1 00:00:02,846 --> 00:00:08,807 [Wolf howls] 2 00:00:08,852 --> 00:00:15,155 [Wind blowing] 3 00:00:15,191 --> 00:00:17,318 [Bird cawing] 4 00:00:17,360 --> 00:00:20,193 MAN: l think wolves are probably the perfect symbol 5 00:00:20,230 --> 00:00:23,324 of that earlier time before we human beings set out to 6 00:00:23,366 --> 00:00:25,732 conquer nature. 7 00:00:25,769 --> 00:00:27,236 [Howling] 8 00:00:27,270 --> 00:00:30,364 They're sort of the resistance movement to everything that 9 00:00:30,407 --> 00:00:33,103 we represent. 10 00:00:33,143 --> 00:00:35,703 The brothers and sisters of the wolves' ancestors are 11 00:00:35,745 --> 00:00:41,809 the ones who came over to the campfire to join our ancestors 12 00:00:41,851 --> 00:00:45,810 and become our most loyal pets. 13 00:00:45,855 --> 00:00:49,882 The wolves' ancestors are the ones who refused to come into 14 00:00:49,926 --> 00:00:54,829 the campfire, and we've never really forgiven them for that. 15 00:00:54,864 --> 00:00:56,456 [Howling] 16 00:00:56,499 --> 00:01:05,066 They remained free, wild, undomesticated, dangerous. 17 00:01:05,108 --> 00:01:09,511 And long after they no longer posed a real threat to us 18 00:01:09,546 --> 00:01:13,277 and our survival, l think we still held it against them 19 00:01:13,316 --> 00:01:17,685 that they were out there, free and wild and dangerous, 20 00:01:17,720 --> 00:01:21,019 and went out to do as good a job as we could of getting 21 00:01:21,057 --> 00:01:22,820 rid of them. 22 00:02:24,587 --> 00:02:30,651 MAN: lt is a better world with some buffalo left in it. 23 00:02:30,693 --> 00:02:33,856 A richer world with some gorgeous canyons unmarred by 24 00:02:33,897 --> 00:02:40,097 sign boards or superhighways, undrowned by power or 25 00:02:40,136 --> 00:02:42,764 irrigation reservoirs. 26 00:02:47,443 --> 00:02:51,470 lf we preserved as parks only those places that have no 27 00:02:51,514 --> 00:02:56,042 economic possibilities, we would have no parks. 28 00:02:59,222 --> 00:03:02,191 And in the decades to come, it will not be only 29 00:03:02,225 --> 00:03:07,253 the buffalo and the trumpeter swan who need sanctuaries. 30 00:03:07,297 --> 00:03:11,825 Our own species is going to need them, too. 31 00:03:11,868 --> 00:03:14,962 lt needs them now. 32 00:03:15,004 --> 00:03:16,596 Wallace Stegner. 33 00:03:23,846 --> 00:03:25,541 PETER COYOTE: Since its beginnings in the mid-19th 34 00:03:25,582 --> 00:03:29,951 century, the national park idea had embraced two equally 35 00:03:29,986 --> 00:03:34,150 important, yet apparently contradictory thoughts--that 36 00:03:34,190 --> 00:03:37,489 the park should preserve America's special places 37 00:03:37,527 --> 00:03:41,327 in their natural conditions forever and that they should 38 00:03:41,364 --> 00:03:47,360 be open and accessible for the enjoyment of all Americans. 39 00:03:47,403 --> 00:03:51,635 Early park leaders had glossed over any paradox, arguing that 40 00:03:51,674 --> 00:03:54,973 the best way to protect the parks was to build public 41 00:03:55,011 --> 00:03:57,605 support for them by encouraging more 42 00:03:57,647 --> 00:04:00,616 and more visitors. 43 00:04:00,650 --> 00:04:03,813 But with the end of World War ll, as the parks neared their 44 00:04:03,853 --> 00:04:07,414 100th birthday and an increasingly affluent 45 00:04:07,457 --> 00:04:10,255 and mobile nation placed demands on them as never 46 00:04:10,293 --> 00:04:14,753 before, the balancing act between preservation and use 47 00:04:14,797 --> 00:04:16,924 would be severely tested. 48 00:04:18,768 --> 00:04:20,895 MAN: lt's hard to imagine these places existing without 49 00:04:20,937 --> 00:04:23,337 those tensions. 50 00:04:23,373 --> 00:04:26,536 They are precisely the right tensions that a democratic 51 00:04:26,576 --> 00:04:30,068 nation should have as it tries to figure out how to protect 52 00:04:30,113 --> 00:04:33,480 lands that are there for all the people. 53 00:04:33,516 --> 00:04:36,417 CO YOTE: The very definition of what constituted a national 54 00:04:36,452 --> 00:04:42,220 park would be challenged and then broadened, and just when 55 00:04:42,258 --> 00:04:45,694 it seemed as if there were no pristine places left to set 56 00:04:45,728 --> 00:04:49,425 aside as national parks, a new one would be created 57 00:04:49,465 --> 00:04:51,729 in the backyard of one of the nation's 58 00:04:51,768 --> 00:04:54,134 fastest growing cities. 59 00:04:56,239 --> 00:05:00,141 While far to the north, in the nation's last frontier, 60 00:05:00,176 --> 00:05:02,940 the basic principles of the park idea would be 61 00:05:02,979 --> 00:05:06,471 reinvigorated for a new generation. 62 00:05:09,819 --> 00:05:13,846 MAN: l'm not quite sure why it works this way, but we seem to 63 00:05:13,890 --> 00:05:18,589 put our highest ideals in our national parks. 64 00:05:18,628 --> 00:05:25,033 They're like, um, homes for our finest dreams, 65 00:05:25,068 --> 00:05:28,526 and therefore they function like consciences. 66 00:05:30,973 --> 00:05:35,171 MAN: When you're standing there silently in the presence 67 00:05:35,211 --> 00:05:41,275 of the giant sequoias, you can't help but recognize 68 00:05:41,317 --> 00:05:46,983 that you're a part of something that is way beyond 69 00:05:47,023 --> 00:05:51,926 whatever it is that you envision this world might be. 70 00:05:51,961 --> 00:05:57,627 You can't stand there all alone without understanding 71 00:05:57,667 --> 00:06:03,071 that there's a power in the world that is far greater than 72 00:06:03,106 --> 00:06:07,065 anything that you've ever experienced and that you're 73 00:06:07,110 --> 00:06:12,707 connected to that power just as that sequoia is connected 74 00:06:12,749 --> 00:06:14,148 to that power. 75 00:06:14,183 --> 00:06:17,482 lt permeates all of us. 76 00:06:17,520 --> 00:06:22,423 And when you understand that, it improves your relationship 77 00:06:22,458 --> 00:06:26,155 with your fellow man because you realize that he has 78 00:06:26,195 --> 00:06:28,891 the same capaciry. 79 00:06:28,931 --> 00:06:32,264 He has the same access. 80 00:06:32,301 --> 00:06:35,293 He is your brother. 81 00:06:43,746 --> 00:06:46,237 [Big band music playing] 82 00:06:50,753 --> 00:06:55,122 CO YOTE: ln 1946, with the war finally over and gasoline 83 00:06:55,158 --> 00:06:58,184 rationing and travel restrictions lifted, 84 00:06:58,227 --> 00:07:01,719 attendance at Yellowstone National Park quadrupled from 85 00:07:01,764 --> 00:07:06,895 189,000 to 807,000. 86 00:07:06,936 --> 00:07:09,837 Two years later, it would cross the one million mark 87 00:07:09,872 --> 00:07:14,536 for the first time and never turn back. 88 00:07:14,577 --> 00:07:16,909 MAN: All of a sudden, everybody in the world wanted 89 00:07:16,946 --> 00:07:19,813 to come to Yellowstone. 90 00:07:19,849 --> 00:07:22,215 Everyone was tired of the war. 91 00:07:22,251 --> 00:07:25,880 Everyone wanted recreation. 92 00:07:25,922 --> 00:07:29,881 Everybody flocked to Yellowstone in their own cars. 93 00:07:33,763 --> 00:07:34,923 There weren't enough campgrounds. 94 00:07:34,964 --> 00:07:36,693 There weren't enough hotels. 95 00:07:36,732 --> 00:07:39,462 There weren't enough souvenirs. 96 00:07:39,502 --> 00:07:42,528 There weren't enough anything, and the buildings had had 4 or 97 00:07:42,572 --> 00:07:46,565 5 years to deteriorate, so the park facilities were 98 00:07:46,609 --> 00:07:48,873 in bad shape. 99 00:07:48,911 --> 00:07:51,471 CO YOTE: All across the United States, the same thing was 100 00:07:51,514 --> 00:07:57,510 happening in other parks, straining the entire system. 101 00:07:57,553 --> 00:08:02,047 Nationwide, annual attendance would climb from a wartime low 102 00:08:02,091 --> 00:08:06,824 of 6.8 million visitors in 1943 to nearly 103 00:08:06,863 --> 00:08:11,596 32 million by 1950. 104 00:08:11,634 --> 00:08:14,228 CRONON: One of the things that happened in the 1950s with the 105 00:08:14,270 --> 00:08:20,175 explosion of families in cars taking their kids on the road 106 00:08:20,209 --> 00:08:22,803 to visit the national parks was that more and more 107 00:08:22,845 --> 00:08:27,043 American children grew up with the national parks as 108 00:08:27,083 --> 00:08:30,951 a formative part of their childhood, and l think we 109 00:08:30,987 --> 00:08:34,855 often forget that in fact one of the aspects of the national 110 00:08:34,891 --> 00:08:37,758 parks that is most important to our American-ness, to our 111 00:08:37,793 --> 00:08:41,627 patriotism, is the fact that they are landscapes of origin 112 00:08:41,664 --> 00:08:45,760 and of childhood for so many Americans. 113 00:08:45,801 --> 00:08:48,463 They are the places where we grew up. 114 00:08:48,504 --> 00:08:52,338 They are the places where we experienced our families 115 00:08:52,375 --> 00:08:56,505 in some of their most intimate locations and where our 116 00:08:56,545 --> 00:08:59,412 families and our childhoods connected to what it meant to 117 00:08:59,448 --> 00:09:01,678 be an American. 118 00:09:15,431 --> 00:09:20,664 MAN: lt was just like being in heaven, being in there. 119 00:09:20,703 --> 00:09:23,672 ln those days, there was no road. 120 00:09:23,706 --> 00:09:27,369 The park was all a blessed wilderness, and l have often 121 00:09:27,410 --> 00:09:30,641 thought since, what a wonderful people we would have 122 00:09:30,680 --> 00:09:33,478 been if we had wanted to keep it that way. 123 00:09:33,516 --> 00:09:34,710 [Thunder] 124 00:09:34,750 --> 00:09:36,809 Adolph Murie. 125 00:09:38,921 --> 00:09:42,618 CO YOTE: Back in the summer of 1922, a college student from 126 00:09:42,658 --> 00:09:46,458 Moorhead, Minnesota, named Adolph Murie arrived in 127 00:09:46,495 --> 00:09:51,194 Mt. McKinley National Park in Alaska. 128 00:09:51,233 --> 00:09:54,691 The park had been established 5 years earlier, but Congress 129 00:09:54,737 --> 00:09:58,264 had only recently appropriated any money for its protection 130 00:09:58,307 --> 00:10:03,904 and development--$8,000 used to hire a superintendent 131 00:10:03,946 --> 00:10:08,110 and one assistant, who were instructed to patrol 2,200 132 00:10:08,150 --> 00:10:14,316 square miles, an area half the size of Connecticut. 133 00:10:14,357 --> 00:10:17,019 They were also expected to keep poachers away from the 134 00:10:17,059 --> 00:10:22,224 wildlife and prepare the park for the tourists promoters 135 00:10:22,264 --> 00:10:25,563 hoped would soon be coming to see the highest mountain 136 00:10:25,601 --> 00:10:27,967 in North America. 137 00:10:28,004 --> 00:10:32,100 That year, a total of 7 showed up. 138 00:10:33,843 --> 00:10:37,244 One of them was Adolph Murie, who was there to help his 139 00:10:37,279 --> 00:10:41,113 older brother Olaus, a biologist, conduct a study 140 00:10:41,150 --> 00:10:43,846 of caribou migrations. 141 00:10:43,886 --> 00:10:46,446 Murie was 22 years old. 142 00:10:46,489 --> 00:10:51,324 lt was his first time away from Minnesota. 143 00:10:51,360 --> 00:10:53,851 MAN: Ade Murie was not an imposing 144 00:10:53,896 --> 00:10:56,990 or intimidating-looking kind of a man. 145 00:10:57,033 --> 00:11:01,299 He kind of had a Minnesota farmer's look about him, 146 00:11:01,337 --> 00:11:05,637 and l don't mean that as an insult, but he was not 147 00:11:05,674 --> 00:11:09,542 an overwhelming person by looks. 148 00:11:09,578 --> 00:11:13,480 He was, however, in terms of character 149 00:11:13,516 --> 00:11:19,944 and intelligence and durabiliry and stick-to-it-iveness, 150 00:11:19,989 --> 00:11:22,753 a man to be reckoned with. 151 00:11:22,792 --> 00:11:26,489 CO YOTE: For 5 weeks, Murie and his brother tramped for miles 152 00:11:26,529 --> 00:11:30,090 across the tundra, following game trails and the braided 153 00:11:30,132 --> 00:11:34,592 gravel beds of glacial rivers, exulting in the notion that 154 00:11:34,637 --> 00:11:39,768 they seemingly had the park entirely to themselves. 