,512 --> 00:44:00,879
He celebrated trees by going
up, crawling up into the very

591
00:44:00,982 --> 00:44:04,076
tops of them and letting
storms batter him so that he

592
00:44:04,052 --> 00:44:11,584
understood what a storm
felt like to a tree.

593
00:44:11,626 --> 00:44:14,060
WOMAN: John Muir saw
the spiritualiry

594
00:44:14,095 --> 00:44:17,121
inherent in granite.

595
00:44:17,165 --> 00:44:20,965
His view as a scientist and
his view as a deeply religious

596
00:44:21,002 --> 00:44:24,938
man were the same view.

597
00:44:24,973 --> 00:44:28,670
He had this wonderful sense
of ecstasy, having been born

598
00:44:28,710 --> 00:44:35,274
every single day new when he
was in a wild, raw landscape.

599
00:44:44,059 --> 00:44:50,328
MAN AS JOHN MUlR:
l am a captive, l am bound.

600
00:44:50,365 --> 00:44:54,802
Love of pure, unblemished
nature seems to overmaster

601
00:44:54,836 --> 00:44:56,963
and blur out of sight
all other objects

602
00:44:57,005 --> 00:45:03,069
and considerations.

603
00:45:03,111 --> 00:45:05,671
COYOTE: ''lt was all part,''
Muir said, of his

604
00:45:05,713 --> 00:45:11,174
''unconditional
surrender to nature.

605
00:45:11,219 --> 00:45:15,918
''The winds and cascading creeks
seemed to sing an exalting

606
00:45:15,957 --> 00:45:20,018
''chorus audible to anyone
willing to listen.''

607
00:45:23,598 --> 00:45:27,728
He contemplated the life
of a raindrop, marveled

608
00:45:27,769 --> 00:45:31,500
at the tenaciry of plants
somehow clinging to life

609
00:45:31,539 --> 00:45:35,942
on bare granite, soaked
sequoia cones in water

610
00:45:35,977 --> 00:45:38,207
and drank the purple liquid.

611
00:45:38,246 --> 00:45:41,682
''To improve my color,''
he explained, ''and render

612
00:45:41,716 --> 00:45:45,550
''myself more tree-wise
and sequoical.''

613
00:45:50,158 --> 00:45:52,820
Other times, he liked to put
his head down between his

614
00:45:52,861 --> 00:45:56,922
knees and look at the world
upside down to see what he

615
00:45:56,965 --> 00:45:59,832
called ''its upness.''

616
00:46:03,071 --> 00:46:06,404
Everywhere Muir turned,
he believed he was witnessing

617
00:46:06,441 --> 00:46:11,469
the work and presence of God,
not the stern and wrathful God

618
00:46:11,513 --> 00:46:17,213
of his father, who placed man
above nature, but a God who

619
00:46:17,252 --> 00:46:22,315
revealed himself through
nature and for whom mankind

620
00:46:22,357 --> 00:46:27,294
was merely one part of a great,
joyously interconnected

621
00:46:27,328 --> 00:46:30,126
web of being.

622
00:46:30,165 --> 00:46:33,066
MAN AS JOHN MUlR: l will
follow my instincts, be myself

623
00:46:33,101 --> 00:46:38,937
for good or ill, and see
what will be the upshot.

624
00:46:38,973 --> 00:46:42,932
As long as l live, l'll hear
waterfalls and birds

625
00:46:42,977 --> 00:46:46,413
and winds sing.

626
00:46:46,447 --> 00:46:50,474
l'll interpret the rocks,
learn the language of flood,

627
00:46:50,518 --> 00:46:54,215
storm, and the avalanche.

628
00:46:54,255 --> 00:46:58,248
l'll acquaint myself with
the glaciers and wild gardens

629
00:46:58,359 --> 00:47:06,061
and get as near to the heart
of the world as l can.

630
00:47:06,034 --> 00:47:09,663
EHRLlCH: John Muir once said,
''By going out into the natural

631
00:47:09,704 --> 00:47:12,969
world, l'm really going in.''

632
00:47:13,007 --> 00:47:18,639
He defined in that sentence
what it is to be a human being

633
00:47:18,680 --> 00:47:24,380
because l think we're born
lost, and we remain lost until

634
00:47:24,419 --> 00:47:30,289
we remove the shell of who
we think we are, all the

635
00:47:30,325 --> 00:47:36,730
preconceptions of who we think
we are and to expose ourselves

636
00:47:36,764 --> 00:47:42,725
to the great power of the
natural world and to let that

637
00:47:42,770 --> 00:47:46,797
power reshape us the way
it's reshaped the rocks

638
00:47:46,841 --> 00:47:50,971
of Yosemite Valley.

639
00:47:51,012 --> 00:47:54,778
COYOTE: Muir now felt he had
discovered something else,

640
00:47:54,816 --> 00:47:56,943
his own destiny.

641
00:47:56,985 --> 00:48:00,443
The gaunt mountaineer with
blazing blue eyes and long

642
00:48:00,555 --> 00:48:05,185
whiskers would devote
himself to understanding

643
00:48:05,159 --> 00:48:07,286
the wilderness and then teach
others the lessons

644
00:48:07,328 --> 00:48:09,319
he had learned.

645
00:48:09,364 --> 00:48:12,663
lf Yosemite was a temple,
he would be come its

646
00:48:12,700 --> 00:48:14,895
high priest.

647
00:48:14,936 --> 00:48:18,463
''Heaven knows,'' he wrote,
''that John the Baptist was not

648
00:48:18,506 --> 00:48:22,340
''more eager to get all his
fellow sinners into the Jordan

649
00:48:22,377 --> 00:48:26,211
''than l to baptize all
of mine in the beaury

650
00:48:26,247 --> 00:48:29,182
''of God's mountains.''

651
00:48:29,217 --> 00:48:32,880
The man who seemed to talk
to flowers and rocks was

652
00:48:32,920 --> 00:48:36,515
considered by many people
as an eccentric, one more

653
00:48:36,557 --> 00:48:39,583
of Yosemite's curiosities.

654
00:48:39,627 --> 00:48:42,619
On one excursion into the
mountains, he met a total

655
00:48:42,664 --> 00:48:46,498
stranger and told him he
was rambling across

656
00:48:46,534 --> 00:48:49,526
the Sierra Nevada
looking at trees.

657
00:48:49,570 --> 00:48:51,800
''Oh, then,''
the stranger replied,

658
00:48:51,839 --> 00:48:55,639
''you must be John Muir.''

659
00:48:55,677 --> 00:48:59,113
Josiah Whitney,
California's state geologist,

660
00:48:59,213 --> 00:49:01,545
grew indignant when
he heard that Muir was

661
00:49:01,516 --> 00:49:05,452
disputing his theory that
Yosemite had been created by

662
00:49:05,486 --> 00:49:09,684
a cataclysmic collapse
of the valley floor.

663
00:49:09,724 --> 00:49:13,160
Muir instead believed that
over thousands of years

664
00:49:13,194 --> 00:49:17,563
glaciers had gouged out the
valley and polished smooth

665
00:49:17,598 --> 00:49:19,896
the granite domes.

666
00:49:19,934 --> 00:49:23,301
Whitney derided Muir as
''a mere sheep herder''

667
00:49:23,338 --> 00:49:26,000
and ''an ignoramus'' and
scornfully dismissed

668
00:49:26,040 --> 00:49:28,201
his conclusions,

669
00:49:28,242 --> 00:49:33,111
but Muir persevered and in
187 1 discovered a living

670
00:49:33,147 --> 00:49:38,050
glacier in the recesses of the
Sierra, the first of 65 he

671
00:49:38,086 --> 00:49:43,149
would eventually encounter and
study, and when he led other

672
00:49:43,191 --> 00:49:47,025
geologists to his evidence,
they came to see that he was

673
00:49:47,061 --> 00:49:50,622
right and Whitney was wrong.

674
00:49:53,634 --> 00:49:56,797
Meanwhile, James Mason
Hutchings has persuaded his

675
00:49:56,838 --> 00:50:00,205
friends in the California
Legislature to pass a special

676
00:50:00,241 --> 00:50:04,109
bill exempting him from the
law that had set the valley

677
00:50:04,145 --> 00:50:09,549
aside as public properry,
and twice, the U.S. House of

678
00:50:09,584 --> 00:50:13,452
Representatives was
willing to go along.

679
00:50:13,488 --> 00:50:18,687
Both times, however, the Senate
held firm against him.

680
00:50:18,726 --> 00:50:22,253
Hutchings sued, arguing all
the way to the U.S. Supreme

681
00:50:22,296 --> 00:50:25,959
Court that the federal
government had no right to

682
00:50:26,000 --> 00:50:29,902
dispose of public lands
for any purpose other than

683
00:50:29,937 --> 00:50:32,497
private settlement.

684
00:50:32,540 --> 00:50:36,476
Ruling against him, the High
Court established a precedent

685
00:50:36,511 --> 00:50:42,381
that the act creating Yosemite
was in fact Constitutional.

686
00:50:42,417 --> 00:50:46,012
ln 1875, Hutchings
was evicted from his

687
00:50:46,053 --> 00:50:49,454
hotel and banished
from the valley he had

688
00:50:49,490 --> 00:50:52,618
so tirelessly promoted.

689
00:50:52,660 --> 00:50:55,788
DUNCAN: James Mason Hutchings
did 3 very important things

690
00:50:55,830 --> 00:50:57,764
for the national park idea.

691
00:50:57,865 --> 00:51:01,198
First of all, he brought
Yosemite and its wonders to

692
00:51:01,235 --> 00:51:02,702
the attention of the world.

693
00:51:02,737 --> 00:51:06,173
Secondly, inadvertently,
by challenging the law that

694
00:51:06,207 --> 00:51:10,541
set it aside and tried to kick
him out--by challenging that

695
00:51:10,578 --> 00:51:13,308
all the way to the Supreme
Court, luckily, the Supreme

696
00:51:13,347 --> 00:51:16,475
Court ruled that, in fact,
it was Constitutional to do.

697
00:51:16,517 --> 00:51:19,042
So that was a very important
precedent that if it had gone

698
00:51:19,086 --> 00:51:21,281
the other way who knows
what would have happened

699
00:51:21,322 --> 00:51:22,789
with national parks.

700
00:51:22,824 --> 00:51:26,316
The third and probably most
important thing is he hired

701
00:51:26,360 --> 00:51:31,127
John Muir and helped introduce
him to the Yosemite Valley.

702
00:51:34,435 --> 00:51:37,632
COYOTE: With the completion of
the Transcontinental Railroad,

703
00:51:37,672 --> 00:51:41,540
even more tourists were
arriving in the par:

704
00:51:41,576 --> 00:51:46,172
writers, artists, scientists,
and wealthy Easterners who

705
00:51:46,214 --> 00:51:49,206
enjoyed listening to Muir
as he led them from one

706
00:51:49,250 --> 00:51:51,912
spectacular viewpoint
to another.

707
00:51:58,459 --> 00:52:00,324
MAN AS JOHN MUlR:
How little note is taken

708
00:52:00,361 --> 00:52:02,192
at the deeds of nature.

709
00:52:07,401 --> 00:52:11,963
What paper
publishes her reports?

710
00:52:12,006 --> 00:52:17,876
Who publishes the sheet music
of the winds or the music

711
00:52:17,912 --> 00:52:24,078
of water written
in river lines?