155 00:11:39,809 --> 00:11:43,142 One day he came across the lone footprint of 156 00:11:43,179 --> 00:11:47,047 a grizzly bear. 157 00:11:47,083 --> 00:11:48,914 MAN AS ADOLPH MURlE: ln innocent wonder, l gazed 158 00:11:48,951 --> 00:11:51,385 at the imprint. 159 00:11:51,420 --> 00:11:57,689 lt was a symbol more poetic than seeing the bear himself, 160 00:11:57,726 --> 00:12:00,354 a delicate and profound approach to the spirit 161 00:12:00,396 --> 00:12:04,025 of the Alaska wilderness. 162 00:12:04,066 --> 00:12:08,230 We come here to catch a glimpse of the primeval. 163 00:12:08,270 --> 00:12:12,206 We come close to the tundra flowers, the lichens, 164 00:12:12,241 --> 00:12:14,835 and the animal life. 165 00:12:14,877 --> 00:12:18,438 Each of us will take some inspiration home. 166 00:12:18,481 --> 00:12:23,475 A touch of tundra will enter our lives and deep inside make 167 00:12:23,519 --> 00:12:29,947 of us all poets and kindred spirits. 168 00:12:29,992 --> 00:12:33,393 CO YOTE: Adolph Murie's trip to Alaska inspired him to get 169 00:12:33,429 --> 00:12:37,422 a doctoral degree in biology, and George Melendez Wright 170 00:12:37,466 --> 00:12:40,492 recruited him for the Park Service's newly formed 171 00:12:40,536 --> 00:12:43,562 Wildlife Division. 172 00:12:43,606 --> 00:12:47,406 By the late 1940s, Murie had made a name for himself as 173 00:12:47,443 --> 00:12:52,710 a top-rate field biologist and as an iconoclast whose views 174 00:12:52,748 --> 00:12:55,740 on the direction of park policies often got him 175 00:12:55,784 --> 00:12:59,311 in trouble with his superiors. 176 00:12:59,355 --> 00:13:02,449 At Olympic National Park, where wolves had been hunted 177 00:13:02,491 --> 00:13:05,460 to extinction years earlier, he called for 178 00:13:05,494 --> 00:13:07,724 their reintroduction. 179 00:13:07,763 --> 00:13:10,163 No one listened. 180 00:13:10,199 --> 00:13:13,532 At lsle Royale in Lake Superior, the moose population 181 00:13:13,569 --> 00:13:16,561 had grown so plentiful because of a lack of natural 182 00:13:16,605 --> 00:13:19,665 predators, he wrote, that the park looked ''like 183 00:13:19,708 --> 00:13:23,269 ''a prosperous barnyard.'' 184 00:13:23,312 --> 00:13:27,180 And at Yellowstone, Murie objected to plans to build 185 00:13:27,216 --> 00:13:31,016 a golf course and opposed a proposal to drain a wetlands 186 00:13:31,053 --> 00:13:34,716 around the Old Faithful Lodge in order to reduce the number 187 00:13:34,757 --> 00:13:39,490 of mosquitoes bothering the tourists there. 188 00:13:39,528 --> 00:13:44,329 MAN AS ADOLPH MURlE: Let us leave a few wilderness shrines. 189 00:13:44,366 --> 00:13:48,735 Let there be a few outstanding scenes which can be viewed 190 00:13:48,771 --> 00:13:53,003 without the attendant chatter of the idly curious. 191 00:13:55,177 --> 00:13:58,374 MAN: The heart of the legislation that established 192 00:13:58,414 --> 00:14:02,908 Yellowstone and the other parks is to preserve 193 00:14:02,952 --> 00:14:04,647 the environment. 194 00:14:04,687 --> 00:14:09,750 lt's as simple as that, and if you're going to preserve 195 00:14:09,792 --> 00:14:12,920 the environment, you have to preserve the creatures, 196 00:14:12,962 --> 00:14:16,625 the critters, that live there. 197 00:14:16,665 --> 00:14:20,101 CO YOTE: Like his mentor George Melendez Wright, Murie 198 00:14:20,135 --> 00:14:23,571 believed many long-held assumptions about predators 199 00:14:23,606 --> 00:14:27,975 needed to be scientifically tested, and he spent two years 200 00:14:28,010 --> 00:14:33,812 studying what to do about Yellowstone's coyotes. 201 00:14:33,849 --> 00:14:36,716 The answer, he concluded, was not killing the hated 202 00:14:36,752 --> 00:14:40,950 predators but changing park policies. 203 00:14:43,959 --> 00:14:46,655 SCHULLERY: When he produced his study of the coyotes 204 00:14:46,695 --> 00:14:49,789 in Yellowstone and demonstrated that they weren't 205 00:14:49,832 --> 00:14:53,632 this--this scourge on the landscape and how they 206 00:14:53,669 --> 00:14:56,604 actually functioned compared to how people thought they 207 00:14:56,639 --> 00:15:00,234 functioned, that they weren't turning Yellowstone into 208 00:15:00,276 --> 00:15:04,679 a reservoir of evil that produced countless coyotes 209 00:15:04,713 --> 00:15:08,809 that went out and killed off ranchers' livestock, it took 210 00:15:08,851 --> 00:15:12,252 a long time for that lesson to soak in. 211 00:15:12,288 --> 00:15:15,519 CO YOTE: Yellowstone's superintendent was so upset, 212 00:15:15,557 --> 00:15:21,120 he shelved the report and nearly got Murie fired. 213 00:15:21,163 --> 00:15:25,361 Now one of only 3 biologists left in the Wildlife Division, 214 00:15:25,401 --> 00:15:28,893 Murie was dispatched to the nation's most remote and least 215 00:15:28,937 --> 00:15:33,431 visited national park--Mt. McKinley in Alaska, the park 216 00:15:33,475 --> 00:15:36,444 that had made such a profound impression on him years 217 00:15:36,478 --> 00:15:40,574 earlier, and once again he would find himself 218 00:15:40,616 --> 00:15:44,211 on the unpopular side of a raging controversy when he 219 00:15:44,253 --> 00:15:50,192 embarked on the first in-depth study ever undertaken of wolves. 220 00:15:56,865 --> 00:16:01,199 MAN: The wolf is the master killer of all wildlife, 221 00:16:01,236 --> 00:16:04,865 the villain in Alaska's pageant of wildlife, 222 00:16:04,907 --> 00:16:10,504 and the worst natural enemy of sheep, moose, and caribou. 223 00:16:10,546 --> 00:16:13,037 Alaska Game Commission. 224 00:16:16,151 --> 00:16:20,850 BROWN: Wolves represented death and destruction. 225 00:16:20,889 --> 00:16:26,452 That bloodthirsry, ravening wolf was viewed as a kind 226 00:16:26,495 --> 00:16:27,757 of an interloper. 227 00:16:27,796 --> 00:16:30,128 l mean, you had the nice animals. 228 00:16:30,165 --> 00:16:35,626 You had caribou and deer and sheep, and here were these 229 00:16:35,671 --> 00:16:40,370 wolves who would tear them apart and eat them in full 230 00:16:40,409 --> 00:16:45,403 view of visitors, and that was anathema. 231 00:16:45,447 --> 00:16:48,746 l mean, extinction was the word. 232 00:16:52,221 --> 00:16:56,248 CO YOTE: Americans had been killing wolves for centuries. 233 00:16:56,291 --> 00:16:59,727 Despite a Park Service policy against the extermination 234 00:16:59,762 --> 00:17:03,027 of any animal species, they had been systematically 235 00:17:03,065 --> 00:17:08,503 eliminated at Grand Canyon, Crater Lake, Death Valley, 236 00:17:08,537 --> 00:17:14,635 Grand Tetons, Mt. Rainier, Olympic, Rocky Mountain, 237 00:17:14,676 --> 00:17:19,477 and after the death of two wolf pups in 1926, Yellowstone 238 00:17:19,515 --> 00:17:22,746 National Park. 239 00:17:22,785 --> 00:17:26,551 Alaska was now virtually the only place left in the United 240 00:17:26,588 --> 00:17:32,185 States where wolves still existed. 241 00:17:32,227 --> 00:17:34,661 WOMAN: At one time, the Park Service was ordered to shoot 242 00:17:34,696 --> 00:17:37,494 every wolf they saw. 243 00:17:37,533 --> 00:17:40,661 They figured that anything a wolf gets, the hunter 244 00:17:40,702 --> 00:17:44,229 doesn't get. 245 00:17:44,273 --> 00:17:49,006 But just to shoot wolves to say they shot a wolf--let's-- 246 00:17:49,044 --> 00:17:51,808 let's shoot Democrats. 247 00:17:51,847 --> 00:17:53,439 Let's shoot Republicans. 248 00:17:53,482 --> 00:17:56,747 l mean, it made that much sense. 249 00:17:56,785 --> 00:17:59,219 CO YOTE: During his first season back in Alaska, 250 00:17:59,254 --> 00:18:03,054 Murie walked more than 1,700 miles, crisscrossing 251 00:18:03,091 --> 00:18:07,084 the park, gathering data and whenever possible taking 252 00:18:07,129 --> 00:18:10,997 photographs and home movies to augment his extensive 253 00:18:11,033 --> 00:18:13,695 field notes. 254 00:18:13,735 --> 00:18:17,466 He analyzed more than 1,000 samples of wolf droppings 255 00:18:17,506 --> 00:18:21,943 to determine their eating habits, collected 829 skulls 256 00:18:21,977 --> 00:18:26,107 of Dall's sheep to study their teeth and understand the age 257 00:18:26,148 --> 00:18:30,448 and health of the animals when they died. 258 00:18:30,486 --> 00:18:36,220 His second year, he discovered a wolf den. 259 00:18:36,258 --> 00:18:38,192 MAN AS ADOLPH MURlE: On a ridge across the river 260 00:18:38,227 --> 00:18:40,787 from the den, about a half mile or less 261 00:18:40,829 --> 00:18:44,230 away, there were excellent locations for watching 262 00:18:44,266 --> 00:18:48,396 the wolves without disturbing them. 263 00:18:48,437 --> 00:18:52,931 l spent about 195 hours observing them. 264 00:18:52,975 --> 00:18:58,470 The longest continuous vigil was 33 hours, and twice l 265 00:18:58,514 --> 00:19:01,779 observed all night. 266 00:19:01,817 --> 00:19:04,945 MARTlN MURlE: Well, you've got to have patience. Oh, yeah. 267 00:19:04,987 --> 00:19:07,854 You have to be devoted. 268 00:19:07,890 --> 00:19:11,053 lf you have to climb a tree in 30 below and sit there 269 00:19:11,093 --> 00:19:14,290 for an hour shivering, you do it. 270 00:19:14,329 --> 00:19:15,956 Every day you're out there. 271 00:19:15,998 --> 00:19:18,159 Doesn't matter what the weather. 272 00:19:18,200 --> 00:19:22,068 He was that rype. 273 00:19:22,104 --> 00:19:25,505 CO YOTE: He would be at it for nearly a decade, even moved 274 00:19:25,541 --> 00:19:29,443 his wife and children to a remote cabin in the park 275 00:19:29,478 --> 00:19:33,278 and temporarily adopted a wolf pup he named Wags so he could 276 00:19:33,315 --> 00:19:38,753 study its development as it grew from a nursling to full size. 277 00:19:46,461 --> 00:19:49,897 Over time, Murie would get to know wolves better than any 278 00:19:49,932 --> 00:19:53,834 scientist ever had, and the report he produced would 279 00:19:53,869 --> 00:20:00,604 become a landmark in understanding the species. 280 00:20:00,642 --> 00:20:02,166 WOMAN: l often think if we were to send 281 00:20:02,210 --> 00:20:05,577 for a representative of our species to meet with the 282 00:20:05,614 --> 00:20:10,711 animals, we would send Ade because he's a man who knows 283 00:20:10,752 --> 00:20:12,083 how to listen. 284 00:20:12,120 --> 00:20:14,816 He was a man who understood stillness. 285 00:20:14,856 --> 00:20:20,158 And more than anything, his curiosiry and his 286 00:20:20,195 --> 00:20:23,722 extraordinary sense of science opened up the landscape 287 00:20:23,765 --> 00:20:26,256 in a new way for all of us. 288 00:20:26,301 --> 00:20:29,702 He saw the land as a set of relationships, nothing 289 00:20:29,738 --> 00:20:36,200 in isolation, everything connected. 290 00:20:36,244 --> 00:20:38,940 CO YOTE: Murie's conclusions that wolves actually 291 00:20:38,981 --> 00:20:42,314 strengthened the sheep and caribou herds by culling out 292 00:20:42,351 --> 00:20:45,445 the sick and the weak were denounced by hunting groups 293 00:20:45,487 --> 00:20:49,287 across the country as a piece of pro-wolf propaganda from 294 00:20:49,324 --> 00:20:53,226 start to finish. 295 00:20:53,261 --> 00:20:56,424 As private bounry hunters and federal Fish and Wildlife 296 00:20:56,465 --> 00:21:00,299 Service officers initiated a campaign of poisoning 297 00:21:00,335 --> 00:21:03,896 and shooting wolves throughout the rest of Alaska, pressure 298 00:21:03,939 --> 00:21:08,808 mounted for the park to eradicate its wolves, too. 299 00:21:10,579 --> 00:21:14,379 ln response, the Park Service agreed to a limited wolf 300 00:21:14,416 --> 00:21:19,319 control program, but the person they selected to 301 00:21:19,354 --> 00:21:23,620 oversee it was none other than Adolph Murie, who kept the 302 00:21:23,659 --> 00:21:27,618 number of kills to the barest minimum, thinning out only 303 00:21:27,663 --> 00:21:32,623 elderly wolves near the end of their natural lives. 304 00:21:32,668 --> 00:21:36,968 And when the sheep herd grew, just as Murie had predicted, 305 00:21:37,005 --> 00:21:41,066 the Park Service quietly instituted a permanent ban 306 00:21:41,109 --> 00:21:43,373 on all wolf killings. 