712
00:52:24,118 --> 00:52:29,886
Who reports the works and ways
of the clouds, those wondrous

713
00:52:29,924 --> 00:52:33,223
creations coming into being
every day like freshly

714
00:52:33,261 --> 00:52:35,388
upheaved mountains?

715
00:52:41,168 --> 00:52:46,663
COYOTE: But soon, John Muir
would leave Yosemite, too.

716
00:52:46,707 --> 00:52:49,039
He packed his meager
belongings and moved to

717
00:52:49,076 --> 00:52:53,775
Oakland, where he hoped to
spread his gospel of nature by

718
00:52:53,814 --> 00:52:57,215
writing a series of reports
for the ''Overland Monthly''

719
00:52:57,251 --> 00:53:01,187
and other popular magazines.

720
00:53:01,289 --> 00:53:04,554
''Writing,'' he said, ''was
like the life of a glacier,

721
00:53:04,525 --> 00:53:10,555
''one eternal grind,'' but over
the next several years,

722
00:53:10,598 --> 00:53:13,123
that writing would help
articulate for millions

723
00:53:13,167 --> 00:53:21,597
of Americans a deep and
abiding love for their land.

724
00:53:21,642 --> 00:53:23,735
[Birds cawing]

725
00:53:30,851 --> 00:53:33,285
MAN: Sacred means different
things to different people,

726
00:53:33,321 --> 00:53:37,655
and to the American lndians,
sacredness means you can go in

727
00:53:37,692 --> 00:53:40,183
there walk as
your ancestors did,

728
00:53:40,227 --> 00:53:42,525
you can go in there and you
can see what the creator has

729
00:53:42,563 --> 00:53:46,863
made for us, and you can feel
it, you can feel the spirits,

730
00:53:46,901 --> 00:53:49,096
but we can take it
one step farther.

731
00:53:49,136 --> 00:53:52,731
Because the environment is
still there as in the time

732
00:53:52,773 --> 00:53:56,106
of creation, we believe
that it is still alive.

733
00:53:56,143 --> 00:53:58,202
[Rumbling]

734
00:54:53,267 --> 00:54:57,169
DUNCAN: ln the early 1800s,
reports started filtering out

735
00:54:57,204 --> 00:54:59,900
about this magical place.

736
00:55:00,007 --> 00:55:02,805
John Colter, who had been a
member of the Lewis and Clark

737
00:55:02,777 --> 00:55:06,372
expedition had left them
instead of returning to

738
00:55:06,414 --> 00:55:11,511
civilization, became the first
legendary mountain man, and he

739
00:55:11,552 --> 00:55:15,386
came back with a tale of a
place where mud was boiling,

740
00:55:15,423 --> 00:55:19,917
where steam was coming out
of the ground, water spouted,

741
00:55:19,960 --> 00:55:22,690
and people sort
of made fun of it.

742
00:55:22,730 --> 00:55:27,224
They called it Colter's Hell.

743
00:55:27,268 --> 00:55:30,135
Joe Meek, the mountain man,
stumbled upon it and said it

744
00:55:30,171 --> 00:55:32,901
reminded him of the place that
the preachers had warned him

745
00:55:32,940 --> 00:55:37,639
about back when he
went to church.

746
00:55:37,678 --> 00:55:41,170
COYOTE: Jim Bridger, another
mountain man, had also told

747
00:55:41,215 --> 00:55:44,082
tales of the place, the
long-time home of the

748
00:55:44,118 --> 00:55:48,452
Sheepeater Band of Shoshone
lndians and a meeting place

749
00:55:48,489 --> 00:55:51,287
for half a dozen other tribes.

750
00:55:51,325 --> 00:55:54,123
lt included a lake,
he claimed, where a man could

751
00:55:54,161 --> 00:55:58,723
catch a fish in one spot and
then swing his line over a few

752
00:55:58,833 --> 00:56:06,535
feet to instantly cook his
catch in a hot spring.

753
00:56:06,507 --> 00:56:09,738
''There was a canyon so deep,''
he added, ''that a man could

754
00:56:09,777 --> 00:56:13,577
''shout down into it at night
and be awakened by his echo

755
00:56:13,614 --> 00:56:15,605
''the next morning.''

756
00:56:23,457 --> 00:56:27,587
As late at 1869, a group of
prospectors had ventured into

757
00:56:27,628 --> 00:56:32,258
the area they called the
Valley of Death, but when they

758
00:56:32,299 --> 00:56:35,427
finally wrote a detailed
account of their journey,

759
00:56:35,469 --> 00:56:39,405
magazines in the East
refused to publish it.

760
00:56:39,440 --> 00:56:42,432
''Thank you,'' one editor
responded, ''but we do not

761
00:56:42,476 --> 00:56:46,469
''print fiction.''

762
00:56:46,514 --> 00:56:47,640
[Horse neighs]

763
00:56:47,681 --> 00:56:52,141
Then in the late summer of
1870, a much more prestigious

764
00:56:52,186 --> 00:56:55,678
group intended to put an end
to the mystery and either

765
00:56:55,723 --> 00:57:00,592
confirm or deny the
rumors once and for all.

766
00:57:00,694 --> 00:57:04,494
Accompanied by a small
military escort, they included

767
00:57:04,465 --> 00:57:08,697
a prominent banker, a son of a
United States Senator,

768
00:57:08,736 --> 00:57:11,500
a part-time newspaper
correspondent,

769
00:57:11,539 --> 00:57:14,099
and Truman C. Everts, at age

770
00:57:14,141 --> 00:57:17,838
54 the oldest member
of the expedition,

771
00:57:17,878 --> 00:57:23,009
a Vermonter who had
come along on a lark.

772
00:57:23,050 --> 00:57:25,644
The moving force behind
the expedition was

773
00:57:25,686 --> 00:57:28,519
Nathaniel P. Langford,
a well-connected

774
00:57:28,556 --> 00:57:30,285
Montana politician who

775
00:57:30,324 --> 00:57:34,317
believed the future prosperiry
of the territory rested

776
00:57:34,361 --> 00:57:37,660
with completion of a proposed
second transcontinental

777
00:57:37,698 --> 00:57:42,465
railway, The Northern Pacific.

778
00:57:42,503 --> 00:57:45,734
Earlier in the year, Langford
had met privately with

779
00:57:45,773 --> 00:57:50,472
Jay Cooke, the financier
underwriting $100 million

780
00:57:50,511 --> 00:57:53,207
worth of Northern Pacific bonds.

781
00:57:53,247 --> 00:57:56,375
The two had agreed that any
publiciry about the region's

782
00:57:56,417 --> 00:57:59,750
attractions would be good
for the territory, good

783
00:57:59,854 --> 00:58:03,790
for The Northern Pacific's
bond sales, and good

784
00:58:03,757 --> 00:58:06,123
for Nathaniel Langford.

785
00:58:06,160 --> 00:58:09,220
MAN: And we know that Langford
was actually in the employ

786
00:58:09,263 --> 00:58:11,254
of Northern Pacific.

787
00:58:11,298 --> 00:58:14,665
He seemed to always--no matter
where else he was, he seemed

788
00:58:14,702 --> 00:58:17,102
to always be near the till.

789
00:58:22,610 --> 00:58:25,875
COYOTE: Two weeks into his
expedition's journey, Langford

790
00:58:25,913 --> 00:58:29,110
came across the kind of
scenery the mountain men

791
00:58:29,149 --> 00:58:32,641
had described.

792
00:58:32,686 --> 00:58:34,847
MAN AS NATHANlEL LANGFORD:
We came suddenly upon a basin

793
00:58:34,889 --> 00:58:39,690
of boiling sulfur springs,
boiling like a cauldron,

794
00:58:39,727 --> 00:58:42,594
throwing water and fearful
volumes of vapor higher

795
00:58:42,630 --> 00:58:45,394
than our heads.

796
00:58:45,432 --> 00:58:48,993
The spring lying to the east
of this, more diabolical

797
00:58:49,036 --> 00:58:52,062
in appearance and
filled with a hot,

798
00:58:52,106 --> 00:58:56,236
brownish substance of the
consistency of mucilage,

799
00:58:56,277 --> 00:59:00,646
is in constant, noisy
ebullition, emitting fumes

800
00:59:00,748 --> 00:59:04,081
of a villainous odor.

801
00:59:04,051 --> 00:59:07,316
COYOTE: They kept moving
past more mud pots that made

802
00:59:07,354 --> 00:59:11,154
noises, they said, ''like the
safery valve of a laboring

803
00:59:11,191 --> 00:59:15,423
''steamboat engine,'' over ground
that sounded hollow under

804
00:59:15,462 --> 00:59:19,262
their horses' hooves,
near vents that were too hot

805
00:59:19,300 --> 00:59:23,430
too touch even with gloved
hands, places to which they

806
00:59:23,470 --> 00:59:27,463
would attach names like
Hell Broth Springs,

807
00:59:27,508 --> 00:59:32,411
Hell Roaring River,
Devil's Den, Brimstone Basin.

808
00:59:36,016 --> 00:59:40,282
Farther on, they came to two
waterfalls slicing through

809
00:59:40,321 --> 00:59:44,052
a steep and narrow canyon
they estimated at half a mile

810
00:59:44,091 --> 00:59:49,290
in depth, the one Jim Bridger
had once bragged about,

811
00:59:49,330 --> 00:59:52,197
the Grand Canyon
of the Yellowstone.

812
01:00:07,114 --> 01:00:10,140
Langford was now convinced
that the Yellowstone could be

813
01:00:10,184 --> 01:00:14,086
an even greater attraction
than he and the backers

814
01:00:14,121 --> 01:00:19,252
of The Northern Pacific
had dreamed.

815
01:00:19,293 --> 01:00:22,990
During their exploration,
the nearsighted Truman Everts

816
01:00:23,030 --> 01:00:27,990
somehow got separated from the
main group and went missing.

817
01:00:28,035 --> 01:00:30,765
Over the next several days,
search parties were

818
01:00:30,804 --> 01:00:34,535
dispatched to find him.

819
01:00:34,575 --> 01:00:37,703
They encountered grizzly bears,
heard the howls

820
01:00:37,745 --> 01:00:46,380
of wolves, but found no trace
of Everts or his horse.

821
01:00:46,420 --> 01:00:49,981
On September 1 3, a surprise
storm dropped two feet

822
01:00:50,024 --> 01:00:52,754
of snow on them.

823
01:00:52,793 --> 01:00:56,695
Running low on supplies,
the expedition had no choice

824
01:00:56,730 --> 01:01:00,723
but to turn for home, leaving
notes behind for Everts

825
01:01:00,834 --> 01:01:04,031
at each campsite along with
what little food they could

826
01:01:04,004 --> 01:01:09,271
spare from their own
dwindling rations.

827
01:01:09,309 --> 01:01:11,971
Heading for the Madison River
and the mining town

828
01:01:12,012 --> 01:01:15,846
of Virginia Ciry, they
struggled for days through

829
01:01:15,883 --> 01:01:19,319
snow and dense timber
until they came upon

830
01:01:19,353 --> 01:01:22,652
a large clearing.

831
01:01:22,689 --> 01:01:24,213
MAN AS NATHANlEL LANGFORD:
We had already seen what we

832
01:01:24,258 --> 01:01:28,786
believed to be the greatest
wonders on the continent.

833
01:01:28,829 --> 01:01:33,892
Judge then of our astonishment
on entering this basin to see

834
01:01:33,934 --> 01:01:37,870
at no great distance before us
an immense body of sparkling

835
01:01:37,905 --> 01:01:41,966
water projected suddenly and
with terrific force into

836
01:01:42,009 --> 01:01:48,380
the air to the height
of over 100 feet.

837
01:01:48,415 --> 01:01:52,215
General Washburn has named
it Old Faithful because

838
01:01:52,252 --> 01:01:55,779
of the regulariry of its
eruptions, the intervals

839
01:01:55,823 --> 01:02:02,194
between which being
from 60 to 65 minutes.

840
01:02:02,229 --> 01:02:05,596
COYOTE: They gave names to
the other geysers, too--

841
01:02:05,632 --> 01:02:10,365
The Castle, The Bee Hive, and
The Giant--but because of their

842
01:02:10,404 --> 01:02:13,999
shortage of food could not
stay long amidst the wonders

843
01:02:14,041 --> 01:02:15,531
surrounding them.

844
01:02:22,950 --> 01:02:26,010
Yet as they followed the
steaming Firehole River,

845
01:02:26,053 --> 01:02:29,682
they came across still
more basins and still more

846
01:02:29,723 --> 01:02:33,420
curiosities, the greatest
concentration of geothermal

847
01:02:33,460 --> 01:02:38,796
features on Earth, a vast
array of geysers, fumaroles,

848
01:02:38,832 --> 01:02:41,266
mud pots, and hot springs

849
01:02:41,301 --> 01:02:44,270
of unimaginable strangeness
and beaury.

850
01:02:56,550 --> 01:02:59,917
When the expedition finally
reached Virginia Ciry and then

851
01:03:00,020 --> 01:03:04,719
Helena, the big news was
Langford's confirmation

852
01:03:04,691 --> 01:03:08,354
of what had been considered
wild rumors about a place once

853
01:03:08,395 --> 01:03:16,029
called Colter's Hell, but the
even bigger news was that

854
01:03:16,069 --> 01:03:18,765
Truman Everts was
still lost there.

855
01:03:22,309 --> 01:03:24,072
MAN AS TRUMAN EVERTS:
On the day that l found myself

856
01:03:24,111 --> 01:03:27,945
separated from my company,
our course had been impeded by

857
01:03:27,981 --> 01:03:32,247
the dense growth
of the pine forest.

858
01:03:32,286 --> 01:03:35,153
As separations like this had
frequently occurred, it gave

859
01:03:35,189 --> 01:03:39,626
me no alarm, and l rode on in
the direction which l supposed

860
01:03:39,660 --> 01:03:43,721
had been taken until
darkness overtook me.

861
01:03:46,600 --> 01:03:49,467
l selected a spot for
comfortable repose,

862
01:03:49,503 --> 01:03:55,135
picketed my horse, built a fire,
and went to sleep.

863
01:03:55,175 --> 01:03:57,735
COYOTE: At first, Everts
thought his separation from

864
01:03:57,778 --> 01:04:03,410
the expedition would be a
momentary inconvenience,

865
01:04:03,450 --> 01:04:06,886
but on the second day,
his horse ran away, taking

866
01:04:06,920 --> 01:04:11,880
with it his guns, blankets,
fishing tackle, and matches,

867
01:04:11,925 --> 01:04:16,191
everything but the clothes on
his back, a small opera glass,

868
01:04:16,230 --> 01:04:20,223
and two knives, which the
hapless Everts promptly managed

869
01:04:20,267 --> 01:04:25,330
to lose in the underbrush.

870
01:04:25,372 --> 01:04:28,170
MAN AS TRUMAN EVERTS:
l realized l was lost.

871
01:04:28,208 --> 01:04:34,078
Then came a crushing sense of
destitution--no food, no fire,

872
01:04:34,114 --> 01:04:39,450
no means to procure either,
alone in an unexplored

873
01:04:39,486 --> 01:04:44,981
wilderness 150 miles from
the nearest human abode,

874
01:04:45,025 --> 01:04:50,622
surrounded by wild beasts,
and famishing with hunger.

875
01:04:50,664 --> 01:04:52,689
WHlTTLESEY: He didn't
have any matches.

876
01:04:52,733 --> 01:04:56,794
All he had was an opera glass,
and it took him quite a while

877
01:04:56,837 --> 01:05:02,969
to figure out he could make
a fire with the opera glass.

878
01:05:03,010 --> 01:05:04,170
DUNCAN: Then he finally
figured out that

879
01:05:04,211 --> 01:05:07,544
''if it's no sunny,
l can't start a fire.''

880
01:05:07,581 --> 01:05:09,845
So he learned that he had to
keep a stick burning, so you

881
01:05:09,883 --> 01:05:14,320
can imagine him stumbling
around midday with a burning

882
01:05:14,354 --> 01:05:15,981
stick, emaciated.

883
01:05:16,023 --> 01:05:18,116
l mean, this was not John Muir

884
01:05:18,158 --> 01:05:21,059
in ecstasy becoming
one with nature.

885
01:05:21,094 --> 01:05:25,690
This was a horrific ordeal for
a poor guy who just got lost

886
01:05:25,732 --> 01:05:27,632
at the wrong time.

887
01:05:29,403 --> 01:05:32,099
COYOTE: He wandered for days,
vainly searching for his

888
01:05:32,139 --> 01:05:37,270
friends or any sign
of their trail.

889
01:05:37,311 --> 01:05:40,940
He spent a night in a tree
cowering from a mountain lion

890
01:05:40,981 --> 01:05:47,614
prowling underneath, suffered
frostbite on his feet from

891
01:05:47,654 --> 01:05:51,090
the snowstorm that blanketed
the region and saturated his

892
01:05:51,124 --> 01:05:56,619
clothes, found refuge for a
week huddling day and night

893
01:05:56,663 --> 01:06:02,465
against the warm ground of
one of the thermal features.

894
01:06:02,502 --> 01:06:03,628
MAN AS TRUMAN EVERTS:
l was enveloped

895
01:06:03,670 --> 01:06:06,195
in a perpetual steam bath.

896
01:06:06,239 --> 01:06:09,731
At first, this was barely
preferable to the storm,

897
01:06:09,776 --> 01:06:12,176
but l soon became
accustomed to it,

898
01:06:12,212 --> 01:06:15,909
and before l left, though
thoroughly parboiled,

899
01:06:15,949 --> 01:06:19,043
actually enjoyed it.

900
01:06:19,086 --> 01:06:21,884
COYOTE: At another hot spring,
Everts broke through the thin

901
01:06:21,922 --> 01:06:28,122
crust of earth, and his hip
was severely scalded by steam.

902
01:06:28,161 --> 01:06:31,289
One evening in his sleep,
he lurched forward into his

903
01:06:31,331 --> 01:06:33,925
fire and burned his hands.

904
01:06:39,973 --> 01:06:43,534
Wasting away from exhaustion
and hunger, Everts began

905
01:06:43,577 --> 01:06:46,808
seeing apparitions
and hearing voices.

906
01:06:50,484 --> 01:06:54,250
''l will not perish in this
wilderness,'' he told himself

907
01:06:54,287 --> 01:06:57,745
and forced himself onward,
retracing the route that had

908
01:06:57,858 --> 01:07:00,190
originally brought the
expedition into

909
01:07:00,227 --> 01:07:02,695
the Yellowstone Plateau.

910
01:07:05,365 --> 01:07:09,802
On October 16, 37 days after
being separated from the

911
01:07:09,836 --> 01:07:16,400
expedition, Everts was found
crawling along a hillside.

912
01:07:16,443 --> 01:07:19,901
His starvation diet of thistle
roots had reduced him to

913
01:07:19,946 --> 01:07:22,176
a mere 50 pounds.

914
01:07:22,215 --> 01:07:25,548
The scalded flesh on his
thighs was blackened.

915
01:07:25,585 --> 01:07:29,351
His bare and frostbitten feet
had been worn to the bone.

916
01:07:29,389 --> 01:07:33,621
His burnt fingers were said to
resemble birds' claws.

917
01:07:35,829 --> 01:07:40,528
He was incoherent for days,
though he slowly recovered

918
01:07:40,567 --> 01:07:44,469
and in time produced a widely
read account of his ordeal

919
01:07:44,504 --> 01:07:46,369
that ''Scribner's Monthly''

920
01:07:46,406 --> 01:07:49,603
published for
popular consumption.

921
01:07:49,643 --> 01:07:53,443
MAN AS TRUMAN EVERTS:
My narrative is finished.

922
01:07:53,480 --> 01:07:55,641
The time is not far
distant when the wonders

923
01:07:55,682 --> 01:07:58,981
of the Yellowstone will be
made accessible to all lovers

924
01:07:59,085 --> 01:08:04,990
of sublimiry and novelry in
natural scenery, and when

925
01:08:04,958 --> 01:08:09,622
that day arrives, l hope in
happier mood and under more

926
01:08:09,663 --> 01:08:14,066
auspicious circumstances to
revisit scenes fraught for me

927
01:08:14,100 --> 01:08:18,469
with such mingled
glories and terrors.

928
01:08:18,505 --> 01:08:20,370
Truman Everts.

929
01:08:20,407 --> 01:08:24,275
[Wolf howls]

930
01:08:24,311 --> 01:08:26,836
BAKER: Every time l hear about
the white people coming into

931
01:08:26,880 --> 01:08:30,543
our national parks and
discovering something,

932
01:08:30,584 --> 01:08:32,984
l can almost see them standing
there on top of this mountain,

933
01:08:33,019 --> 01:08:35,544
3 or 4 of them saying,
''From now on, we'll call those

934
01:08:35,589 --> 01:08:37,580
''mountains so and so because
we're the first ones here.''

935
01:08:37,624 --> 01:08:39,558
ln the meantime, l can see my
relatives hiding behind

936
01:08:39,593 --> 01:08:41,584
the rocks, looking at them,
saying, ''Wow. What are these

937
01:08:41,628 --> 01:08:43,493
''guys doing up here?''

938
01:08:45,899 --> 01:08:48,367
For us, it was almost
kind of humorous

939
01:08:48,401 --> 01:08:50,392
because we've been there for
thousands upon thousands

940
01:08:50,437 --> 01:08:53,167
of years, and it didn't
need to be discovered.

941
01:08:53,206 --> 01:08:55,504
lt was never lost.

942
01:08:55,542 --> 01:08:57,271
All they had to do was ask us.

943
01:08:57,310 --> 01:08:59,574
All they had to do was get
together with the tribes,

944
01:08:59,679 --> 01:09:00,976
''OK. What's there?''

945
01:09:01,014 --> 01:09:02,208
And we could have told them.

946
01:09:05,719 --> 01:09:09,211
COYOTE: ln the summer of 187 1,
the United States government

947
01:09:09,256 --> 01:09:12,623
decided it was time for
professionals to take a look

948
01:09:12,659 --> 01:09:15,594
at the place where
Truman Everts had gotten

949
01:09:15,629 --> 01:09:18,621
so helplessly lost.