307 00:21:47,916 --> 00:21:50,976 lt was the first time in history that the species 308 00:21:51,019 --> 00:21:54,955 nearly everyone seemed to hate found protection from any 309 00:21:54,990 --> 00:21:58,187 government agency. 310 00:21:58,226 --> 00:22:01,286 McKinley's wolves had survived. 311 00:22:05,133 --> 00:22:07,192 MAN AS ADOLPH MURlE: Our generosiry to all creatures 312 00:22:07,235 --> 00:22:10,966 in the national parks, this reverence for life, 313 00:22:11,006 --> 00:22:15,272 is a basic tradition and is fundamental to the survival 314 00:22:15,310 --> 00:22:19,371 of park idealism. 315 00:22:19,414 --> 00:22:22,906 The goal is to have the minimum of manipulation 316 00:22:22,951 --> 00:22:25,010 in our parks. 317 00:22:27,289 --> 00:22:31,225 Let us be guardians rather than gardeners. 318 00:22:32,828 --> 00:22:34,591 Adolph Murie. 319 00:22:51,113 --> 00:22:54,276 MAN: With so many friends, it is difficult to understand 320 00:22:54,316 --> 00:22:58,446 why parks are so bedeviled by threats and seem always to be 321 00:22:58,487 --> 00:23:01,945 fighting for their very existence. 322 00:23:01,990 --> 00:23:05,084 The story is an old one. 323 00:23:05,127 --> 00:23:08,028 There are frequent occasions when people see nothing wrong 324 00:23:08,063 --> 00:23:12,090 with harming, hurting, marring, or spoiling when 325 00:23:12,134 --> 00:23:17,162 there are valuable resources of water, power, timber, oil, 326 00:23:17,205 --> 00:23:22,837 or minerals to be exploited within park boundaries. 327 00:23:22,878 --> 00:23:26,780 Greatest of all threats to the parks today is the pressure to 328 00:23:26,815 --> 00:23:29,443 build dams. 329 00:23:29,484 --> 00:23:31,782 Alfred A. Knopf. 330 00:23:33,855 --> 00:23:38,189 CO YOTE: By 1950, Americans who needed dams for irrigation, 331 00:23:38,226 --> 00:23:41,320 ciry water supplies, and hydropower had been 332 00:23:41,363 --> 00:23:45,163 in conflict for half a century with other Americans who 333 00:23:45,200 --> 00:23:51,696 wanted national parks kept off limits from any development. 334 00:23:51,740 --> 00:23:55,301 John Muir had fought and lost the first battle when the ciry 335 00:23:55,343 --> 00:23:58,574 of San Francisco used its political muscle to win 336 00:23:58,613 --> 00:24:02,208 federal approval for building a dam in the beautiful Hetch 337 00:24:02,250 --> 00:24:04,548 Hetchy Valley within the boundaries 338 00:24:04,586 --> 00:24:07,316 of Yosemite National Park. 339 00:24:08,657 --> 00:24:12,457 The defeat had galvanized the nascent conservation movement 340 00:24:12,494 --> 00:24:15,725 into pushing for creation of the National Park Service 341 00:24:15,764 --> 00:24:20,565 in 1916 to make sure nothing like Hetch Hetchy would ever 342 00:24:20,602 --> 00:24:22,502 happen again. 343 00:24:24,873 --> 00:24:27,706 Now in the aftermath of World War ll, 344 00:24:27,742 --> 00:24:30,973 as the populations of states in the arid west began to 345 00:24:31,012 --> 00:24:37,281 skyrocket, pressure for more dams only intensified. 346 00:24:37,319 --> 00:24:40,618 With the enthusiastic backing of virtually every elected 347 00:24:40,655 --> 00:24:43,749 official in the region, plans were drawn up for 348 00:24:43,792 --> 00:24:49,025 9 billion dollars' worth of dam projects, including two 349 00:24:49,064 --> 00:24:53,433 in a remote corner of Utah and Colorado where the Green 350 00:24:53,468 --> 00:24:57,302 and Yampa Rivers converge in the midst of winding sandstone 351 00:24:57,339 --> 00:25:02,436 canyons, a place known as Echo Park. 352 00:25:05,547 --> 00:25:09,176 But Echo Park was also the site of Dinosaur National 353 00:25:09,217 --> 00:25:15,053 Monument, first set aside in 1915 to safeguard an important 354 00:25:15,090 --> 00:25:20,528 discovery of prehistoric bones and then expanded in the 1930s 355 00:25:20,562 --> 00:25:24,896 to include the dramatic canyonlands upstream. 356 00:25:26,968 --> 00:25:30,062 Few people had ever visited the monument or paddled 357 00:25:30,105 --> 00:25:33,973 through its network of canyons, but the handful who 358 00:25:34,009 --> 00:25:37,706 had considered it almost sacred. 359 00:25:40,548 --> 00:25:42,413 MAN AS WALLACE STEGNER: This is a country as grand 360 00:25:42,450 --> 00:25:47,183 and beautiful as any America can boast. 361 00:25:47,222 --> 00:25:52,819 A 325-square-mile preserve that is part schoolroom 362 00:25:52,861 --> 00:25:59,027 and part playground and part-- the best part--sanctuary from 363 00:25:59,067 --> 00:26:04,767 a world paved with concrete, a world mass-produced 364 00:26:04,806 --> 00:26:08,799 with interchangeable parts, and with every natural, 365 00:26:08,843 --> 00:26:13,940 beautiful thing endangered by the raw engineering power 366 00:26:13,982 --> 00:26:16,974 of the 20th century. 367 00:26:17,018 --> 00:26:19,077 Wallace Stegner. 368 00:26:20,822 --> 00:26:23,916 CO YOTE: Even though the Park Service opposed the dams, 369 00:26:23,959 --> 00:26:27,486 President Harry Truman and his Secretary of the lnterior 370 00:26:27,529 --> 00:26:29,588 supported them. 371 00:26:29,631 --> 00:26:32,896 lt was Hetch Hetchy all over again. 372 00:26:32,934 --> 00:26:37,394 lt was exactly the same battle, but the world had changed. 373 00:26:37,439 --> 00:26:39,634 There were now many more people prepared to say that, 374 00:26:39,674 --> 00:26:41,335 wait a second. 375 00:26:41,376 --> 00:26:43,276 The national parks are not supposed to be breached 376 00:26:43,311 --> 00:26:45,279 in this way. 377 00:26:45,313 --> 00:26:48,646 We are not meant to do this kind of work. 378 00:26:52,354 --> 00:26:57,485 CO YOTE: ln 1952, with 2 of his 7 sons and their families, 379 00:26:57,525 --> 00:27:01,052 a 73-year-old retired chemistry professor named 380 00:27:01,096 --> 00:27:04,554 Harold Bradley made a week- long trip down the Yampa 381 00:27:04,599 --> 00:27:08,558 River, snapping photographs and taking home movies as 382 00:27:08,603 --> 00:27:10,798 they traveled. 383 00:27:13,875 --> 00:27:17,709 They had imagined that a desert region named Dinosaur 384 00:27:17,746 --> 00:27:20,544 would be little more than an arid, desolate boneyard, 385 00:27:20,582 --> 00:27:23,210 one son remembered. 386 00:27:23,251 --> 00:27:27,984 lnstead, they found a world of stunning beaury. 387 00:27:56,751 --> 00:27:58,719 MAN: My dad knew that there were plans on the drawing 388 00:27:58,753 --> 00:28:02,086 board for dams in Grand Canyon and dams that would affect 389 00:28:02,123 --> 00:28:07,060 Glacier Park and other parks, too. 390 00:28:07,095 --> 00:28:09,620 lf Echo Park Dam could be built, l think a dam could 391 00:28:09,664 --> 00:28:13,361 have been built anywhere in the national park system, 392 00:28:13,401 --> 00:28:15,995 and they'd say, ''Well, you let us do it at Echo Park. 393 00:28:16,037 --> 00:28:19,063 ''Why not do it here in Grand Canyon?'' 394 00:28:21,342 --> 00:28:23,902 CO YOTE: Back home in California, Bradley embarked 395 00:28:23,945 --> 00:28:28,575 on what he called ''a one-man crusade to save Echo Park'' by 396 00:28:28,616 --> 00:28:33,246 showing his home movie to anyone who would watch it. 397 00:28:37,258 --> 00:28:40,853 Among those who saw it was David Brower, the new 398 00:28:40,895 --> 00:28:45,423 Executive Director of the Sierra Club--young and brash 399 00:28:45,467 --> 00:28:49,665 with a flair for public relations. 400 00:28:49,704 --> 00:28:51,899 MAN: When l was 8 years old and when my brother was 6, 401 00:28:51,940 --> 00:28:55,501 we went down the Yampa and Green Rivers, and it was part 402 00:28:55,543 --> 00:29:00,242 of my father's campaign to stop dams in Dinosaur National 403 00:29:00,281 --> 00:29:04,149 Monument, and it--you know, l look back on it now and l 404 00:29:04,185 --> 00:29:07,643 realize what a piece of history it was. 405 00:29:07,689 --> 00:29:09,623 Many people see it as the beginning of the modern 406 00:29:09,657 --> 00:29:11,352 environmental movement. 407 00:29:11,392 --> 00:29:14,919 My father used film, used books, used trips like 408 00:29:14,963 --> 00:29:17,523 this down the river. 409 00:29:17,565 --> 00:29:20,193 He was building a constituency of people to appreciate 410 00:29:20,235 --> 00:29:22,863 this landscape. 411 00:29:22,904 --> 00:29:25,668 CO YOTE: Brower organized Sierra Club outings through 412 00:29:25,707 --> 00:29:29,768 Dinosaur's canyons and invited influential Easterners to 413 00:29:29,811 --> 00:29:31,642 join them. 414 00:29:31,679 --> 00:29:35,547 Alfred A. Knopf, the New York publisher, emerged from one 415 00:29:35,583 --> 00:29:39,246 trip so impressed that he commissioned a handsome book 416 00:29:39,287 --> 00:29:42,848 of photographs and essays, edited by the novelist 417 00:29:42,891 --> 00:29:46,554 and historian Wallace Stegner. 418 00:29:46,594 --> 00:29:49,825 Knopf himself wrote one of the book's essays and made 419 00:29:49,864 --> 00:29:54,494 sure every member of Congress received a copy. 420 00:29:58,439 --> 00:30:01,875 Other organizations sprang into action, hoping to 421 00:30:01,910 --> 00:30:06,472 mobilize public opinion and kill the project in Congress, 422 00:30:06,514 --> 00:30:11,315 where approval of the dam seemed almost certain. 423 00:30:11,352 --> 00:30:15,015 Harold Bradley helped persuade the Garden Club of America to 424 00:30:15,056 --> 00:30:19,220 oppose the dam and mail leaflets to its members 425 00:30:19,260 --> 00:30:23,128 encouraging them to write their Congressmen about it. 426 00:30:23,164 --> 00:30:25,496 The General Federation of Women's Clubs did 427 00:30:25,533 --> 00:30:27,524 the same thing. 428 00:30:27,569 --> 00:30:29,969 My brother Steve was the one that got Pop interested, 429 00:30:30,004 --> 00:30:33,098 and Pop was the one who got Dave Brower interested, 430 00:30:33,141 --> 00:30:37,043 and Dave Brower, once he was interested, kind of galvanized 431 00:30:37,078 --> 00:30:41,139 the entire conservation communiry, and Echo Park 432 00:30:41,182 --> 00:30:44,515 really kind of put conservation on the front page 433 00:30:44,552 --> 00:30:46,486 for the first time instead of something back 434 00:30:46,521 --> 00:30:49,115 with the obituaries. 435 00:30:51,593 --> 00:30:54,027 CO YOTE: When mail began pouring into Congress 436 00:30:54,062 --> 00:30:58,362 at a ratio of 80:1 against the Echo Park dam, the Speaker 437 00:30:58,399 --> 00:31:01,698 of the House reluctantly delayed consideration 438 00:31:01,736 --> 00:31:03,863 of its approval. 439 00:31:03,905 --> 00:31:07,534 Authorization for the larger string of dams and reclamation 440 00:31:07,575 --> 00:31:11,671 projects would eventually pass, but without the ones 441 00:31:11,713 --> 00:31:14,807 in Dinosaur National Monument. 442 00:31:14,849 --> 00:31:17,682 Public opinion had been felt. 443 00:31:17,719 --> 00:31:22,122 A new national environmental movement had been born 444 00:31:22,156 --> 00:31:26,456 and immediately began battling against any other attempts to 445 00:31:26,494 --> 00:31:31,898 despoil the parks and America's wild places. 446 00:31:31,933 --> 00:31:36,495 DUNCAN: You can save a place, but it's never really safe. 447 00:31:36,537 --> 00:31:39,267 lt always takes people caring. 448 00:31:39,307 --> 00:31:41,673 lt always takes vigilance. 449 00:31:41,709 --> 00:31:47,477 lt always takes effort to keep those forces at bay that want 450 00:31:47,515 --> 00:31:49,210 to crowd in, want to change it, want to 451 00:31:49,250 --> 00:31:52,219 over-commercialize it. 452 00:31:52,253 --> 00:31:55,882 Once it's ruined, it's ruined, but once it's saved, 453 00:31:55,923 --> 00:31:59,654 each generation has its dury to keep it saved. 454 00:32:03,364 --> 00:32:05,662 MAN AS WALLACE STEGNER: Sometimes we have withheld our 455 00:32:05,700 --> 00:32:10,137 power to destroy and have left a threatened species like 456 00:32:10,171 --> 00:32:13,937 the buffalo, a threatened beaury spot like Yosemite or 457 00:32:13,975 --> 00:32:19,641 Yellowstone or Dinosaur scrupulously alone. 