950
01:09:18,665 --> 01:09:21,759
Ferdinand Hayden, who had
been exploring other parts

951
01:09:21,801 --> 01:09:25,794
of the West, now led an
expedition of topographers,

952
01:09:25,839 --> 01:09:29,468
botanists, zoologists,
and mineralogists to

953
01:09:29,509 --> 01:09:36,108
Yellowstone to determine once
and for all its real value,

954
01:09:36,149 --> 01:09:39,778
but perhaps even more
important than the scientists

955
01:09:39,819 --> 01:09:44,552
was the presence of two other
men, a young artist named

956
01:09:44,591 --> 01:09:48,550
Thomas Moran, who had
never ridden a horse before

957
01:09:48,595 --> 01:09:53,089
and required a pillow on his
saddle, and William Henry

958
01:09:53,133 --> 01:09:57,570
Jackson, a photographer from
Omaha who most recently had

959
01:09:57,604 --> 01:10:03,509
chronicled the building of the
Transcontinental Railroad.

960
01:10:03,543 --> 01:10:08,242
For the first time, Americans
could see what mere words had

961
01:10:08,281 --> 01:10:10,408
previously described.

962
01:10:39,579 --> 01:10:42,480
As Ferdinand Hayden prepared
the report that Congress was

963
01:10:42,515 --> 01:10:47,009
expecting, he received an
intriguing letter from a man

964
01:10:47,053 --> 01:10:50,716
named A.B. Nettleton, a
shrewd lobbyist working

965
01:10:50,757 --> 01:10:55,194
for The Northern Pacific,
suggesting that Hayden do more

966
01:10:55,228 --> 01:10:59,164
than merely catalog
his discoveries.

967
01:10:59,265 --> 01:11:01,927
MAN AS A.B. NETTLETON: Dear,
Dr. Hayden, let Congress pass

968
01:11:01,901 --> 01:11:05,997
a bill reserving the great
geyser basin as a public park

969
01:11:06,039 --> 01:11:10,567
forever just as it has
reserved the Yosemite Valley

970
01:11:10,610 --> 01:11:13,135
and Big Trees.

971
01:11:13,179 --> 01:11:16,114
lf you approve this, would
such a recommendation be

972
01:11:16,149 --> 01:11:20,313
appropriate in your
official report?

973
01:11:20,353 --> 01:11:23,447
COYOTE: Hayden was
happy to oblige.

974
01:11:23,490 --> 01:11:26,288
His report took pains to
assure Congress that

975
01:11:26,326 --> 01:11:30,763
at an elevation of 6,000 feet
above sea level or higher the

976
01:11:30,797 --> 01:11:34,392
Yellowstone region was totally
unsuitable for farming

977
01:11:34,434 --> 01:11:39,201
and ranching and that because
of its volcanic origins no

978
01:11:39,239 --> 01:11:42,970
valuable mines were likely
to be found there, but,

979
01:11:43,009 --> 01:11:46,604
he warned, if congress did
not protect Yellowstone from

980
01:11:46,646 --> 01:11:51,140
private development, it would
become another Niagara Falls,

981
01:11:51,184 --> 01:11:54,642
another national
embarrassment.

982
01:11:54,688 --> 01:11:56,679
RUNTE: Well, if there had been
gold next to the geysers

983
01:11:56,723 --> 01:12:00,489
in Yellowstone, there would
not be geysers in Yellowstone,

984
01:12:00,593 --> 01:12:03,255
and if there had been a big
gold strike in the Yosemite

985
01:12:03,229 --> 01:12:06,596
Valley, Yosemite Valley would
have been a mining pit,

986
01:12:06,633 --> 01:12:09,101
and the reason for that
is that it was still very,

987
01:12:09,135 --> 01:12:13,071
very difficult for the
American people to relent from

988
01:12:13,106 --> 01:12:16,473
their commercial pursuits.

989
01:12:16,509 --> 01:12:19,376
COYOTE: With The Northern
Pacific quietly maneuvering

990
01:12:19,412 --> 01:12:23,178
behind the scenes and with
Moran's sketches and Jackson's

991
01:12:23,216 --> 01:12:25,844
photographs prominently
displayed in the halls

992
01:12:25,885 --> 01:12:30,322
of the Capitol, a bill began
moving through congress,

993
01:12:30,356 --> 01:12:34,622
and by late January of 1872,
it was ready for action

994
01:12:34,661 --> 01:12:37,186
in the Senate.

995
01:12:37,230 --> 01:12:40,529
MAN: Be it enacted that the
tract of land lying near

996
01:12:40,567 --> 01:12:42,762
the headwaters of the
Yellowstone River...

997
01:12:42,802 --> 01:12:44,269
COYOTE: The senate
overwhelmingly

998
01:12:44,304 --> 01:12:46,101
approved the bill.

999
01:12:46,139 --> 01:12:55,241
The house passed it 115-65,
and on March 1, 1872,

1000
01:12:55,281 --> 01:12:59,115
President Ulysses S. Grant
signed the bill creating

1001
01:12:59,219 --> 01:13:00,948
Yellowstone Park.

1002
01:13:07,460 --> 01:13:10,258
Unlike Yosemite, which was
being administered by

1003
01:13:10,296 --> 01:13:15,791
the state of California,
this would be a national park,

1004
01:13:15,835 --> 01:13:22,638
the first national park in
the history of the world.

1005
01:13:22,675 --> 01:13:26,133
You wish that they had,
you know, gone out and rang

1006
01:13:26,179 --> 01:13:31,549
bells to say, ''This is
something new on Earth,''

1007
01:13:31,584 --> 01:13:33,176
because it was.

1008
01:13:33,219 --> 01:13:35,187
A federal government was
saying, ''We're setting this

1009
01:13:35,221 --> 01:13:37,451
aside as a national park.''

1010
01:13:37,490 --> 01:13:40,152
No government had ever done
that before, and you'd like

1011
01:13:40,193 --> 01:13:44,562
them to make note of it in
that way just the way with the

1012
01:13:44,597 --> 01:13:45,825
Declaration of lndependence

1013
01:13:45,865 --> 01:13:48,163
they read it
and bells were rung.

1014
01:13:48,201 --> 01:13:50,032
That didn't happen with this.

1015
01:13:50,069 --> 01:13:53,232
lt looks like they took it
maybe a little more seriously

1016
01:13:53,273 --> 01:13:54,900
than the decision of
whether or not to repaint

1017
01:13:54,941 --> 01:13:57,739
the cloak room.

1018
01:13:57,844 --> 01:14:00,779
lt wasn't that big
a deal to most of them.

1019
01:14:00,814 --> 01:14:04,113
lt was just business
as usual that day.

1020
01:14:04,150 --> 01:14:08,883
lt's only hindsight
that allows us to see

1021
01:14:08,922 --> 01:14:10,719
what they started.

1022
01:14:10,757 --> 01:14:12,782
You know, they were kicking
the rock off the cliff,

1023
01:14:12,826 --> 01:14:15,260
and most of them turned
and walked away.

1024
01:14:15,295 --> 01:14:18,287
There's no evidence that any
of them thought this was

1025
01:14:18,331 --> 01:14:21,767
the first of a rype or that
''we're going to turn this into

1026
01:14:21,801 --> 01:14:26,135
''a hugely important
world institution.''

1027
01:14:26,172 --> 01:14:29,266
COYOTE: The ''New York Herald''
saw the new creation as one

1028
01:14:29,309 --> 01:14:32,506
more reason for
national bragging rights.

1029
01:14:32,545 --> 01:14:35,207
''Why should we go to
Switzerland to see mountains

1030
01:14:35,248 --> 01:14:39,548
''or to lceland for geysers?''
it asked, adding that

1031
01:14:39,586 --> 01:14:43,352
''with Yosemite and Yellowstone,
now we have attractions which

1032
01:14:43,389 --> 01:14:48,793
''diminish Niagara into
an ordinary exhibition.''

1033
01:14:48,828 --> 01:14:51,922
But the ''Helena Rocky Mountain
Gazette'' complained that

1034
01:14:51,965 --> 01:14:55,366
a great blow had been struck
against the prosperiry

1035
01:14:55,401 --> 01:14:57,028
of the region.

1036
01:14:57,070 --> 01:14:59,698
''The new park,'' it said,
''will keep the country

1037
01:14:59,806 --> 01:15:05,108
''a wilderness and prevent
economic development.''

1038
01:15:05,078 --> 01:15:09,845
lts cross-town rival the
''Helena Herald'' disagreed.

1039
01:15:09,883 --> 01:15:12,317
''lt will be a park,''
the paper said,

1040
01:15:12,352 --> 01:15:15,617
''worthy of the great republic.''

1041
01:15:18,024 --> 01:15:19,514
DUNCAN: l think that
if Wyoming had been

1042
01:15:19,559 --> 01:15:22,153
a state in 1872,
they probably would have

1043
01:15:22,195 --> 01:15:23,992
followed the Yosemite model.

1044
01:15:24,030 --> 01:15:26,430
They would have just given
it to the state of Wyoming

1045
01:15:26,466 --> 01:15:31,335
for safekeeping, but because
it was a territory, there was

1046
01:15:31,371 --> 01:15:35,171
no state to give it to, and so
therefore, almost by accident,

1047
01:15:35,208 --> 01:15:40,578
it became a national park,
and that doesn't seem like

1048
01:15:40,613 --> 01:15:44,140
a big thing at first, but when
you think about it, it really

1049
01:15:44,183 --> 01:15:47,619
was an incredible
turning point.

1050
01:15:47,654 --> 01:15:49,849
What would we think of
Yellowstone if it was

1051
01:15:49,889 --> 01:15:52,722
Yellowstone State
Park in Wyoming?

1052
01:15:52,759 --> 01:15:55,057
lt would still be--the
geysers would be going off,

1053
01:15:55,094 --> 01:15:57,688
the waterfall would still be
there, the mud would still be

1054
01:15:57,730 --> 01:16:01,757
boiling, we'd be attracted to
go see it, but we wouldn't

1055
01:16:01,801 --> 01:16:05,669
feel the sense of
responsibiliry to it as

1056
01:16:05,705 --> 01:16:09,072
a citizen of our nation,
only if we were a citizen

1057
01:16:09,108 --> 01:16:11,167
of the state of Wyoming.

1058
01:16:11,210 --> 01:16:15,146
By making it a national park,
implicitly it becomes

1059
01:16:15,181 --> 01:16:20,016
ours, everybody's.

1060
01:16:20,053 --> 01:16:22,385
We're all somehow
responsible for it,

1061
01:16:22,422 --> 01:16:27,291
and we all can take pride in
it, and so by this accident

1062
01:16:27,327 --> 01:16:30,626
more or less, this precedent
was set that it's gonna be

1063
01:16:30,663 --> 01:16:38,468
a national park that we as a
nation have to take care of.

1064
01:16:38,504 --> 01:16:41,166
COYOTE: By any standard,
the new national park

1065
01:16:41,207 --> 01:16:45,576
at Yellowstone was huge,
more than 2 million acres

1066
01:16:45,611 --> 01:16:49,138
of remote mountainous terrain
covering the northwestern

1067
01:16:49,182 --> 01:16:51,582
corner of Wyoming Territory

1068
01:16:51,617 --> 01:16:55,212
and spilling into Montana
and ldaho, bigger than

1069
01:16:55,254 --> 01:16:59,020
the states of Delaware
and Rhode lsland combined,

1070
01:16:59,125 --> 01:17:02,754
more than 50 times
larger than the Yosemite Grant

1071
01:17:02,729 --> 01:17:07,689
in California,
but having created the world's

1072
01:17:07,734 --> 01:17:11,864
first national park,
Congress had seen no reason to

1073
01:17:11,904 --> 01:17:16,136
appropriate any money to
manage it or protect it from

1074
01:17:16,175 --> 01:17:19,372
the people who
were sure to come.