458 00:32:19,681 --> 00:32:24,084 We are the most dangerous species of life on the planet, 459 00:32:24,118 --> 00:32:28,077 and every other species, even the earth itself, 460 00:32:28,122 --> 00:32:32,718 has cause to fear our power to exterminate. 461 00:32:32,760 --> 00:32:37,322 But we are also the only species which, when it chooses 462 00:32:37,365 --> 00:32:41,859 to do so, will go to great effort to save what it 463 00:32:41,903 --> 00:32:44,633 might destroy. 464 00:32:44,672 --> 00:32:47,163 Wallace Stegner. 465 00:33:12,800 --> 00:33:16,793 MAN: Charles Stevenson, ''Reader's Digest.'' 466 00:33:16,838 --> 00:33:19,898 Drive to Yellowstone, as my wife and l did late last 467 00:33:19,941 --> 00:33:23,206 summer, and the moment you enter, you are in a big ciry 468 00:33:23,244 --> 00:33:25,906 traffic jam. 469 00:33:25,947 --> 00:33:28,643 Pause to look at sights you've come thousands of miles to 470 00:33:28,683 --> 00:33:32,710 see, and cars pile up bumper to bumper a quarter of a mile 471 00:33:32,754 --> 00:33:34,881 behind you. 472 00:33:36,324 --> 00:33:39,191 CO YOTE: The 32 million Americans who had crowded into 473 00:33:39,227 --> 00:33:43,129 their national parks each year as the fifties began had 474 00:33:43,164 --> 00:33:47,191 suddenly become nearly 62 million before the decade was 475 00:33:47,235 --> 00:33:49,829 even halfway through. 476 00:33:49,871 --> 00:33:54,331 98% arrived by car. 477 00:33:54,375 --> 00:33:57,242 The parks weren't ready for them. 478 00:34:03,885 --> 00:34:05,580 MAN AS CHARLES STEVENSON: Yosemite Valley proper has 479 00:34:05,620 --> 00:34:12,355 become a ciry festering with commercialism and ugliness. 480 00:34:12,393 --> 00:34:15,920 This spot, which Theodore Roosevelt once called the most 481 00:34:15,963 --> 00:34:19,558 beautiful in the world, now boasts 3 acres 482 00:34:19,600 --> 00:34:22,865 of burning dump. 483 00:34:22,904 --> 00:34:27,068 Lovely meadows have been paved to provide parking space. 484 00:34:27,108 --> 00:34:31,238 Warehouses and stores obstruct famous views. 485 00:34:31,279 --> 00:34:36,979 The campgrounds pack in about 97 persons to the acre. 486 00:34:37,018 --> 00:34:40,852 Campers line up 15 deep for the toilets. 487 00:34:40,888 --> 00:34:42,515 [Car horn honking] 488 00:34:42,557 --> 00:34:45,788 CO YOTE: ''The people,'' a park official said, ''are wearing out 489 00:34:45,827 --> 00:34:49,058 ''the scenery.'' 490 00:34:49,096 --> 00:34:52,497 The situation was the same in every park. 491 00:34:52,533 --> 00:34:55,627 To make matters worse, staff levels and budgets were 492 00:34:55,670 --> 00:34:58,662 no bigger, and sometimes smaller, than they had 493 00:34:58,706 --> 00:35:02,836 been during the Depression. 494 00:35:02,877 --> 00:35:06,313 Meanwhile President Dwight D. Eisenhower was pushing through 495 00:35:06,347 --> 00:35:10,681 Congress the biggest public works program in history--an 496 00:35:10,718 --> 00:35:14,677 interstate highway system. 497 00:35:14,722 --> 00:35:18,658 Conrad Wirth, the new Park Service director, proposed 498 00:35:18,693 --> 00:35:23,027 a similar 10-year plan for the parks, timing its completion 499 00:35:23,064 --> 00:35:28,696 with the agency's upcoming 50th anniversary in 1966. 500 00:35:28,736 --> 00:35:33,867 He named the ambitious project Mission 66. 501 00:35:33,908 --> 00:35:37,366 ''The national parks,'' Wirth said, ''are in danger of being 502 00:35:37,411 --> 00:35:43,475 ''loved to death,'' and he called for spending $787 million, 503 00:35:43,518 --> 00:35:46,851 more than half for new construction, and the rest 504 00:35:46,888 --> 00:35:50,915 for repairs, better maintenance, and more staff. 505 00:35:50,958 --> 00:35:56,555 The president enthusiastically agreed. 506 00:35:56,597 --> 00:36:01,000 Work began almost immediately-- fixing roads, modernizing 507 00:36:01,035 --> 00:36:05,096 water and sewer systems, improving campgrounds 508 00:36:05,139 --> 00:36:10,702 and adding new ones, doubling the park's lodging capaciry. 509 00:36:10,745 --> 00:36:14,306 Museums, rest rooms, and information offices were 510 00:36:14,348 --> 00:36:18,148 consolidated into a single modern structure strategically 511 00:36:18,185 --> 00:36:22,053 located to intercept large numbers of people arriving by 512 00:36:22,089 --> 00:36:25,786 car, prepare them for their park experience through 513 00:36:25,826 --> 00:36:30,263 a series of displays and presentations, and send them 514 00:36:30,298 --> 00:36:33,165 on their way. 515 00:36:33,200 --> 00:36:36,169 Wirth called them visitor centers. 516 00:36:36,203 --> 00:36:42,574 Before Mission 66 was through, 110 of them would be built. 517 00:36:42,610 --> 00:36:45,545 But as the work continued, many of the park's oldest 518 00:36:45,580 --> 00:36:51,246 allies became Mission 66's harshest critics. 519 00:36:51,285 --> 00:36:53,412 They hated the increased development 520 00:36:53,454 --> 00:36:56,685 and the architectural choices being made. 521 00:36:56,724 --> 00:37:00,717 They thought the new buildings were ugly. 522 00:37:00,761 --> 00:37:03,525 The loudest complaints came from David Brower 523 00:37:03,564 --> 00:37:06,431 and the Sierra Club and focused on highway 524 00:37:06,467 --> 00:37:11,336 construction, particularly a plan to bulldoze and pave the 525 00:37:11,372 --> 00:37:15,866 Old Tioga Road across a long granite escarpment, skirting 526 00:37:15,910 --> 00:37:19,539 the shores of beautiful Tenaya Lake in the high country 527 00:37:19,580 --> 00:37:22,549 of Yosemite. 528 00:37:22,583 --> 00:37:24,278 KENNETH BROWER: We went as kids with my father because he 529 00:37:24,318 --> 00:37:27,776 was photographing it, and we were outraged because we had 530 00:37:27,822 --> 00:37:30,484 the religion, and while my father was photographing, 531 00:37:30,524 --> 00:37:32,492 my brother and l said, ''Well, let's get to it,'' and we 532 00:37:32,526 --> 00:37:36,087 started taking the survey stakes out. 533 00:37:36,130 --> 00:37:37,927 And we had gotten quite a few of them out before my 534 00:37:37,965 --> 00:37:41,594 father noticed. 535 00:37:41,636 --> 00:37:43,467 lt wasn't my father's sryle, and he said no, we'd better 536 00:37:43,504 --> 00:37:46,098 put them back. 537 00:37:46,140 --> 00:37:49,132 CO YOTE: ln the end, the road got built. 538 00:37:49,176 --> 00:37:53,840 Some Sierra Club members now questioned the entire premise 539 00:37:53,881 --> 00:37:58,750 of helping more people visit the parks. 540 00:37:58,786 --> 00:38:03,018 MAN: l think the battle about that road was the first moment 541 00:38:03,057 --> 00:38:08,085 when the Sierra Club began to realize that Muir's notion 542 00:38:08,129 --> 00:38:10,290 that you had to bring people to the parks to make them 543 00:38:10,331 --> 00:38:14,995 value them and save them was a two-edged sword--that if you 544 00:38:15,036 --> 00:38:17,300 brought too many people to the parks, you could ruin them, 545 00:38:17,338 --> 00:38:20,865 even if the people who came loved them. 546 00:38:20,908 --> 00:38:23,775 CO YOTE: The controversy would forever tarnish some 547 00:38:23,811 --> 00:38:27,372 of the real accomplishments of Mission 66. 548 00:38:27,415 --> 00:38:31,283 But the American people, mostly unaware of the debate, 549 00:38:31,318 --> 00:38:35,345 continued to flock to their national parks. 550 00:38:35,389 --> 00:38:38,222 Going to the parks was becoming an American rite 551 00:38:38,259 --> 00:38:43,094 of passage--journeys creating memories that would last 552 00:38:43,130 --> 00:38:45,428 a lifetime. 553 00:38:49,603 --> 00:38:52,936 MAN: ln 1959, my mother took my brother and me from 554 00:38:52,973 --> 00:38:56,636 Binghamton, New York, across the west. 555 00:38:56,677 --> 00:39:01,307 My father had died in 1958, and we did the grand circuit 556 00:39:01,348 --> 00:39:03,578 of the national parks. 557 00:39:11,959 --> 00:39:14,052 My mother made us navigate. 558 00:39:14,095 --> 00:39:16,655 She gave us the road maps, and we picked the routes. 559 00:39:16,697 --> 00:39:20,133 We chose the camp sites. 560 00:39:20,167 --> 00:39:22,032 We had been to Yellowstone for 3 days, 561 00:39:22,069 --> 00:39:25,197 seen all the wonders, and then dropped down into the Tetons 562 00:39:25,239 --> 00:39:28,572 and Jackson Hole, and l was hooked. 563 00:39:28,609 --> 00:39:30,839 l was a lover and defender of the national parks 564 00:39:30,878 --> 00:39:34,575 for the rest of my life. 565 00:39:34,615 --> 00:39:39,450 MAN: 1955 in the summer, my wife and l and my little 566 00:39:39,487 --> 00:39:44,789 boy spent the night in Yosemite National Park. 567 00:39:44,825 --> 00:39:47,851 My little boy had heard about what you could see in national 568 00:39:47,895 --> 00:39:52,923 parks, and he was particularly interested in the bears. 569 00:39:52,967 --> 00:39:56,198 He'd never seen a bear in the wild. 570 00:39:56,237 --> 00:39:59,729 At night, after we'd turn out the lights, we heard the 571 00:39:59,774 --> 00:40:09,775 garbage pails outside being handled by some force, and he 572 00:40:09,817 --> 00:40:11,284 said, ''Dad, is that the bears?'' 573 00:40:11,318 --> 00:40:13,115 l said, ''l think so.'' 574 00:40:13,154 --> 00:40:14,348 He said, ''Let's go out and see.'' 575 00:40:14,388 --> 00:40:19,655 l said, ''No. You can't go out and see the bears. 576 00:40:19,693 --> 00:40:23,686 ''Just hope that they will not bother us.'' 577 00:40:23,731 --> 00:40:28,634 And l know that when l took my son to a national park 578 00:40:28,669 --> 00:40:34,699 for the first time that l was planting in him the seed that 579 00:40:34,742 --> 00:40:37,711 would cause him to want to take his family to 580 00:40:37,745 --> 00:40:41,875 a national park. 581 00:40:41,916 --> 00:40:43,941 CRONON: l think for me, the moment that the national 582 00:40:43,984 --> 00:40:49,047 parks really changed my life was when l was in fifth grade. 583 00:40:49,089 --> 00:40:52,286 My parents put my brother and me into the back of a Ford 584 00:40:52,326 --> 00:40:55,921 station wagon, and we left Madison, Wisconsin, and spent 585 00:40:55,963 --> 00:41:00,332 6 weeks circumnavigating the entire American west, but what 586 00:41:00,367 --> 00:41:02,597 we were really doing was going from national park to national 587 00:41:02,636 --> 00:41:06,037 park to national park to national park, and it was 588 00:41:06,073 --> 00:41:10,442 so overwhelming, it moved me so deeply, that it 589 00:41:10,477 --> 00:41:12,172 changed my life. 590 00:41:12,213 --> 00:41:15,114 l would not now do what l do in my life were it not 591 00:41:15,149 --> 00:41:18,016 for that experience. 592 00:41:18,052 --> 00:41:23,684 Part of it was the vistas, but what l most remember was 593 00:41:23,724 --> 00:41:27,490 opening the door of that car and getting out and walking to 594 00:41:27,528 --> 00:41:32,488 some site with my parents, and my father in particular, 595 00:41:32,533 --> 00:41:35,866 who's a wonderful storyteller and, like me, is a historian, 596 00:41:35,903 --> 00:41:39,304 always having some story to tell about the place that we 597 00:41:39,340 --> 00:41:43,902 were in that carried me back into layers of the past that 598 00:41:43,944 --> 00:41:48,176 were also in the place that we were in in the present. 599 00:41:48,215 --> 00:41:52,015 And in that reconnection of past and present, discovering 600 00:41:52,052 --> 00:41:54,919 that there was far more to see in the place l was in than l 601 00:41:54,955 --> 00:41:57,389 ever would have imagined without the stories that he 602 00:41:57,424 --> 00:42:00,154 shared with me in that place. 603 00:42:05,633 --> 00:42:08,966 DUNCAN: l grew up in a little town in lowa. 604 00:42:09,003 --> 00:42:11,699 Both of my parents worked, so we didn't take very 605 00:42:11,739 --> 00:42:13,001 many vacations. 