1075
01:17:22,882 --> 01:17:26,545
WOMAN: Our first site of
geysers made us simply wild

1076
01:17:26,586 --> 01:17:30,283
with the eagerness of
seeing all things at once.

1077
01:17:30,323 --> 01:17:32,757
We ran and shouted
and called to each other

1078
01:17:32,792 --> 01:17:35,260
to see this or that.

1079
01:17:35,294 --> 01:17:39,162
We had at last
reached Wonderland.

1080
01:17:39,198 --> 01:17:41,723
Emma Cowan.

1081
01:17:41,768 --> 01:17:45,761
COYOTE: ln August of 1877,
a group of 9 tourists from

1082
01:17:45,805 --> 01:17:51,471
Montana had entered the park
bent on taking in the sights.

1083
01:17:51,511 --> 01:17:55,038
Among them were Emma Cowan,
24 years old, and her husband

1084
01:17:55,081 --> 01:17:58,676
George, planning to celebrate
their second wedding

1085
01:17:58,785 --> 01:18:01,652
anniversary in Yellowstone.

1086
01:18:01,621 --> 01:18:04,590
WOMAN AS EMMA COWAN: We seemed
to be in a world of our own.

1087
01:18:04,624 --> 01:18:08,822
Not a soul had we seen
save our own parry.

1088
01:18:08,861 --> 01:18:12,854
One can scarcely realize the
intense solitude which then

1089
01:18:12,899 --> 01:18:17,529
pervaded this land fresh
from the Maker's hand.

1090
01:18:22,241 --> 01:18:24,505
COYOTE: On the morning of
their anniversary, the Cowans

1091
01:18:24,544 --> 01:18:28,537
stepped outside their tent
and found themselves not only

1092
01:18:28,581 --> 01:18:31,778
in the middle of the world's
first national park

1093
01:18:31,818 --> 01:18:34,309
but in the middle of
an lndian war.

1094
01:18:39,192 --> 01:18:41,922
WOMAN AS EMMA COWAN:
A pistol shot rang out.

1095
01:18:41,961 --> 01:18:44,395
My husband's head fell back.

1096
01:18:44,430 --> 01:18:51,302
A red stream trickled down
his face from beneath his hat.

1097
01:18:51,337 --> 01:18:54,932
COYOTE: Chief Joseph and
hundreds of his Nez Perce Tribe

1098
01:18:54,974 --> 01:18:57,499
were streaming through
the park, pursued by

1099
01:18:57,543 --> 01:19:00,637
the U.S. Army because they had
refused to move onto

1100
01:19:00,746 --> 01:19:04,184
a reservation in ldaho.

1101
01:19:05,152 --> 01:19:09,111
Only two weeks earlier, nearly
90 of them had been killed,

1102
01:19:09,156 --> 01:19:12,319
more than half women and
children, when their sleeping

1103
01:19:12,359 --> 01:19:18,127
village had been attacked in
The Battle of the Big Hole.

1104
01:19:18,165 --> 01:19:20,531
Some of the young warriors
were still incensed

1105
01:19:20,567 --> 01:19:24,025
about the casualties they had
suffered and ignored Joseph's

1106
01:19:24,071 --> 01:19:28,337
instructions not to harm
any white civilians.

1107
01:19:28,375 --> 01:19:31,936
[Hoofbeats]

1108
01:19:31,979 --> 01:19:34,379
As the Nez Perce continued
their flight through

1109
01:19:34,414 --> 01:19:36,974
Yellowstone, there were
other incidents

1110
01:19:37,017 --> 01:19:39,383
with unlucky tourists.

1111
01:19:39,419 --> 01:19:42,911
Several were wounded,
and two were killed.

1112
01:19:47,361 --> 01:19:50,922
Moving through a few days
behind the lndians, the army

1113
01:19:50,964 --> 01:19:53,455
picked up the survivors.

1114
01:19:53,500 --> 01:19:58,528
Among them was George Cowan,
somehow still alive.

1115
01:19:58,572 --> 01:20:02,474
Army surgeons probed his head
by candlelight and removed

1116
01:20:02,509 --> 01:20:06,070
the bullet, flattened
by his skull.

1117
01:20:08,882 --> 01:20:12,545
By the time he was reunited
with his wife, the Nez Perce War

1118
01:20:12,586 --> 01:20:16,352
was ending hundreds of
miles away with Chief Joseph's

1119
01:20:16,390 --> 01:20:19,826
surrender in northern Montana.

1120
01:20:19,860 --> 01:20:22,954
Yellowstone's superintendent
soon arranged for the native

1121
01:20:22,996 --> 01:20:26,454
Sheepeaters, who had not taken
part in the troubles, to be

1122
01:20:26,500 --> 01:20:30,163
evicted from their homeland
so he could assure the public

1123
01:20:30,204 --> 01:20:37,303
that Yellowstone National Park
was now free of all lndians.

1124
01:20:37,344 --> 01:20:41,075
Years later when the Cowans
returned to visit the park,

1125
01:20:41,114 --> 01:20:44,345
Emma would say she was
surprised any of her group had

1126
01:20:44,384 --> 01:20:47,285
been spared given
the horrible treatment

1127
01:20:47,321 --> 01:20:49,915
the lndians had suffered.

1128
01:20:49,957 --> 01:20:53,085
George meanwhile happily
recounted their tale of their

1129
01:20:53,126 --> 01:20:56,960
second anniversary and then
capped his story by showing

1130
01:20:57,064 --> 01:21:01,763
off his proudest Yellowstone
souvenir, the bullet that had

1131
01:21:01,735 --> 01:21:05,102
been removed from his skull,
which he had made into

1132
01:21:05,138 --> 01:21:08,107
a watch fob.

1133
01:21:08,141 --> 01:21:10,041
[Train chugging]

1134
01:21:10,077 --> 01:21:12,068
[Whistle blowing]

1135
01:21:13,947 --> 01:21:15,972
[Bell clangs]

1136
01:21:17,951 --> 01:21:22,115
MAN: l had a vision of the
future of this great country.

1137
01:21:22,155 --> 01:21:25,647
The iron horse had jumped the
Missouri and was rushing up

1138
01:21:25,692 --> 01:21:29,150
the bountiful valley of the
Yellowstone, carrying with it

1139
01:21:29,196 --> 01:21:33,428
all its civilization and change.

1140
01:21:33,467 --> 01:21:36,868
lnstead of the teepees of
the wild red men, there were

1141
01:21:36,903 --> 01:21:40,703
thousands of beautiful homes.

1142
01:21:40,741 --> 01:21:44,074
ln the bottomlands waved
the rich grain,

1143
01:21:44,111 --> 01:21:46,875
giving bread to millions.

1144
01:21:46,913 --> 01:21:50,007
The hillsides were covered
with stock, supplying

1145
01:21:50,050 --> 01:21:57,252
the world its meat, and still
thundered on the iron horse up

1146
01:21:57,357 --> 01:22:03,296
over the Rocky Mountains,
and l thanked God that right

1147
01:22:03,263 --> 01:22:08,530
in the heart of all this noise
and restless life of millions

1148
01:22:08,568 --> 01:22:12,197
a wise government had forever
set apart that marvelous

1149
01:22:12,239 --> 01:22:16,198
region as a national park.

1150
01:22:16,243 --> 01:22:19,940
Colgate Hoyt.

1151
01:22:19,980 --> 01:22:23,438
SCHULLERY: As early as 187 1,
they began to call Yellowstone

1152
01:22:23,483 --> 01:22:27,613
Wonderland because ''Alice
in Wonderland,'' the book,

1153
01:22:27,654 --> 01:22:30,521
had just appeared
a few years earlier,

1154
01:22:30,557 --> 01:22:31,990
and The Northern Pacific
Railroad took that

1155
01:22:32,025 --> 01:22:33,617
right up and began to produce

1156
01:22:33,660 --> 01:22:37,721
pamphlets, brochures,
and guidebooks all

1157
01:22:37,764 --> 01:22:42,667
with the title ''Wonderland.''

1158
01:22:42,703 --> 01:22:46,799
COYOTE: ln 1883, The Northern
Pacific Railroad was finally

1159
01:22:46,840 --> 01:22:49,832
completed across
the continent.

1160
01:22:49,876 --> 01:22:53,744
Now tourists from the East,
well-to-do refugees from the

1161
01:22:53,780 --> 01:22:57,147
increasingly industrialized
and crowded cities

1162
01:22:57,250 --> 01:23:01,880
of the Gilded Age, could reach
the entrance to Yellowstone

1163
01:23:01,855 --> 01:23:07,316
National Park in relative
comfort and speed.

1164
01:23:07,361 --> 01:23:12,697
That first year,
attendance increased 5-fold.

1165
01:23:12,733 --> 01:23:16,760
Everything, the hotel,
the food, the tents,

1166
01:23:16,803 --> 01:23:21,172
the stages, the guides,
was now under the exclusive

1167
01:23:21,208 --> 01:23:25,110
control of the Yellowstone
Park lmprovement Company,

1168
01:23:25,145 --> 01:23:28,205
a politically well-connected
firm with close ties to

1169
01:23:28,248 --> 01:23:32,207
The Northern Pacific.

1170
01:23:32,252 --> 01:23:35,915
They had quietly arranged for
the secretary of the interior

1171
01:23:35,956 --> 01:23:38,823
to grant the company
a remarkable monopoly

1172
01:23:38,859 --> 01:23:41,453
within the park.

1173
01:23:41,495 --> 01:23:44,931
For a fee of only $2.00 an
acre, the lease allowed the

1174
01:23:44,965 --> 01:23:50,597
company to cut as much timber
as it needed, kill elk, deer,

1175
01:23:50,637 --> 01:23:55,665
and bison in the park to feed
their work crews and guests,

1176
01:23:55,709 --> 01:23:59,145
plant crops and graze horses
and cattle wherever they

1177
01:23:59,246 --> 01:24:04,878
wished, even mine coal for
their furnaces and rechannel

1178
01:24:04,851 --> 01:24:09,447
some of the hot springs
to heat the buildings.

1179
01:24:09,489 --> 01:24:12,549
As if that weren't enough,
the contract granted the

1180
01:24:12,592 --> 01:24:17,529
company the right to choose
parcels of 640 acres,

1181
01:24:17,564 --> 01:24:21,022
one square mile,
at 7 different locations

1182
01:24:21,067 --> 01:24:23,729
within the park.

1183
01:24:23,770 --> 01:24:26,967
The prime attractions of
Yellowstone were about to be

1184
01:24:27,007 --> 01:24:31,774
completely surrounded
and exploited.

1185
01:24:31,812 --> 01:24:34,406
MAN: The project of the worthy
speculators, who are after

1186
01:24:34,448 --> 01:24:38,350
the people's pleasure ground,
appears to be flourishing.

1187
01:24:38,385 --> 01:24:41,479
Here and there are feeble
voices raised in protest against

1188
01:24:41,521 --> 01:24:46,254
the steal, but with a powerful
lobby to back them and no

1189
01:24:46,293 --> 01:24:50,127
opposition from the interior
department, the grabbers have

1190
01:24:50,163 --> 01:24:54,759
little to fear.

1191
01:24:54,801 --> 01:24:59,101
The park is at
present all our own.