606 00:42:13,040 --> 00:42:16,703 My dad would paint the house during his vacation, or maybe 607 00:42:16,744 --> 00:42:21,443 we'd go fishing in a lake in Minnesota, but we never went 608 00:42:21,482 --> 00:42:24,076 on real trips. 609 00:42:24,118 --> 00:42:26,245 And when l was just about to turn 10, 610 00:42:26,287 --> 00:42:29,188 we decided, this year we're going to do it. 611 00:42:29,223 --> 00:42:34,422 We packed up borrowed camping equipment from people we knew, 612 00:42:34,461 --> 00:42:38,830 borrowed my grandmother's car, and headed west. 613 00:42:38,866 --> 00:42:43,132 Um, it was a great experience. 614 00:42:43,170 --> 00:42:46,333 We went to the Badlands. 615 00:42:46,373 --> 00:42:50,400 l had never seen something like that. 616 00:42:50,444 --> 00:42:54,346 Playing and running around on that denuded, 617 00:42:54,381 --> 00:42:57,839 bizarre landscape. 618 00:42:57,885 --> 00:43:00,445 We went to Custer Battlefield, as it was called then--the 619 00:43:00,487 --> 00:43:01,886 Little Big Horn. 620 00:43:01,922 --> 00:43:06,188 l found an arrowhead that l was pretty sure probably was 621 00:43:06,226 --> 00:43:08,456 Crazy Horse's. 622 00:43:08,495 --> 00:43:12,192 lt wasn't until l was a father myself that my dad revealed 623 00:43:12,232 --> 00:43:14,757 that he had bought that arrowhead in the gift shop 624 00:43:14,802 --> 00:43:17,771 and dropped it right underneath me. 625 00:43:20,541 --> 00:43:25,478 And then we came to Yellowstone. 626 00:43:25,512 --> 00:43:31,109 We arrived two days after the great earthquake of 1959. 627 00:43:31,151 --> 00:43:34,587 We lived through 3 or 4 tremors. 628 00:43:34,621 --> 00:43:37,886 The earth was shaking underneath me. 629 00:43:37,925 --> 00:43:42,021 The forces that had created Yellowstone were reawakening. 630 00:43:42,062 --> 00:43:43,654 Half of the park was closed. 631 00:43:43,697 --> 00:43:47,258 When we went to the geysers, the rangers talking would say, 632 00:43:47,301 --> 00:43:50,793 ''Well, this geyser used to go off about every two months. 633 00:43:50,838 --> 00:43:53,102 ''Whoop! There it is now.'' 634 00:43:53,140 --> 00:43:57,270 Or ''this one,'' you know, ''hasn't gone off since the earthquake.'' 635 00:43:57,311 --> 00:44:00,906 The earth was in motion there. 636 00:44:00,948 --> 00:44:05,976 We went to the bottom of the waterfalls, and l thought, 637 00:44:06,020 --> 00:44:10,787 ''Boy, l am not in lowa anymore.'' 638 00:44:29,676 --> 00:44:34,340 MAN: l'm probably the last Secretary of lnterior--this 639 00:44:34,381 --> 00:44:39,648 was 42 years ago--who will be flying along in a plane 640 00:44:39,686 --> 00:44:44,646 and look off and say, ''Goodness, that ought to be 641 00:44:44,691 --> 00:44:48,821 a national park'' and seeing it become a national park. 642 00:44:48,862 --> 00:44:53,356 So it was a wonderful period of expansion and of new ideas 643 00:44:53,400 --> 00:44:57,200 in terms of what the Park Service should be doing. 644 00:45:04,311 --> 00:45:05,938 SlNGERS: All the leaves are brown 645 00:45:05,979 --> 00:45:08,174 All the leaves are brown 646 00:45:08,215 --> 00:45:10,342 And the sky is gray 647 00:45:10,384 --> 00:45:13,285 And the sky is gray 648 00:45:13,320 --> 00:45:16,721 l've been for a walk 649 00:45:16,757 --> 00:45:18,918 On a winter's day 650 00:45:18,959 --> 00:45:21,826 On a winter's day... 651 00:45:21,862 --> 00:45:25,628 CO YOTE: Throughout the 1960s, Stewart Udall would serve as 652 00:45:25,666 --> 00:45:29,295 Secretary of the lnterior to presidents John Kennedy 653 00:45:29,336 --> 00:45:33,397 and Lyndon Johnson, overseeing the most ambitious program 654 00:45:33,440 --> 00:45:36,170 of creating new parks since the time 655 00:45:36,210 --> 00:45:39,646 of Franklin Roosevelt. 656 00:45:39,680 --> 00:45:42,774 The pace of population growth and development in the west 657 00:45:42,816 --> 00:45:46,308 gave Udall, a former Arizona Congressman, a sense 658 00:45:46,353 --> 00:45:48,446 of urgency. 659 00:45:48,489 --> 00:45:53,222 ''What we save now,'' he said, ''may be all we save.'' 660 00:45:56,797 --> 00:45:59,630 He joined forces with the Sierra Club to push 661 00:45:59,666 --> 00:46:02,931 for creation of Redwood National Park along the 662 00:46:02,970 --> 00:46:06,804 northern coast of California, home to the tallest trees 663 00:46:06,840 --> 00:46:10,401 in the world, which over a lifetime spanning two 664 00:46:10,444 --> 00:46:15,040 millennia, can grow 300 feet high, requiring an environment 665 00:46:15,082 --> 00:46:19,883 of rainfall, fog, and soil found only in a narrow band 666 00:46:19,920 --> 00:46:24,289 of land a few hundred miles long. 667 00:46:24,324 --> 00:46:29,261 By the 1960s, logging had cleared 85% of the original 668 00:46:29,296 --> 00:46:32,788 redwood forest. 669 00:46:32,833 --> 00:46:38,533 The national park saved half of what remained. 670 00:46:38,572 --> 00:46:42,599 ln west Texas, Guadalupe Mountains National Park, 671 00:46:42,643 --> 00:46:45,510 the ancient remains of an ocean reef rising out 672 00:46:45,546 --> 00:46:49,312 of the desert, had once been the home of grizzly bears, 673 00:46:49,349 --> 00:46:54,184 wolves, and buffalo, as well as the Mescalero Apaches, 674 00:46:54,221 --> 00:46:58,521 who used the mountain oasis as a refuge until they, too, 675 00:46:58,559 --> 00:47:00,857 were driven out. 676 00:47:00,894 --> 00:47:04,728 ''My Lord,'' Udall said when he first saw it, ''what a paradise 677 00:47:04,765 --> 00:47:08,166 ''that place is.'' 678 00:47:08,202 --> 00:47:12,195 He also supported North Cascades National Park, 679 00:47:12,239 --> 00:47:15,072 a roadless wilderness on the border of Washington 680 00:47:15,108 --> 00:47:19,704 and Canada, containing 318 glaciers in its jumble 681 00:47:19,746 --> 00:47:23,978 of mountains, nearly 1/3 of all the remaining glaciers 682 00:47:24,017 --> 00:47:27,885 in the lower 48 states. 683 00:47:27,921 --> 00:47:30,913 And in the stark desert of eastern Utah, where the Green 684 00:47:30,958 --> 00:47:34,394 River meets the Colorado amidst a seemingly endless 685 00:47:34,428 --> 00:47:38,831 maze of meandering canyons, is a place John Wesley Powell 686 00:47:38,865 --> 00:47:43,962 had first described in 1869 as a ''wilderness of rocks 687 00:47:44,004 --> 00:47:47,167 ''and a world of grandeur.'' 688 00:47:47,207 --> 00:47:50,472 Powell had given the features he saw names like Cataract 689 00:47:50,510 --> 00:47:55,812 Canyon, the Dirry Devil, the Labyrinth. 690 00:47:55,849 --> 00:47:59,182 A hundred years later, Udall helped give it all 691 00:47:59,219 --> 00:48:04,987 another name--Canyonlands National Park. 692 00:48:05,025 --> 00:48:09,587 UDALL: l remember a night when l woke up. 693 00:48:09,630 --> 00:48:15,466 We were camping up on the high cliffs, and l looked off into 694 00:48:15,502 --> 00:48:19,438 what is the Doll's House and the Maze, and the moon 695 00:48:19,473 --> 00:48:23,170 came through. 696 00:48:23,210 --> 00:48:27,977 lt was like l was transported into anther world. 697 00:48:28,015 --> 00:48:33,317 There was a few minutes where l just felt that l was having 698 00:48:33,353 --> 00:48:37,119 an experience that l would never have again. 699 00:48:40,727 --> 00:48:44,356 CO YOTE: Udall also helped persuade Congress to set aside 700 00:48:44,398 --> 00:48:47,890 other parts of the American landscape and place them under 701 00:48:47,934 --> 00:48:52,064 Park Service protection. 702 00:48:52,105 --> 00:48:56,405 National seashores from Cape Cod in Massachusetts to Padre 703 00:48:56,443 --> 00:49:01,346 lsland in Texas to Point Reyes in California. 704 00:49:01,381 --> 00:49:04,839 National lake shores like lndiana Dunes and Picture 705 00:49:04,885 --> 00:49:07,945 Rocks in the Great Lakes. 706 00:49:07,988 --> 00:49:11,424 The Ozark National Scenic Riverway in Southwestern 707 00:49:11,458 --> 00:49:14,859 Missouri, the first in a string of rivers that would 708 00:49:14,895 --> 00:49:17,420 have portions kept in their free-flowing, 709 00:49:17,464 --> 00:49:20,558 natural conditions. 710 00:49:20,600 --> 00:49:24,331 National trails like the Appalachian Trail, extending 711 00:49:24,371 --> 00:49:29,638 2,100 miles from Georgia to Maine. 712 00:49:29,676 --> 00:49:33,976 And national recreation areas, often reservoirs behind 713 00:49:34,014 --> 00:49:39,316 the dams being built all over the west. 714 00:49:39,353 --> 00:49:43,449 To help him, Udall named George Hartzog the new Park 715 00:49:43,490 --> 00:49:47,256 Service director, who brought to the job the same energy 716 00:49:47,294 --> 00:49:51,424 and back-slapping political skills Stephen Mather had used 717 00:49:51,465 --> 00:49:55,663 so successfully 50 years earlier. 718 00:49:55,702 --> 00:49:58,603 Hartzog would push the Park Service to have a greater 719 00:49:58,638 --> 00:50:03,405 presence in urban areas, to serve minoriry populations 720 00:50:03,443 --> 00:50:06,879 that did not yet have a relationship with the parks, 721 00:50:06,913 --> 00:50:12,545 and to increase the number of historic and cultural sites. 722 00:50:12,586 --> 00:50:14,952 To him, the park system's role 723 00:50:14,988 --> 00:50:18,446 in preserving and interpreting American history was just as 724 00:50:18,492 --> 00:50:23,452 crucial as protecting the large natural parks. 725 00:50:27,501 --> 00:50:30,231 HARTZOG: My father, from South Carolina, only made 726 00:50:30,270 --> 00:50:34,866 one trip out of that state during his lifetime, and that 727 00:50:34,908 --> 00:50:39,242 was to visit our family here in Washington. 728 00:50:42,916 --> 00:50:48,286 And he said, ''l want to see the Lincoln Memorial.'' 729 00:50:51,425 --> 00:50:55,691 Abraham Lincoln was not a favorite historical personage 730 00:50:55,729 --> 00:50:58,323 in the low country of South Carolina when l was a boy 731 00:50:58,365 --> 00:51:04,270 growing up, and neither was he in my family and in our home, 732 00:51:04,304 --> 00:51:09,105 and l was surprised that the only thing he wanted to see 733 00:51:09,142 --> 00:51:14,307 in Washington D.C. was the Lincoln Memorial. 734 00:51:14,347 --> 00:51:17,839 l started to get out of the car, and he said, ''No, l want 735 00:51:17,884 --> 00:51:21,581 ''to go alone,'' and l sat there and watched him walk those 736 00:51:21,621 --> 00:51:27,651 steps, and he got there and stopped and faced Lincoln 737 00:51:27,694 --> 00:51:32,791 and turned to the right and went around that memorial 738 00:51:32,833 --> 00:51:37,998 and read every saying of Lincoln's and came back 739 00:51:38,038 --> 00:51:40,029 and got in the car. 740 00:51:40,073 --> 00:51:43,236 Tears were welling in his eyes, although they were not 741 00:51:43,276 --> 00:51:50,273 running, and he said to me, ''l'm now ready to go home.'' 742 00:51:50,317 --> 00:51:53,013 That's what they mean. 743 00:52:06,199 --> 00:52:09,566 CROWD SlNGlNG: We shall overcome... 744 00:52:09,603 --> 00:52:13,903 CO YOTE: On August 28, 1963, Hartzog witnessed a much 745 00:52:13,940 --> 00:52:17,273 larger crowd at the Lincoln Memorial when a quarter 746 00:52:17,310 --> 00:52:21,246 of a million people converged on the National Mall as part 747 00:52:21,281 --> 00:52:25,183 of the March on Washington to protest the Jim Crow laws that 748 00:52:25,218 --> 00:52:29,678 still discriminated against African Americans in the south 749 00:52:29,723 --> 00:52:33,124 and to call on Congress to pass a civil rights bill to 750 00:52:33,159 --> 00:52:35,787 bring them to an end. 751 00:52:35,829 --> 00:52:39,788 There, a young minister named Martin Luther King Jr., 752 00:52:39,833 --> 00:52:42,700 who had recently been jailed in Birmingham, Alabama, 753 00:52:42,736 --> 00:52:46,194 who the director of the FBl considered a Communist 754 00:52:46,239 --> 00:52:50,767 sympathizer and whose life was in constant danger from people 755 00:52:50,810 --> 00:52:53,938 who hated the color of his skin and everything he stood 756 00:52:53,980 --> 00:52:59,213 for, gave a speech that would be considered a turning point 757 00:52:59,252 --> 00:53:02,153 in American history. 