1192
01:24:59,206 --> 01:25:01,697
How would the readers like
to see it become a second

1193
01:25:01,675 --> 01:25:06,942
Niagara, a place where one
goes only to be fleeced,

1194
01:25:06,980 --> 01:25:09,676
where patent medicine
advertisements stare one

1195
01:25:09,716 --> 01:25:12,844
in the face, and the beauties
of nature have all been

1196
01:25:12,886 --> 01:25:16,219
defiled by the greed of man?

1197
01:25:16,256 --> 01:25:19,692
George Bird Grinnell.

1198
01:25:19,726 --> 01:25:22,354
COYOTE: George Bird Grinnell
of New York Ciry had been

1199
01:25:22,395 --> 01:25:26,855
educated at Yale in
ornithology and paleontology

1200
01:25:26,900 --> 01:25:30,301
and had made several trips to
the West to collect specimens

1201
01:25:30,337 --> 01:25:37,266
as a young man, including an
1875 excursion to Yellowstone,

1202
01:25:37,310 --> 01:25:40,746
which had instilled in him
a deep love of the new park

1203
01:25:40,780 --> 01:25:46,309
and a fierce desire to
protect it and its wildlife.

1204
01:25:46,353 --> 01:25:49,220
Having sold his father's
investment business, Grinnell

1205
01:25:49,256 --> 01:25:52,657
had taken control of
''Forest and Stream,''

1206
01:25:52,692 --> 01:25:59,029
a sportsman's magazine he now
used to champion his causes.

1207
01:25:59,132 --> 01:26:03,501
Yellowstone was one of them,
and he began a crusade to stop

1208
01:26:03,470 --> 01:26:06,564
what he called
''the park grab.''

1209
01:26:09,676 --> 01:26:12,167
Grinnell's fight against the
railroad interests was soon

1210
01:26:12,212 --> 01:26:16,876
joined by an unlikely ally,
General Philip Sheridan,

1211
01:26:16,917 --> 01:26:20,250
a cavalry hero of the
Civil War and celebrated lndian

1212
01:26:20,287 --> 01:26:24,383
fighter, who was now commander
of the U.S. Army

1213
01:26:24,424 --> 01:26:26,654
for much of the West.

1214
01:26:26,693 --> 01:26:28,593
MAN AS PHlLlP SHERlDAN:
l regretted exceedingly to learn

1215
01:26:28,628 --> 01:26:30,562
that the national park
had been rented out to

1216
01:26:30,597 --> 01:26:33,088
private parties.

1217
01:26:33,133 --> 01:26:35,863
The improvements in the
park should be national,

1218
01:26:35,902 --> 01:26:38,166
and the control of it in
the hands of an officer

1219
01:26:38,204 --> 01:26:40,035
of the government.

1220
01:26:40,073 --> 01:26:42,837
l can keep sufficient troops
in the park to accomplish this

1221
01:26:42,876 --> 01:26:46,642
object and give a place
of refuge and safery

1222
01:26:46,680 --> 01:26:48,910
for our noble game.

1223
01:26:48,949 --> 01:26:50,416
[Galloping]

1224
01:26:50,450 --> 01:26:52,543
COYOTE: Sheridan even
suggested that Yellowstone

1225
01:26:52,586 --> 01:26:56,784
should be expanded by more
than 3,000 square miles,

1226
01:26:56,890 --> 01:26:59,290
doubled in size
to provide greater

1227
01:26:59,326 --> 01:27:02,818
protection for the elk and
buffalo by conforming the

1228
01:27:02,862 --> 01:27:06,923
park's boundaries to their
seasonal migrations.

1229
01:27:06,967 --> 01:27:10,767
lt was a radical idea
immediately opposed by Western

1230
01:27:10,804 --> 01:27:14,103
politicians, who believed
that Yellowstone was

1231
01:27:14,140 --> 01:27:17,906
already too big.

1232
01:27:17,944 --> 01:27:21,175
ln Washington, Grinnell
took on the railroad lobby

1233
01:27:21,214 --> 01:27:25,116
directly, calling for an
investigation into the park

1234
01:27:25,151 --> 01:27:29,212
contracts, proposing an
expansion of Yellowstone,

1235
01:27:29,255 --> 01:27:32,053
and trying to write park
regulations concerning

1236
01:27:32,092 --> 01:27:37,223
hunting into law.

1237
01:27:37,263 --> 01:27:40,596
The debate that followed would
be echoed in every debate

1238
01:27:40,634 --> 01:27:44,035
on national parks
for the next century.

1239
01:27:44,070 --> 01:27:47,506
[Gavel bangs]

1240
01:27:47,540 --> 01:27:50,873
MAN: l do not understand
myself what the necessiry is

1241
01:27:50,910 --> 01:27:53,777
for the government entering
into the show business

1242
01:27:53,813 --> 01:27:58,341
in the Yellowstone
National Park.

1243
01:27:58,451 --> 01:28:03,150
l should be very glad myself
to see it surveyed and sold,

1244
01:28:03,123 --> 01:28:06,149
leaving it to
private enterprise.

1245
01:28:06,192 --> 01:28:12,028
Senator John lngalls, Kansas.

1246
01:28:12,065 --> 01:28:16,161
MAN: The great curse of this
age and of the American people

1247
01:28:16,202 --> 01:28:19,069
is its materialistic tendencies.

1248
01:28:19,105 --> 01:28:22,836
''Money, money'' is the
cry everywhere

1249
01:28:22,876 --> 01:28:25,140
until our people
are held up already

1250
01:28:25,178 --> 01:28:27,578
to the world as noted
for nothing except

1251
01:28:27,614 --> 01:28:32,313
the acquisition of money.

1252
01:28:32,352 --> 01:28:36,379
l am not ashamed to say that
l shall vote to perpetuate

1253
01:28:36,423 --> 01:28:38,983
this park
for the American people.

1254
01:28:42,195 --> 01:28:45,790
There should be to a nation
that will have 100 million or

1255
01:28:45,832 --> 01:28:51,202
150 million people a park
like this as a great breathing

1256
01:28:51,237 --> 01:28:55,264
place for the national lungs.

1257
01:28:55,308 --> 01:29:01,406
Senator George Vest, Missouri.

1258
01:29:01,448 --> 01:29:04,781
COYOTE: The bill to expand
Yellowstone failed, though

1259
01:29:04,818 --> 01:29:10,313
Congress did appropriate
$40,000 for its maintenance.

1260
01:29:10,356 --> 01:29:13,382
ln the next few years,
proposals were made to shrink

1261
01:29:13,426 --> 01:29:17,829
the park, to place it under
Montana's legal jurisdiction,

1262
01:29:17,864 --> 01:29:21,027
or to follow the Yosemite
example and simply turn

1263
01:29:21,067 --> 01:29:27,199
the park over to Wyoming once
the territory became a state.

1264
01:29:27,240 --> 01:29:30,175
George Bird Grinnell
would have none of it.

1265
01:29:30,210 --> 01:29:34,647
''Leave the people's park
alone,'' he declared.

1266
01:29:34,681 --> 01:29:39,448
He tried valiantly to stop
each attack on Yellowstone

1267
01:29:39,486 --> 01:29:44,617
until August 4, 1886,
when Congress stripped away

1268
01:29:44,657 --> 01:29:47,455
any money to protect the park.

1269
01:29:50,396 --> 01:29:53,923
For the moment it seemed,
Yellowstone would have to

1270
01:29:53,967 --> 01:29:55,662
fend for itself.

1271
01:30:01,341 --> 01:30:02,899
Coming to the rescue,

1272
01:30:02,942 --> 01:30:05,502
Lieutenant General
Philip Sheridan gladly

1273
01:30:05,545 --> 01:30:09,538
dispatched Troop ''M'' of the
1st United States Cavalry

1274
01:30:09,582 --> 01:30:15,248
to take control of the world's
first national park.

1275
01:30:15,288 --> 01:30:18,314
They arrived believing,
as everyone else did,

1276
01:30:18,358 --> 01:30:21,384
that military supervision
of Yellowstone would be

1277
01:30:21,427 --> 01:30:23,759
a temporary stopgap.

1278
01:30:27,100 --> 01:30:31,696
30 years later, the cavalry
would still be there.

1279
01:30:34,674 --> 01:30:36,665
[Clock ticking]

1280
01:30:41,414 --> 01:30:45,077
MAN AS JOHN MUlR: l am
losing precious days.

1281
01:30:45,118 --> 01:30:49,851
l am degenerating into a
machine for making money.

1282
01:30:49,889 --> 01:30:53,188
l am learning nothing in
this trivial world of men.

1283
01:30:53,226 --> 01:30:56,718
l must break away and get
out into the mountains to

1284
01:30:56,830 --> 01:30:59,663
learn the news.

1285
01:30:59,699 --> 01:31:03,191
COYOTE: For 5 years, John Muir
had tried his best to confine

1286
01:31:03,236 --> 01:31:09,732
himself to his writing desk in
Oakland, California, turning

1287
01:31:09,776 --> 01:31:13,041
out article after article
for the ''Overland Monthly,''

1288
01:31:13,079 --> 01:31:16,879
''Scribner's,'' and ''Harper's''
magazine about the majesry

1289
01:31:16,916 --> 01:31:19,646
of Yosemite
and the Sierra Nevada,

1290
01:31:19,686 --> 01:31:22,120
about the necessiry
to preserve forests from

1291
01:31:22,155 --> 01:31:25,318
destruction, and about the joy

1292
01:31:25,358 --> 01:31:29,920
to be found in quietly
observing the world, all part

1293
01:31:29,963 --> 01:31:33,228
of his desire, he said,
to ''preach nature

1294
01:31:33,266 --> 01:31:35,826
''like an apostle.''

1295
01:31:35,869 --> 01:31:42,069
ln the process, he had become
famous, but he had soon grown

1296
01:31:42,108 --> 01:31:48,104
restless to travel again,
and when the opportuniry came

1297
01:31:48,147 --> 01:31:51,844
to visit Alaska, a vast
wilderness that had been part

1298
01:31:51,885 --> 01:31:55,412
of the United States
for barely a decade,

1299
01:31:55,455 --> 01:31:58,424
he had jumped at the chance.

1300
01:31:58,524 --> 01:32:02,324
At Fort Wrangell, hearing talk
of a remote and unexplored

1301
01:32:02,295 --> 01:32:07,323
area lined with glaciers,
he had hired 4 Tlingit lndians

1302
01:32:07,367 --> 01:32:10,666
and their big canoe to
make the long 800-mile

1303
01:32:10,703 --> 01:32:13,501
journey there.

1304
01:32:13,539 --> 01:32:16,406
lt was Glacier Bay.

1305
01:32:16,442 --> 01:32:20,105
Here, the glaciers marched
right down to the sea and were

1306
01:32:20,146 --> 01:32:23,513
of an entirely different scale
from the remnants Muir had

1307
01:32:23,549 --> 01:32:27,849
tracked down high in
the Sierra Nevada.

1308
01:32:27,887 --> 01:32:31,983
''Alaska,'' he wrote,
''is nature's own reservation,

1309
01:32:32,025 --> 01:32:36,257
''and every lover of wildness
will rejoice with me that by

1310
01:32:36,296 --> 01:32:42,132
''kindly frost it is
so well- preserved.''