758 00:53:02,188 --> 00:53:09,754 KlNG: l have a dream that my 4 little children will one day 759 00:53:09,796 --> 00:53:12,663 live in a nation where they will not be judged by the 760 00:53:12,699 --> 00:53:16,328 color of their skin but by the content of their character. 761 00:53:16,369 --> 00:53:17,893 l have a dream today! 762 00:53:17,938 --> 00:53:21,465 [Cheering and applause] 763 00:53:25,278 --> 00:53:30,011 This will be the day when all of God's children will be able 764 00:53:30,050 --> 00:53:35,078 to sing with new meaning ''My country 'tis of thee, sweet 765 00:53:35,121 --> 00:53:38,454 ''land of liberry, of thee l sing. 766 00:53:38,491 --> 00:53:43,053 ''Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrims' pride, 767 00:53:43,096 --> 00:53:46,998 ''from every mountainside, let freedom ring.'' 768 00:53:47,033 --> 00:53:50,093 And if America is to be a great nation, this must 769 00:53:50,136 --> 00:53:51,501 become true. 770 00:53:51,538 --> 00:53:54,132 [Cheering and applause] 771 00:53:54,174 --> 00:53:59,111 And when this happens, we will be able to speed up that day 772 00:53:59,145 --> 00:54:02,478 when all of God's children-- black men and white men, 773 00:54:02,515 --> 00:54:06,645 Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics--will be able to 774 00:54:06,686 --> 00:54:10,213 join hands and sing in the words of the old negro 775 00:54:10,256 --> 00:54:14,852 spiritual, ''Free at last, free at least, thank God 776 00:54:14,894 --> 00:54:17,385 ''Almighry, we're free at last!'' 777 00:54:17,430 --> 00:54:20,297 [Cheering and applause] 778 00:54:22,902 --> 00:54:25,894 HARTZOG: What higher purpose can a national park 779 00:54:25,939 --> 00:54:32,811 serve than to be responsive to the crisis in our sociery, 780 00:54:32,846 --> 00:54:37,306 to the voice of the underprivileged, to the voice 781 00:54:37,350 --> 00:54:42,754 of the protester who's objecting to the institutional 782 00:54:42,789 --> 00:54:51,356 status quo, who is seeing a need beyond where we are? 783 00:54:51,398 --> 00:54:54,993 lt was of the same dimension as the first time l stood 784 00:54:55,035 --> 00:54:58,630 on the south rim of the Grand Canyon and looked at that 785 00:54:58,672 --> 00:55:02,233 magnificent canyon in front of me. 786 00:55:02,275 --> 00:55:06,177 These are everlasting moments that stay with you 787 00:55:06,212 --> 00:55:09,648 and influence your life all your life. 788 00:55:12,752 --> 00:55:16,153 FRANKLlN: The idea of the national parks certainly was 789 00:55:16,189 --> 00:55:22,651 appreciated by Abraham Lincoln in the 1860s. 790 00:55:22,696 --> 00:55:28,066 A century later, here is Martin Luther King giving his 791 00:55:28,101 --> 00:55:34,370 great speech ''l Have a Dream'' before a vast audience, before 792 00:55:34,407 --> 00:55:39,970 Abraham Lincoln, and with a park ranger standing by him. 793 00:55:40,013 --> 00:55:42,379 You have this sweep of history. 794 00:55:42,415 --> 00:55:45,009 You have these dramatic turns. 795 00:55:45,051 --> 00:55:52,219 You have these marvelous coincidences and ramifications 796 00:55:52,258 --> 00:55:57,890 that extend from Lincoln to King, from the idea 797 00:55:57,931 --> 00:56:03,130 of the national park to the Park Service officer standing 798 00:56:03,169 --> 00:56:09,165 by King when he gives his ''l Have a Dream'' speech. 799 00:56:09,209 --> 00:56:14,977 The parallels of history are infinite and limitless. 800 00:56:15,014 --> 00:56:17,505 CO YOTE: 5 years later, Dr. King would 801 00:56:17,550 --> 00:56:19,711 be assassinated. 802 00:56:19,753 --> 00:56:23,519 1 2 years after that, his birthplace in Atlanta, 803 00:56:23,556 --> 00:56:28,823 Georgia, would be dedicated as a historic site, part 804 00:56:28,862 --> 00:56:31,592 of the national park system. 805 00:56:34,367 --> 00:56:40,203 [Wolf howls] 806 00:56:46,679 --> 00:56:48,374 MAN AS ADOLPH MURlE: We were approaching our cabin one 807 00:56:48,414 --> 00:56:50,279 stormy night. 808 00:56:50,316 --> 00:56:54,218 lt was snowing and getting dark, and out of the storm 809 00:56:54,254 --> 00:57:00,386 came music, the long, drawn, mournful call of a wolf. 810 00:57:02,562 --> 00:57:05,827 lt started low, moved slowly up the scale 811 00:57:05,865 --> 00:57:08,060 with increased volume. 812 00:57:08,101 --> 00:57:11,070 At the high point, a slight break in the voice, then 813 00:57:11,104 --> 00:57:14,801 a deepening of the tone as it became a little more throary 814 00:57:14,841 --> 00:57:19,210 and gradually descended the scale, and the soft voice 815 00:57:19,245 --> 00:57:24,512 trailed off to blend with the storm. 816 00:57:24,551 --> 00:57:28,180 We waited to hear again the voice of wilderness, 817 00:57:28,221 --> 00:57:31,884 but the performer, with artistic restraint, 818 00:57:31,925 --> 00:57:34,416 was silent. 819 00:57:34,460 --> 00:57:37,918 Adolph Murie. 820 00:57:37,964 --> 00:57:43,630 l think we all pick up certain sounds or sights that are sort 821 00:57:43,670 --> 00:57:48,437 of symbolic, and l think that for Adolph, the sound 822 00:57:48,474 --> 00:57:54,379 of the wolf meant wild, nature, untamed but also 823 00:57:54,414 --> 00:58:00,876 a part of the planet, a part that we just can't do without. 824 00:58:00,920 --> 00:58:02,649 [Wolf howls] 825 00:58:02,689 --> 00:58:08,753 He felt very much like Thoreau felt, l think, about wildness. 826 00:58:08,795 --> 00:58:12,822 We got to have it. 827 00:58:12,866 --> 00:58:15,892 CO YOTE: When the Mission 66 plans had been unveiled 828 00:58:15,935 --> 00:58:19,735 for Mt. McKinley National Park, they called for widening 829 00:58:19,772 --> 00:58:24,072 and paving the 90-mile rough and narrow gravel road that 830 00:58:24,110 --> 00:58:28,740 provided the only access into the park's interior. 831 00:58:28,781 --> 00:58:32,217 The road would permit a showcase hotel near beautiful 832 00:58:32,252 --> 00:58:35,881 and quiet Wonder Lake, expanded campgrounds, 833 00:58:35,922 --> 00:58:40,154 gas stations, and a visitor center. 834 00:58:40,193 --> 00:58:43,754 No one was surprised when Adolph Murie came out against 835 00:58:43,796 --> 00:58:47,425 it and submitted a detailed analysis to the park 836 00:58:47,467 --> 00:58:52,734 superintendent outlining his concerns. 837 00:58:52,772 --> 00:58:55,639 MARTlN MURlE: Adolph was just passionately determined to 838 00:58:55,675 --> 00:59:01,170 stop that road, and he was a very stubborn person for what 839 00:59:01,214 --> 00:59:06,413 he believed in, and we need stubborn people. 840 00:59:06,452 --> 00:59:13,290 He became more accepting, more diplomatic as 841 00:59:13,326 --> 00:59:14,691 time went on. 842 00:59:14,727 --> 00:59:20,859 He became more forgiving, but he knew how to draw a line 843 00:59:20,900 --> 00:59:26,702 in the sand, and when it come to things like that, Wonder 844 00:59:26,739 --> 00:59:29,970 Park Road, he'd say no. 845 00:59:30,009 --> 00:59:33,274 No. 846 00:59:33,313 --> 00:59:35,907 BROWN: He was the conscience of the park. 847 00:59:35,949 --> 00:59:40,909 He stood like a rock on these matters of principle. 848 00:59:40,954 --> 00:59:47,223 He was not unduly cantankerous or aggressive. 849 00:59:47,260 --> 00:59:49,057 He just lasted. 850 00:59:49,095 --> 00:59:54,158 He just wore away at them like water on a granite boulder. 851 00:59:54,200 --> 00:59:57,431 CO YOTE: ''My efforts were not appreciated,'' Murie said, 852 00:59:57,470 --> 01:00:00,962 and for the next two years, he was reassigned to Grand 853 01:00:01,007 --> 01:00:05,501 Teton National Park in Wyoming. 854 01:00:05,545 --> 01:00:08,742 When he was finally allowed to return to Alaska to continue 855 01:00:08,781 --> 01:00:13,718 his research, Murie was dismayed at what he found. 856 01:00:13,753 --> 01:00:17,348 The first 1 3 miles of park road had been excavated 857 01:00:17,390 --> 01:00:22,657 and paved, and at mile 65, a visitor center was being 858 01:00:22,695 --> 01:00:24,993 constructed that looked, he said, 859 01:00:25,031 --> 01:00:28,125 ''like a Dairy Queen.'' 860 01:00:28,167 --> 01:00:31,034 To stop further construction, he turned to his brother 861 01:00:31,070 --> 01:00:37,134 Olaus, now the director of the Wilderness Sociery, for help. 862 01:00:37,176 --> 01:00:39,838 MARTlN MURlE: He kept telling Olaus, ''Now, you got to write 863 01:00:39,879 --> 01:00:42,074 ''about this road.'' 864 01:00:42,115 --> 01:00:47,917 He'd feed Olaus the data about the road and say, 865 01:00:47,954 --> 01:00:50,718 ''Write about it. You write beautifully. 866 01:00:50,757 --> 01:00:55,023 ''l can't do it. You can do it.'' 867 01:00:55,061 --> 01:00:58,622 CO YOTE: Olaus Murie was the perfect person to help. 868 01:00:58,664 --> 01:01:01,565 He was accustomed to waging public campaigns 869 01:01:01,601 --> 01:01:05,628 and in a position to openly challenge the Park Service. 870 01:01:05,671 --> 01:01:10,335 This time, the Park Service director listened. 871 01:01:10,376 --> 01:01:12,469 That was the last frontier. 872 01:01:12,512 --> 01:01:17,040 This is your last opportuniry to save virgin America is 873 01:01:17,083 --> 01:01:21,076 Alaska, and it's enormous. 874 01:01:23,056 --> 01:01:26,958 CO YOTE: Hartzog stopped the roadwork where it was--1 3 875 01:01:26,993 --> 01:01:30,929 miles widened and paved, another 17 widened 876 01:01:30,963 --> 01:01:36,765 but unpaved, and the remaining 60 miles to be kept in more or 877 01:01:36,803 --> 01:01:42,366 less the condition Adolph Murie had suggested--a narrow 878 01:01:42,408 --> 01:01:46,845 gravel pathway where, he said, ''the feeling one gets is that 879 01:01:46,879 --> 01:01:50,542 ''the road passes through a wilderness that comes up to 880 01:01:50,583 --> 01:01:54,280 ''the road.'' 881 01:01:54,320 --> 01:01:57,551 lt is still that way today. 882 01:01:59,759 --> 01:02:03,024 MAN AS ADOLPH MURlE: Freedom prevails. 883 01:02:03,062 --> 01:02:08,227 Even the bad wolf seeks an honest living as of yore. 884 01:02:08,267 --> 01:02:11,634 He is a respected citizen, morally on a par 885 01:02:11,671 --> 01:02:13,969 with everyone else. 886 01:02:17,577 --> 01:02:24,710 ln our thinking of McKinley, let us not have puny thoughts. 887 01:02:24,750 --> 01:02:30,154 Let us think on a greater scale. 888 01:02:30,189 --> 01:02:34,182 Let us not have those of the future decry our smallness 889 01:02:34,227 --> 01:02:38,891 of concept and lack of foresight. 890 01:02:38,931 --> 01:02:41,126 Adolph Murie. 891 01:02:46,372 --> 01:02:49,432 RUNTE: By the 1960s, if you stood on Glacier Point 892 01:02:49,475 --> 01:02:52,103 and looked down at Yosemite Valley, you saw lights. 893 01:02:52,145 --> 01:02:55,945 You saw fires. You saw cars everywhere. 894 01:02:55,982 --> 01:02:58,849 You looked down at that valley and you said to yourself, 895 01:02:58,885 --> 01:03:02,480 ''This looks more like a ciry than it does a national park.'' 896 01:03:06,225 --> 01:03:08,955 CO YOTE: For nearly a hundred years, one of the biggest 897 01:03:08,995 --> 01:03:11,463 attractions in Yosemite Valley had been 898 01:03:11,497 --> 01:03:14,159 the dramatic firefall. 899 01:03:14,200 --> 01:03:17,328 Every evening in the summer season, as throngs gathered to 900 01:03:17,370 --> 01:03:21,807 watch, a huge bonfire would be built on Glacier Point, 901 01:03:21,841 --> 01:03:25,072 then pushed over the edge to cascade down toward 902 01:03:25,111 --> 01:03:27,511 the valley floor. 903 01:03:27,547 --> 01:03:31,278 ln 1968, Hartzog said no 904 01:03:31,317 --> 01:03:34,616 and ordered a stop to it. 905 01:03:34,654 --> 01:03:38,249 HARTZOG: The firefall in that magnificent valley was 906 01:03:38,291 --> 01:03:42,489 about as appropriate as horns on a rabbit, and it should 907 01:03:42,528 --> 01:03:45,053 not be there. 908 01:03:45,097 --> 01:03:48,726 lt was an absolutely spectacular sight, but it was 909 01:03:48,768 --> 01:03:52,898 inappropriate for the silent tranquiliry and beaury of that 910 01:03:52,939 --> 01:03:56,670 great valley. 