1311
01:32:42,168 --> 01:32:45,626
MAN AS JOHN MUlR: Glaciers,
back in their white solitudes,

1312
01:32:45,672 --> 01:32:50,200
work apart from men, exerting
their tremendous energies

1313
01:32:50,243 --> 01:32:53,974
in silence and darkness.

1314
01:32:54,013 --> 01:32:58,177
Outspread spirit-like,
brooding above predestined

1315
01:32:58,284 --> 01:33:03,278
landscapes, they work on
unwearied through immeasurable

1316
01:33:03,256 --> 01:33:09,354
ages until in the fullness of
time the mountains and valleys

1317
01:33:09,395 --> 01:33:15,061
are brought forth, channels
furrowed for rivers, basins

1318
01:33:15,101 --> 01:33:19,197
for lakes and meadows,
and soil spread for forests

1319
01:33:19,238 --> 01:33:22,036
and fields.

1320
01:33:22,075 --> 01:33:27,980
Then they shrink and
vanish like summer clouds.

1321
01:33:28,014 --> 01:33:30,949
He camps out on the glacier,
and he's been diagnosed as

1322
01:33:30,984 --> 01:33:32,713
having a deep cough.

1323
01:33:32,752 --> 01:33:35,778
He goes out and sleeps on the
glacier and loses his cough,

1324
01:33:35,822 --> 01:33:41,556
says that ''no lowland microbe
can survive on a glacier.''

1325
01:33:41,594 --> 01:33:45,086
He said, ''Any man that
does not believe in God

1326
01:33:45,131 --> 01:33:51,366
''and glaciers is the worst
kind of unbeliever.''

1327
01:33:51,404 --> 01:33:54,134
COYOTE: The conversations he
shared around the campfire

1328
01:33:54,173 --> 01:33:58,337
with his Tlingit companions
exposed him for the first time

1329
01:33:58,444 --> 01:34:01,413
to lndian beliefs.

1330
01:34:01,381 --> 01:34:03,440
''Don't you believe
wolves have souls?''

1331
01:34:03,483 --> 01:34:07,783
one of them asked, and the
discussion that followed

1332
01:34:07,820 --> 01:34:10,721
impressed upon Muir that they
held views of the natural

1333
01:34:10,757 --> 01:34:14,557
world not that much
different from his own.

1334
01:34:20,099 --> 01:34:22,533
BAKER: John Muir would have
made a great medicine man

1335
01:34:22,568 --> 01:34:27,267
in his day because he
would feel the same things

1336
01:34:27,306 --> 01:34:29,570
an American lndian would
because he was listening,

1337
01:34:29,609 --> 01:34:32,100
he was truly listening.

1338
01:34:32,145 --> 01:34:33,305
He wasn't exploring.

1339
01:34:33,346 --> 01:34:35,712
He was living, he was
learning, he was living

1340
01:34:35,748 --> 01:34:39,149
with the elements out there,
and John Muir would have been

1341
01:34:39,185 --> 01:34:42,313
part of it just like the
elders that l knew were part

1342
01:34:42,355 --> 01:34:44,323
of the environment.

1343
01:34:49,028 --> 01:34:52,054
COYOTE: After his return
from Alaska, he married

1344
01:34:52,098 --> 01:34:55,625
Louie Wanda Strentzel,
the reclusive daughter

1345
01:34:55,668 --> 01:34:59,968
of a prosperous fruit grower
and settled down on her

1346
01:35:00,073 --> 01:35:02,007
parents' estate near the town

1347
01:35:01,974 --> 01:35:07,674
of Martinez in
California's Alhambra Valley.

1348
01:35:07,713 --> 01:35:11,843
Two children quickly followed,
and Muir single-mindedly threw

1349
01:35:11,884 --> 01:35:16,014
himself into providing for his
family, taking over management

1350
01:35:16,055 --> 01:35:21,083
of his in-laws' 3,000 acres,
bringing to bear the same

1351
01:35:21,127 --> 01:35:23,994
intensiry and mechanical
inventiveness he had

1352
01:35:24,030 --> 01:35:27,830
demonstrated as a young man.

1353
01:35:27,867 --> 01:35:31,268
He improved the farm's
productiviry, converting extra

1354
01:35:31,304 --> 01:35:35,365
land from pasture into cash
crops of cherries,

1355
01:35:35,408 --> 01:35:39,868
Tokay grapes, and Bartlett pears
and steadily amassed

1356
01:35:39,912 --> 01:35:42,881
considerable wealth.

1357
01:35:42,915 --> 01:35:47,181
Muir was tender and devoted
to his wife and daughters,

1358
01:35:47,220 --> 01:35:50,781
but his health deteriorated
from the ceaseless dawn to

1359
01:35:50,823 --> 01:35:54,816
dusk farm work and his
isolation from the mountains

1360
01:35:54,861 --> 01:35:58,524
and forests and glaciers
that had always seemed to

1361
01:35:58,631 --> 01:36:01,896
replenish him.

1362
01:36:01,868 --> 01:36:04,428
He lost weight.

1363
01:36:04,470 --> 01:36:07,803
He'd become ''nerve-shaken and
lean as a crow,'' he wrote his

1364
01:36:07,840 --> 01:36:15,008
brother, ''loaded with care,
work, and worry.''

1365
01:36:15,047 --> 01:36:19,074
The result was that he was
slowly weaning himself away

1366
01:36:19,118 --> 01:36:21,712
from all that had compelled
him in his life up to that

1367
01:36:21,754 --> 01:36:28,216
point, and his--his wife
essentially said,

1368
01:36:28,261 --> 01:36:32,254
''You've got to go out
and engage the wilderness.''

1369
01:36:32,298 --> 01:36:36,098
COYOTE: ln 1888, Louie Muir
persuaded her husband to take

1370
01:36:36,135 --> 01:36:39,468
another outing to
Mount Rainier in the state

1371
01:36:39,505 --> 01:36:43,271
of Washington, where he camped
at what he called ''the most

1372
01:36:43,309 --> 01:36:47,370
''extravagantly beautiful of
all the Alpine gardens l ever

1373
01:36:47,413 --> 01:36:54,046
''beheld with a volcanic cone
looming overhead reflected

1374
01:36:54,086 --> 01:36:59,251
''in a crystalline blue lake.''

1375
01:36:59,358 --> 01:37:02,589
Captivated by the view,
he felt some of his old energy

1376
01:37:02,562 --> 01:37:08,194
returning, and when the young
men camping with him set off

1377
01:37:08,234 --> 01:37:13,467
on a grueling 7 1/2-hour climb
up the 14,000-foot peak,

1378
01:37:13,506 --> 01:37:16,805
the 50-year-old Muir
impulsively joined them.

1379
01:37:21,047 --> 01:37:24,676
''Did not mean to climb it,''
Muir wrote his wife later,

1380
01:37:24,717 --> 01:37:28,778
''but got excited and
soon was on top.''

1381
01:37:32,858 --> 01:37:36,692
The climb, he said, had left
him ''with heart and limb

1382
01:37:36,729 --> 01:37:42,725
''exultant and free.''

1383
01:37:42,768 --> 01:37:45,134
STETSON: By the time he came
down from that mountain,

1384
01:37:45,171 --> 01:37:49,164
he understood that his real
passion and his energy should

1385
01:37:49,208 --> 01:37:52,803
be devoted to preserving such
places, and that's where he

1386
01:37:52,845 --> 01:37:56,747
went from there.

1387
01:37:56,849 --> 01:37:59,716
COYOTE: Louie Muir, meanwhile,
had written her husband

1388
01:37:59,752 --> 01:38:03,210
a letter that released
him just as surely as

1389
01:38:03,256 --> 01:38:07,454
the thrilling vista from
Rainier's mountaintop.

1390
01:38:07,493 --> 01:38:11,156
WOMAN AS LOUlE MUlR: My dear
John, a ranch that needs

1391
01:38:11,197 --> 01:38:14,655
and takes the sacrifice of a
noble life ought to be flung

1392
01:38:14,700 --> 01:38:20,104
away beyond all reach
and power for harm.

1393
01:38:20,139 --> 01:38:23,802
The Alaska book and the
Yosemite book, dear John,

1394
01:38:23,843 --> 01:38:28,303
must be written, and you need
to be your own self, well

1395
01:38:28,347 --> 01:38:32,181
and strong, to make
them worthy of you.

1396
01:38:38,057 --> 01:38:41,549
COYOTE: ln 1889,
Robert Underwood Johnson,

1397
01:38:41,594 --> 01:38:43,892
an editor of
''The Century Magazine,''

1398
01:38:43,929 --> 01:38:50,061
arrived from the East and asked
Muir for a tour of Yosemite.

1399
01:38:50,102 --> 01:38:54,368
ln the last 8 years, Muir had
managed only one brief visit

1400
01:38:54,407 --> 01:38:57,001
to the place that had
changed his life,

1401
01:38:57,109 --> 01:38:58,906
and he eagerly accepted.

1402
01:39:06,686 --> 01:39:09,519
But as they approached
Yosemite Valley, he began

1403
01:39:09,555 --> 01:39:12,956
seeing disturbing signs.

1404
01:39:12,992 --> 01:39:15,460
Tunnels had been carved through
the heart of some of the big

1405
01:39:15,494 --> 01:39:20,227
trees as gaudy tourist
attractions to entice visitors

1406
01:39:20,266 --> 01:39:23,929
to use one road over another.

1407
01:39:23,969 --> 01:39:27,700
ln the valley itself, he found
piles of tin cans and other

1408
01:39:27,740 --> 01:39:32,871
garbage in plain view, and the
meadows had been converted into

1409
01:39:32,912 --> 01:39:37,611
hay fields and pastures,
even a hog pen ''whose stink,''

1410
01:39:37,650 --> 01:39:42,678
Muir wrote, ''has got into
the pores of the rocks.''

1411
01:39:42,722 --> 01:39:46,089
He was dismayed to learn of
plans to throw colored lights

1412
01:39:46,125 --> 01:39:49,720
upon the majestic waterfalls
as if that would make them

1413
01:39:49,762 --> 01:39:52,128
more beautiful.

1414
01:39:52,164 --> 01:39:55,531
''Perhaps,'' he said, ''we may
yet hear of an appropriation

1415
01:39:55,568 --> 01:39:58,901
''to whitewash the face
of El Capitan or correct

1416
01:39:58,938 --> 01:40:03,398
''the curves of the domes.''

1417
01:40:03,442 --> 01:40:08,903
Glacier Point, 3,254 feet
above the valley, had been one

1418
01:40:08,948 --> 01:40:13,214
of Muir's favorite spots from
which to contemplate the place

1419
01:40:13,252 --> 01:40:17,018
he considered
nature's cathedral.

1420
01:40:17,056 --> 01:40:19,923
Now it was a place
where tourists mugged

1421
01:40:19,959 --> 01:40:21,392
for the camera.

1422
01:40:33,672 --> 01:40:36,402
An entrepreneur named
James McCauley had built

1423
01:40:36,442 --> 01:40:38,808
the Mountain House Hotel there.

1424
01:40:38,844 --> 01:40:41,938
On summer nights, his sons
would collect donations from

1425
01:40:41,981 --> 01:40:46,850
tourists for a firefall in
which McCauley would build

1426
01:40:46,886 --> 01:40:51,687
a huge bonfire and then light
sticks of dynamite to send

1427
01:40:51,724 --> 01:40:57,856
the fire cascading over
the sheer cliff.

1428
01:40:57,963 --> 01:41:00,557
The crowds loved it.

1429
01:41:00,533 --> 01:41:02,228
[Cheering]

1430
01:41:02,268 --> 01:41:05,294
DUNCAN: Muir came back
into the Yosemite Valley,

1431
01:41:05,337 --> 01:41:08,773
his cathedral, and his
cathedral had been turned

1432
01:41:08,808 --> 01:41:11,572
into a carnival.

1433
01:41:11,610 --> 01:41:16,445
lt wasn't what he
envisioned it should be.

1434
01:41:16,482 --> 01:41:18,848
MAN AS JOHN MUlR: Like
anything else worthwhile,

1435
01:41:18,884 --> 01:41:21,876
however well guarded,
they have always been subject

1436
01:41:21,921 --> 01:41:25,914
to attack by despoiling
gain-seekers and mischief-makers

1437
01:41:25,958 --> 01:41:31,362
of every degree from Satan to
senators, eagerly trying to

1438
01:41:31,397 --> 01:41:35,891
make everything immediately
and selfishly commercial.

1439
01:41:35,935 --> 01:41:39,029
Thus long ago, a few
enterprising merchants

1440
01:41:39,071 --> 01:41:43,667
utilized the Jerusalem temple
as a place of business instead

1441
01:41:43,709 --> 01:41:48,544
of a place of prayer,
and earlier still, the first

1442
01:41:48,581 --> 01:41:52,540
forest reservation,
including only one tree,

1443
01:41:52,585 --> 01:41:56,954
was likewise despoiled.

1444
01:41:57,056 --> 01:41:59,115
COYOTE: Distressed at
everything he saw within

1445
01:41:59,158 --> 01:42:02,491
Yosemite Valley, Muir
fled with his guest

1446
01:42:02,528 --> 01:42:07,192
Robert Underwood Johnson
into the high country,

1447
01:42:07,233 --> 01:42:10,168
but here, too, much had changed.

1448
01:42:10,202 --> 01:42:13,660
Beyond the boundaries of the
Yosemite Grant and therefore

1449
01:42:13,706 --> 01:42:16,766
unprotected by even the
lackluster vigilance

1450
01:42:16,809 --> 01:42:20,176
of the state, the headwaters
of the streams feeding into

1451
01:42:20,212 --> 01:42:23,739
the valley had been left to
the mercy of the lumbermen

1452
01:42:23,782 --> 01:42:25,249
and sheep herders.

1453
01:42:27,920 --> 01:42:32,152
That evening at their camp in
Tuolumne Meadows, Muir spoke

1454
01:42:32,191 --> 01:42:36,594
passionately about
what they had seen.

1455
01:42:36,629 --> 01:42:40,531
''The harm they do goes to the
heart,'' he said of the sheep,

1456
01:42:40,566 --> 01:42:43,296
and he predicted that if
the destruction continued

1457
01:42:43,335 --> 01:42:47,704
unchecked without the trees
and grasses of the high Sierra

1458
01:42:47,740 --> 01:42:51,870
to trap and hold the winter
snows, the springtime melts

1459
01:42:51,911 --> 01:42:55,870
would become swifter and more
destructive, the clear streams

1460
01:42:55,915 --> 01:43:00,011
would become muddy with silt,
and by summertime, the valley

1461
01:43:00,119 --> 01:43:05,079
and the waterfalls that
nourished it would be dry.

1462
01:43:05,057 --> 01:43:08,549
Johnson suggested that the
high country be set aside as

1463
01:43:08,594 --> 01:43:14,965
a national park and urged Muir
to become the public voice

1464
01:43:15,000 --> 01:43:18,936
for the campaign by writing
articles again describing not

1465
01:43:18,971 --> 01:43:23,032
only the region's beaury
but its vulnerabiliry.

1466
01:43:28,480 --> 01:43:29,970
MAN AS JOHN MUlR:
The mountains are

1467
01:43:30,015 --> 01:43:34,384
fountains of men,
as well as of rivers,

1468
01:43:34,420 --> 01:43:39,653
of glaciers, of fertile soil.

1469
01:43:39,692 --> 01:43:44,994
The great poets, philosophers,
prophets, able men whose

1470
01:43:45,030 --> 01:43:49,831
thoughts and deeds have moved
the world, have come down from

1471
01:43:49,868 --> 01:43:55,602
the mountains, mountain
dwellers who have grown strong

1472
01:43:55,641 --> 01:44:00,203
there with the forest trees
in Nature's workshops.

1473
01:44:05,517 --> 01:44:09,078
CRONON: Muir in a way comes
from a literary rhetorical

1474
01:44:09,121 --> 01:44:14,081
tradition that for most modern
Americans has been lost,

1475
01:44:14,126 --> 01:44:17,186
that comes from--as with
Abraham Lincoln with whom,

1476
01:44:17,229 --> 01:44:20,096
l think, he has a lot in
common--that knowing

1477
01:44:20,132 --> 01:44:23,329
The Bible chapter and verse,
the entire text, knowing

1478
01:44:23,369 --> 01:44:26,532
Shakespeare, these sort of
classic literary roots that

1479
01:44:26,572 --> 01:44:29,132
are as fundamental to the way
so many literate Americans are

1480
01:44:29,174 --> 01:44:32,940
educated in the 19th Century,
and Muir has that language,

1481
01:44:32,978 --> 01:44:37,005
this rapturous, religious,
rhetorical set of images that

1482
01:44:37,049 --> 01:44:41,418
he has at his fingertips,
and he maps them onto his

1483
01:44:41,453 --> 01:44:44,684
concrete experiences out
in these natural settings

1484
01:44:44,723 --> 01:44:48,853
in a way that makes
them transcendent.

1485
01:44:48,894 --> 01:44:52,091
COYOTE: Muir threw himself
into what became a pitched

1486
01:44:52,131 --> 01:44:55,066
battle to preserve
the high country.

1487
01:44:55,100 --> 01:44:58,797
Vested interests and opposing
politicians lied about his

1488
01:44:58,904 --> 01:45:02,863
past, questioned his motives,
and publicly impugned

1489
01:45:02,841 --> 01:45:04,706
his integriry.

1490
01:45:04,743 --> 01:45:08,577
Muir was hurt but endured it
all, going directly to

1491
01:45:08,614 --> 01:45:11,674
the people, who soon
flooded Congress

1492
01:45:11,717 --> 01:45:13,708
with letters and petitions.

1493
01:45:20,626 --> 01:45:26,258
Finally on October 1, 1890,
President Benjamin Harrison

1494
01:45:26,298 --> 01:45:34,865
signed into law a bill creating
Yosemite National Park,

1495
01:45:34,907 --> 01:45:39,207
setting aside more
than 900,000 acres,

1496
01:45:39,244 --> 01:45:43,237
nearly 1,500 square miles.

1497
01:45:43,282 --> 01:45:47,150
Muir was disappointed that
the original Yosemite Grant

1498
01:45:47,186 --> 01:45:50,849
encompassing the valley floor
and the Mariposa Grove was

1499
01:45:50,889 --> 01:45:55,588
still left under state control,
but this new park was

1500
01:45:55,627 --> 01:46:02,465
30 times bigger and, to Muir's
delight, included one of his

1501
01:46:02,501 --> 01:46:06,961
favorite places on Earth,
the nearby Hetch Hetchy Valley,

1502
01:46:07,005 --> 01:46:10,771
which he considered
''a grand landscape garden,

1503
01:46:10,809 --> 01:46:18,739
''one of nature's rarest and most
precious mountain temples.''

1504
01:46:18,784 --> 01:46:22,345
At the same time as the
Yosemite Bill, two more groves

1505
01:46:22,387 --> 01:46:26,847
of big trees on the western
flank of the Sierras had also

1506
01:46:26,892 --> 01:46:31,727
been preserved as Sequoia and
General Grant National Parks.

1507
01:46:31,764 --> 01:46:35,291
''The majestic sequoia is the
king of the conifers,''

1508
01:46:35,334 --> 01:46:40,203
Muir had written, ''the noblest
of all the noble race.''

1509
01:46:42,141 --> 01:46:47,636
There were now 4
national parks.

1510
01:46:47,679 --> 01:46:50,910
Flushed with the success
of his first venture into

1511
01:46:50,949 --> 01:46:54,248
the world of politics,
Muir immediately began

1512
01:46:54,286 --> 01:46:56,584
making new plans.

1513
01:46:56,622 --> 01:47:00,149
He wanted more parks,
bigger parks, and more park

1514
01:47:00,259 --> 01:47:03,956
supporters to defend them
against the enemies he knew

1515
01:47:03,929 --> 01:47:07,387
would oppose them.

1516
01:47:07,432 --> 01:47:09,024
He was right.

1517
01:47:09,067 --> 01:47:11,763
ln the years to come,
the battle over parks would

1518
01:47:11,804 --> 01:47:15,604
intensify, threatening
even his own precious

1519
01:47:15,641 --> 01:47:19,168
mountain temple.

1520
01:47:19,211 --> 01:47:22,874
John Muir was 52
years old now.

1521
01:47:22,915 --> 01:47:25,782
lt had been nearly
a quarter century since,

1522
01:47:25,818 --> 01:47:29,117
as a self-described
''unknown nobody,''

1523
01:47:29,154 --> 01:47:33,488
he had first entered Yosemite
and then been transformed

1524
01:47:33,525 --> 01:47:39,896
by his ''unconditional
surrender to nature.''

1525
01:47:39,932 --> 01:47:42,662
He would need to convince
many other Americans to

1526
01:47:42,701 --> 01:47:47,331
surrender, as well,
to see the necessiry, as he

1527
01:47:47,372 --> 01:47:54,540
said, ''in all that is wild.''

1528
01:47:54,580 --> 01:47:59,847
CRONON: What he means is that
wildness is an essential part

1529
01:47:59,952 --> 01:48:05,049
of ourselves that our ordinary
lives tempt us to forget,

1530
01:48:05,023 --> 01:48:08,925
and by losing touch with that
essential part of ourselves,

1531
01:48:08,961 --> 01:48:13,625
we risk losing our souls,
and so for him,

1532
01:48:13,665 --> 01:48:17,601
going out into nature to
these parks is how we recover

1533
01:48:17,636 --> 01:48:22,005
ourselves, remember who we
truly are, and reconnect

1534
01:48:22,040 --> 01:48:26,136
with the core roots of our
own identiry, of our own

1535
01:48:26,178 --> 01:48:29,739
spiritualiry, that which is
sacred in our experience.

1536
01:48:32,317 --> 01:48:34,308
MAN AS JOHN MUlR:
The tendency nowadays to wander

1537
01:48:34,353 --> 01:48:39,188
in wilderness is
delightful to see.

1538
01:48:39,224 --> 01:48:41,886
Thousands of tired,
nerve-shaken,

1539
01:48:41,927 --> 01:48:45,226
overcivilized people
are beginning to find out

1540
01:48:45,264 --> 01:48:47,494
that going to the mountains is

1541
01:48:47,532 --> 01:48:57,464
going home, that wildness is
a necessiry, and that mountain

1542
01:48:57,576 --> 01:49:01,842
parks and reservations are
useful, not only as fountains

1543
01:49:01,813 --> 01:49:09,652
of timber and irrigating rivers
but as fountains of life.

1544
01:49:09,688 --> 01:49:11,280
John Muir.