911 01:03:56,709 --> 01:03:59,735 CO YOTE: At Yellowstone, Hartzog also enforced what 912 01:03:59,779 --> 01:04:03,306 George Melendez Wright, Adolph Murie, and many other 913 01:04:03,349 --> 01:04:07,615 biologists had advocated years earlier--not just a paper 914 01:04:07,653 --> 01:04:11,487 policy against feeding the bears, which tourists and park 915 01:04:11,524 --> 01:04:15,051 officials had routinely ignored, but a concerted 916 01:04:15,094 --> 01:04:18,825 effort at weaning the bears from human food along the 917 01:04:18,864 --> 01:04:22,595 roadside or at garbage dumps. 918 01:04:26,038 --> 01:04:28,268 SCHULLERY: They saw it as beneath the digniry 919 01:04:28,307 --> 01:04:31,276 of a national park-- 920 01:04:31,310 --> 01:04:35,610 that these bears should in some sense have a right to 921 01:04:35,648 --> 01:04:39,641 a more natural life and that people should be experiencing 922 01:04:39,685 --> 01:04:42,654 them in a more natural way. 923 01:04:45,224 --> 01:04:48,523 CO YOTE: New park policies now recommended placing scientific 924 01:04:48,561 --> 01:04:52,895 research as the basis for management decisions, 925 01:04:52,932 --> 01:04:56,698 emphasizing that the complex ecology of each park be 926 01:04:56,736 --> 01:05:00,137 restored to what it had once been and stating that 927 01:05:00,172 --> 01:05:03,664 a national park should represent a vignette 928 01:05:03,709 --> 01:05:08,009 of primitive America. 929 01:05:08,047 --> 01:05:12,848 Slowly, in the tension between preservation and use, parks as 930 01:05:12,885 --> 01:05:17,652 nature's sanctuaries and parks as tourist resorts, things had 931 01:05:17,690 --> 01:05:23,390 begun to shift a little, back in nature's direction. 932 01:05:23,429 --> 01:05:27,263 George Melendez Wright's old vision was finally being 933 01:05:27,300 --> 01:05:29,928 taken seriously. 934 01:05:42,114 --> 01:05:45,277 MAN: l like the quiet out here. 935 01:05:45,318 --> 01:05:51,154 l'm not pestered or bothered by a lot of people. 936 01:05:51,190 --> 01:05:56,685 l am alone, but l am not lonely. 937 01:05:56,729 --> 01:05:58,754 When you have plenry of interests, like the water 938 01:05:58,798 --> 01:06:02,290 and the woods, the birds and the fish, you don't 939 01:06:02,335 --> 01:06:05,202 get lonely. 940 01:06:05,237 --> 01:06:10,106 Lancelot Jones. 941 01:06:10,142 --> 01:06:14,203 CO YOTE: By the 1960s, no one knew Biscayne Bay, off the 942 01:06:14,246 --> 01:06:20,549 southeastern tip of Florida, better than Lancelot Jones. 943 01:06:20,586 --> 01:06:25,148 He had been born in the bottom of a small boat there in 1898 944 01:06:25,191 --> 01:06:27,386 while his father was frantically sailing his 945 01:06:27,426 --> 01:06:31,385 pregnant mother toward a hospital in Miami. 946 01:06:31,430 --> 01:06:36,163 From that time on, the bay had been his home. 947 01:06:36,202 --> 01:06:39,968 His father, lsrael Lafayette Jones, had risen up from 948 01:06:40,005 --> 01:06:43,998 slavery in North Carolina, migrated to Florida after 949 01:06:44,043 --> 01:06:48,173 the Civil War, and steadily improved life for himself 950 01:06:48,214 --> 01:06:51,445 and his Bahamian wife. 951 01:06:51,484 --> 01:06:54,715 Eventually, he had managed to buy 3 of the small, 952 01:06:54,754 --> 01:06:58,713 uninhabited islands that separate Biscayne Bay from the 953 01:06:58,758 --> 01:07:02,387 Atlantic Ocean and began a profitable business growing 954 01:07:02,428 --> 01:07:05,158 key limes. 955 01:07:05,197 --> 01:07:07,665 ln honor of his favorite story, ''The Knights 956 01:07:07,700 --> 01:07:11,727 ''of the Round Table,'' he had proudly named his two sons 957 01:07:11,771 --> 01:07:16,504 King Arthur Jones and Sir Lancelot Jones, hoping, 958 01:07:16,542 --> 01:07:21,036 perhaps, Lancelot said later, that by giving us great names, 959 01:07:21,080 --> 01:07:23,844 we would become great men. 960 01:07:26,352 --> 01:07:31,984 But 3 years after his father's death, the Hurricane of 1935 961 01:07:32,024 --> 01:07:35,926 had laid waste to the family's lime crops and forced Lancelot 962 01:07:35,961 --> 01:07:39,453 into a new line of work as a fishing guide for wealthy 963 01:07:39,498 --> 01:07:42,831 visitors to Biscayne Bay. 964 01:07:46,372 --> 01:07:52,470 By the 1960s, there were plenry to go around. 965 01:07:52,511 --> 01:07:55,810 Just across a small channel from Jones' modest home 966 01:07:55,848 --> 01:08:00,911 on Porgy Key was the Cocolobo Club, an exclusive retreat 967 01:08:00,953 --> 01:08:03,581 for some of the multimillionaires who wintered 968 01:08:03,622 --> 01:08:08,889 at Miami Beach, men with names like Firestone, Maytag, 969 01:08:08,928 --> 01:08:11,897 Honeywell, and Hertz. 970 01:08:11,931 --> 01:08:16,527 They had this exclusive club down there, and it was 971 01:08:16,569 --> 01:08:18,696 nice for them. 972 01:08:18,737 --> 01:08:21,467 CO YOTE: Lancelot Jones became the favorite fishing guide 973 01:08:21,507 --> 01:08:23,566 for them and for their politically 974 01:08:23,609 --> 01:08:26,373 well-connected friends. 975 01:08:26,412 --> 01:08:29,540 GREENE: He was a tall, lanky kind of guy and very 976 01:08:29,582 --> 01:08:34,849 hospitable, and he seemed like a perfectly happy guy living 977 01:08:34,887 --> 01:08:36,718 out there by himself. 978 01:08:36,755 --> 01:08:38,916 He knew a lot of people. 979 01:08:38,958 --> 01:08:41,552 A lot of important people would stop by and visit him 980 01:08:41,594 --> 01:08:45,052 when they went down there, including all these big shots 981 01:08:45,097 --> 01:08:48,624 that belonged to that private club. 982 01:08:48,667 --> 01:08:51,568 He knew where all the fish were and where everything else 983 01:08:51,604 --> 01:08:54,698 was, too, down there. 984 01:08:56,675 --> 01:09:00,304 CO YOTE: But other millionaires had other plans for the bay 985 01:09:00,346 --> 01:09:04,476 and its chain of more than 3 dozen pristine islands. 986 01:09:07,453 --> 01:09:11,685 ln 1961, a shipping rycoon announced he intended to 987 01:09:11,724 --> 01:09:15,592 construct a deep-water port, an oil refinery, and 988 01:09:15,628 --> 01:09:19,621 an industrial complex once he dredged a deeper channel 989 01:09:19,665 --> 01:09:24,534 through the shallow bay 8 miles out to the ocean. 990 01:09:24,570 --> 01:09:28,301 At the same time, a group of developers proposed a bridge 991 01:09:28,340 --> 01:09:31,639 linking the mainland to the islands to do with them what 992 01:09:31,677 --> 01:09:35,773 had already happened at Miami Beach and Key Biscayne--a 993 01:09:35,814 --> 01:09:39,944 series of high-rise hotels, retail shopping centers, 994 01:09:39,985 --> 01:09:43,887 and private beachfront properties. 995 01:09:43,923 --> 01:09:47,381 The organizers convinced authorities to create the ciry 996 01:09:47,426 --> 01:09:52,090 of lslandia and ferried a voting machine to Elliott Key, 997 01:09:52,131 --> 01:09:56,090 where they staged an election attended by 14 of the 18 998 01:09:56,135 --> 01:10:01,163 registered voters, all of them absentee landowners hoping to 999 01:10:01,206 --> 01:10:05,700 cash in on the anticipated real estate boom. 1000 01:10:08,714 --> 01:10:12,650 Lancelot Jones, one of only two full-time residents 1001 01:10:12,685 --> 01:10:16,052 of the new lslandia, was not among them. 1002 01:10:16,088 --> 01:10:19,854 He was against their plans and had also turned down offers 1003 01:10:19,892 --> 01:10:25,592 from the refinery developer to buy Porgy Key. 1004 01:10:25,631 --> 01:10:26,962 MAN AS LANCELOT JONES: l never thought commercialization 1005 01:10:26,999 --> 01:10:29,263 of this land was right. 1006 01:10:29,301 --> 01:10:33,499 l always felt this land was not right for development, 1007 01:10:33,539 --> 01:10:36,565 that it should stay as it is. 1008 01:10:38,744 --> 01:10:41,941 CO YOTE: Meanwhile, a small group had formed to fight 1009 01:10:41,981 --> 01:10:44,279 both proposals. 1010 01:10:44,316 --> 01:10:47,080 Lloyd Miller, an avid fisherman, believed the 1011 01:10:47,119 --> 01:10:50,850 refinery and seaport would turn one of Florida's most 1012 01:10:50,889 --> 01:10:54,552 fertile fish-breeding grounds into a stagnant pool 1013 01:10:54,593 --> 01:10:57,118 of oily water. 1014 01:10:57,162 --> 01:11:00,290 Juanita Greene, an enterprising young writer 1015 01:11:00,332 --> 01:11:02,300 for the ''Miami Herald,'' worried that 1016 01:11:02,401 --> 01:11:04,995 the considerable financial interests behind both 1017 01:11:05,037 --> 01:11:08,165 developments were steamrolling the plans toward 1018 01:11:08,207 --> 01:11:10,107 hasry approval. 1019 01:11:10,142 --> 01:11:13,634 Her own newspaper supported the refinery. 1020 01:11:13,679 --> 01:11:16,341 She thought the public was not only being shut out 1021 01:11:16,382 --> 01:11:20,250 of the decision but would also be denied access to precious 1022 01:11:20,285 --> 01:11:23,914 waterfront once everything was completed. 1023 01:11:23,956 --> 01:11:30,520 lt would become, she warned, ''a rich man's paradise.'' 1024 01:11:30,562 --> 01:11:33,759 GREENE: l could see that for the average Joe who wanted to 1025 01:11:33,799 --> 01:11:37,291 go to the beach on Sunday afternoon, there were fewer 1026 01:11:37,336 --> 01:11:40,965 and fewer places to go. 1027 01:11:41,006 --> 01:11:44,703 l didn't think that that was fair that only people who 1028 01:11:44,743 --> 01:11:49,043 could live in the fancy hotels or the condominiums had access 1029 01:11:49,081 --> 01:11:52,812 to the beach. 1030 01:11:52,851 --> 01:11:56,787 l objected mightily to it and wrote a story in which l said 1031 01:11:56,822 --> 01:12:02,522 ''This is a freak ciry with lots of power and no people.'' 1032 01:12:02,561 --> 01:12:05,587 And it was true. 1033 01:12:05,631 --> 01:12:08,691 CO YOTE: At a meeting held around her dining room table, 1034 01:12:08,734 --> 01:12:11,760 Greene, Lloyd Miller, and another friend, 1035 01:12:11,804 --> 01:12:15,467 Art Marshall, decided that the only way to stop the 1036 01:12:15,507 --> 01:12:20,240 development of the islands was to make it a national park. 1037 01:12:20,279 --> 01:12:23,510 Greene persuaded her newspaper to at least cover the budding 1038 01:12:23,549 --> 01:12:28,009 opposition movement and to allow her to write occasional 1039 01:12:28,053 --> 01:12:33,013 opinion pieces advocating her point of view. 1040 01:12:33,058 --> 01:12:36,152 As the public leader of the opposition, Miller found his 1041 01:12:36,195 --> 01:12:38,595 car sprayed with paint. 1042 01:12:38,630 --> 01:12:41,827 People urged his employer to fire him. 1043 01:12:41,867 --> 01:12:45,997 An anonymous caller threatened his family. 1044 01:12:46,038 --> 01:12:49,565 GREENE: And somebody poisoned his dog. 1045 01:12:49,608 --> 01:12:53,169 So Lloyd had to put up with a lot, but he was a determined 1046 01:12:53,212 --> 01:12:59,742 man, and he was not gonna be run out of this. 1047 01:12:59,785 --> 01:13:03,084 CO YOTE: Slowly their movement gained strength. 1048 01:13:03,122 --> 01:13:06,285 A slate of anti-refinery candidates was elected to 1049 01:13:06,325 --> 01:13:08,885 the counry commission. 1050 01:13:08,927 --> 01:13:11,589 Local political leaders withdrew their support 1051 01:13:11,630 --> 01:13:15,157 for a bridge to the islands. 1052 01:13:15,200 --> 01:13:18,533 And after visiting the bay, Stewart Udall came out 1053 01:13:18,570 --> 01:13:21,437 in favor of protecting it. 1054 01:13:23,909 --> 01:13:28,243 ln October of 1968, Lloyd Miller was peering over 1055 01:13:28,280 --> 01:13:32,444 the shoulder of President Johnson as he created Biscayne 1056 01:13:32,484 --> 01:13:39,583 National Monument, saving 173,000 acres of the bay, 1057 01:13:39,625 --> 01:13:42,788 coral reefs, and islands. 1058 01:13:46,131 --> 01:13:50,295 [Seagull cawing] 1059 01:13:50,335 --> 01:13:51,927 MAN SlNGlNG: Sitting in the mornin' sun... 1060 01:13:51,970 --> 01:13:54,530 CO YOTE: The first private landowner to sell his land to 1061 01:13:54,573 --> 01:13:57,906 the federal government for the new national monument was 1062 01:13:57,943 --> 01:14:04,405 Lancelot Jones--277 acres on 3 islands on the condition that 1063 01:14:04,449 --> 01:14:08,215 he be allowed to live out his life in the family home 1064 01:14:08,253 --> 01:14:09,584 on Porgy Key. 1065 01:14:09,621 --> 01:14:11,987 MAN SlNGlNG: Sittin' on the dock of the bay... 1066 01:14:12,024 --> 01:14:13,958 GREENE: And that's the kind of guy he was. 1067 01:14:13,992 --> 01:14:16,324 MAN SlNGlNG: ...tide roll away... 1068 01:14:16,361 --> 01:14:18,124 GREENE: He was not one of these greedy people that was 1069 01:14:18,163 --> 01:14:21,189 waiting for the developers to come pay him big bucks 1070 01:14:21,233 --> 01:14:23,701 for his land. 1071 01:14:23,735 --> 01:14:27,102 He just liked things the way they were and was willing to 1072 01:14:27,139 --> 01:14:31,473 help other people have an opportuniry to enjoy 1073 01:14:31,510 --> 01:14:34,104 the islands. 1074 01:14:34,146 --> 01:14:37,343 CO YOTE: His favorite pastime was teaching small groups 1075 01:14:37,382 --> 01:14:40,943 of schoolchildren about the bay's fish and sponges 1076 01:14:40,986 --> 01:14:45,184 whenever the Park Service brought them to Porgy Key. 1077 01:14:45,224 --> 01:14:49,456 The only compensation he asked for was a key lime pie. 1078 01:14:49,494 --> 01:14:53,988 MAN SlNGlNG: Watching the tide roll away... 1079 01:14:54,032 --> 01:14:58,594 MAN AS LANCELOT JONES: l like the name ''monument.'' 1080 01:14:58,637 --> 01:15:01,572 lt means that things here are going to stay pretty much as 1081 01:15:01,607 --> 01:15:06,374 they are today. 1082 01:15:06,411 --> 01:15:07,935 Lancelot Jones. 1083 01:15:07,980 --> 01:15:10,813 [Singer whistling] 1084 01:15:24,897 --> 01:15:27,764 MAN AS WALLACE STEGNER: The national park idea, the best 1085 01:15:27,799 --> 01:15:31,826 idea we ever had, was inevitable as soon as 1086 01:15:31,870 --> 01:15:35,738 Americans learned to confront the wild continent not 1087 01:15:35,774 --> 01:15:39,471 with fear and cupidiry, but with delight, 1088 01:15:39,511 --> 01:15:42,378 wonder, and awe. 1089 01:15:46,852 --> 01:15:51,152 Once started, it grew like the backfire it truly was, burning 1090 01:15:51,189 --> 01:15:54,420 backup wind against the current of claim and grab 1091 01:15:54,459 --> 01:15:57,087 and raid... 1092 01:16:00,098 --> 01:16:04,865 proving that our rapacious sociery could hold its hand, 1093 01:16:04,903 --> 01:16:08,771 at least in the presence of stupendous scenery, and learn 1094 01:16:08,807 --> 01:16:11,970 to respect the earth for something besides its 1095 01:16:12,010 --> 01:16:15,241 economic value. 1096 01:16:15,280 --> 01:16:17,748 Wallace Stegner. 1097 01:16:20,319 --> 01:16:25,256 CO YOTE: On March 1, 1972, Yellowstone, the world's first 1098 01:16:25,290 --> 01:16:30,557 national park, celebrated its centennial. 1099 01:16:30,595 --> 01:16:33,826 During its 100 years of existence, the park had seen 1100 01:16:33,865 --> 01:16:37,892 its wildlife wantonly slaughtered by poachers 1101 01:16:37,936 --> 01:16:41,167 and then protected by law. 1102 01:16:43,675 --> 01:16:46,940 Yellowstone had been guarded by cavalrymen and park 1103 01:16:46,979 --> 01:16:53,384 rangers, defended by poets, and studied by scientists. 1104 01:16:53,418 --> 01:16:57,184 Endlessly painted and photographed by artists 1105 01:16:57,222 --> 01:17:01,852 and amateurs alike, toured by one American president after 1106 01:17:01,893 --> 01:17:06,626 another, seeking everything from exhilarating inspiration 1107 01:17:06,665 --> 01:17:11,261 to simple relaxation. 1108 01:17:11,303 --> 01:17:15,433 Yellowstone had been the site of everything from lndian wars 1109 01:17:15,474 --> 01:17:17,772 to bitter fights over the limits of commercial 1110 01:17:17,809 --> 01:17:21,905 exploitation, battles over the value of nature, 1111 01:17:21,947 --> 01:17:25,974 and a continuing argument over how Americans could enjoy its 1112 01:17:26,018 --> 01:17:29,454 treasure house of wonders without ruining it 1113 01:17:29,488 --> 01:17:32,286 for the next generation. 1114 01:17:45,470 --> 01:17:48,997 Along the way, Yellowstone had become one of the most 1115 01:17:49,041 --> 01:17:52,943 recognizable symbols of America itself. 1116 01:17:52,978 --> 01:17:57,142 ln 1972, Old Faithful, still spouting 1117 01:17:57,182 --> 01:18:00,481 as regularly as it did when it got its name a century 1118 01:18:00,519 --> 01:18:06,480 earlier, would thrill 2.2 million people. 1119 01:18:06,525 --> 01:18:10,985 But they would represent a tiny fraction of the 165 1120 01:18:11,029 --> 01:18:15,523 million visitors who came that year to a park system that now 1121 01:18:15,567 --> 01:18:19,901 had a presence in nearly every state in the union--38 1122 01:18:19,938 --> 01:18:24,966 national parks and roughly 200 historic sites, national 1123 01:18:25,010 --> 01:18:29,003 monuments, and other places Americans had set aside 1124 01:18:29,047 --> 01:18:32,016 for posteriry. 1125 01:18:32,050 --> 01:18:36,384 By the 1970s, the park idea had spread from Yellowstone 1126 01:18:36,421 --> 01:18:41,256 all the way around the world, ultimately becoming, like the 1127 01:18:41,293 --> 01:18:46,822 idea of freedom itself, one of America's greatest exports-- 1128 01:18:46,865 --> 01:18:51,893 more than 4,000 parks in nearly 200 nations. 1129 01:18:55,373 --> 01:18:56,601 MAN SlNGlNG: Light out singing 1130 01:18:56,641 --> 01:19:00,634 And walking in the morning sunshine 1131 01:19:00,679 --> 01:19:04,376 Sunshine daydream 1132 01:19:04,416 --> 01:19:07,908 CO YOTE: But back in the United States, in the farthest corner 1133 01:19:07,953 --> 01:19:12,720 of the nation, the national parks were about to experience 1134 01:19:12,757 --> 01:19:16,454 their most dramatic expansion. 1135 01:19:30,575 --> 01:19:33,942 WOOD: Most people ask, ''What brought you to Alaska?'' 1136 01:19:33,979 --> 01:19:38,313 but the question to ask is ''What made you stay?'' 1137 01:19:38,350 --> 01:19:41,581 We just fell in love with the country. 1138 01:19:41,620 --> 01:19:43,485 The country told us what it should be and what it 1139 01:19:43,522 --> 01:19:45,717 shouldn't be. 1140 01:19:45,757 --> 01:19:50,524 l think that being out there was a little bit like Conrad 1141 01:19:50,562 --> 01:19:53,463 said of the sea--it's not for you or against you. 1142 01:19:53,498 --> 01:19:57,059 lt's just very unforgiving of errors. 1143 01:19:58,837 --> 01:20:01,601 CO YOTE: ln the hundred years since Secretary of State 1144 01:20:01,640 --> 01:20:06,771 William Seward had purchased it from Russia in 1867, Alaska 1145 01:20:06,811 --> 01:20:11,077 had had the nickname Seward's Folly, especially by those who 1146 01:20:11,116 --> 01:20:15,678 believed a territory so remote and so far north was 1147 01:20:15,720 --> 01:20:20,384 a colossal waste of the $7.2 million Seward had agreed to 1148 01:20:20,425 --> 01:20:26,193 pay, even if it was more than twice the size of Texas. 1149 01:20:26,231 --> 01:20:30,429 John Muir had a different name for it. 1150 01:20:30,468 --> 01:20:33,995 MAN AS JOHN MUlR: To the lover of pure wildness, Alaska is 1151 01:20:34,039 --> 01:20:38,806 one of the most wonderful countries in the world. 1152 01:20:38,843 --> 01:20:43,212 This is nature's own reservation, and every lover 1153 01:20:43,248 --> 01:20:48,652 of wildness will rejoice with me that by kindly frost it is 1154 01:20:48,687 --> 01:20:51,656 so well defended. 1155 01:20:55,760 --> 01:20:58,593 MAN: Alaska was the last chance to do it right. 1156 01:20:58,630 --> 01:21:01,622 This is it. This is the end of the line. 1157 01:21:01,666 --> 01:21:05,602 So we buckled down, and it became a very serious affair 1158 01:21:05,637 --> 01:21:08,231 about what to do with Alaska. 1159 01:21:12,244 --> 01:21:16,271 CO YOTE: After Alaska was granted statehood in 1959, 1160 01:21:16,314 --> 01:21:19,875 a federal law was passed to settle the claims of Alaska's 1161 01:21:19,918 --> 01:21:24,412 native peoples, including the lnupiaq and the Tlingit, 1162 01:21:24,456 --> 01:21:28,449 the Aleut and the Athabaskan. 1163 01:21:28,493 --> 01:21:32,725 The land was to be divided up, some for the new state to 1164 01:21:32,764 --> 01:21:36,165 control and open for development if it wished, 1165 01:21:36,201 --> 01:21:40,638 some for the tribes, and a portion to be withheld forever 1166 01:21:40,672 --> 01:21:45,837 in the national interest for all Americans. 1167 01:21:45,877 --> 01:21:49,904 As the discovery of vast oil deposits on the north slope 1168 01:21:49,948 --> 01:21:52,508 and the construction of the trans-Alaska pipeline 1169 01:21:52,550 --> 01:21:57,647 demonstrated, the stakes were enormous. 1170 01:21:57,689 --> 01:22:01,284 The fight over what to do with the federal land would consume 1171 01:22:01,326 --> 01:22:05,592 more than a decade and would quickly become a national one, 1172 01:22:05,630 --> 01:22:08,929 waged in the halls of Congress, involving commercial 1173 01:22:08,967 --> 01:22:12,630 and industrial groups capable of spending millions 1174 01:22:12,671 --> 01:22:17,665 of dollars in advertising and lobbying, versus the Alaska 1175 01:22:17,709 --> 01:22:21,941 Coalition, a collection of 50 environmental groups which 1176 01:22:21,980 --> 01:22:25,939 quickly mushroomed to 1,500 organizations, 1177 01:22:25,984 --> 01:22:29,818 representing 10 million members, most of whom had 1178 01:22:29,854 --> 01:22:32,880 never set foot in Alaska. 1179 01:22:32,924 --> 01:22:36,121 lt was the largest grassroots conservation effort 1180 01:22:36,161 --> 01:22:38,459 in American history. 1181 01:22:38,496 --> 01:22:40,930 POPE: An entire generation came along and said, ''We want 1182 01:22:40,965 --> 01:22:45,425 ''to be part of this,'' and for them, the Alaska battle was 1183 01:22:45,470 --> 01:22:46,664 the culmination. 1184 01:22:46,705 --> 01:22:48,536 We'd passed clean air and clean water acts. 1185 01:22:48,573 --> 01:22:50,302 We'd passed the Wilderness Act. 1186 01:22:50,342 --> 01:22:52,401 We'd set aside millions of acres of wilderness 1187 01:22:52,444 --> 01:22:57,381 in the 1970s, and suddenly we had a landscape where we could 1188 01:22:57,415 --> 01:23:00,509 really save what was best about it. 1189 01:23:00,552 --> 01:23:03,350 People embraced it. people rallied to it. 1190 01:23:03,388 --> 01:23:06,289 lt was the chance to get it right. 1191 01:23:08,660 --> 01:23:12,061 CO YOTE: ln the mid-1970s, Congressman Morris Udall 1192 01:23:12,097 --> 01:23:15,589 of Arizona, the brother of Stewart Udall, sponsored 1193 01:23:15,633 --> 01:23:19,729 a bill setting aside 110 million acres of federally 1194 01:23:19,771 --> 01:23:23,434 owned land in Alaska. 1195 01:23:23,475 --> 01:23:27,878 ln May of 1978, Udall's bill passed overwhelmingly 1196 01:23:27,912 --> 01:23:33,009 in the House--277 to 31. 1197 01:23:33,051 --> 01:23:36,214 But in the Senate, even though a clear majoriry favored 1198 01:23:36,254 --> 01:23:40,281 the legislation, a threatened filibuster by Alaska Senator 1199 01:23:40,325 --> 01:23:44,227 Mike Gravel tied things up, preventing a vote before 1200 01:23:44,262 --> 01:23:46,662 Congress adjourned. 1201 01:23:46,698 --> 01:23:49,531 lt appeared that the big dreams for preserving large 1202 01:23:49,567 --> 01:23:54,300 sections of Alaska would be for nothing. 1203 01:23:54,339 --> 01:23:58,139 Then, President Jimmy Carter, acting on the recommendation 1204 01:23:58,176 --> 01:24:02,078 of his lnterior Secretary, Cecil Andrus, decided to 1205 01:24:02,113 --> 01:24:06,777 bypass Congress and invoke the Antiquities Act, a tool 1206 01:24:06,818 --> 01:24:10,185 presidents have been using in the name of conservation since 1207 01:24:10,221 --> 01:24:13,247 Theodore Roosevelt. 1208 01:24:13,291 --> 01:24:18,126 On December 1, 1978, Carter took out his pen and signed 1209 01:24:18,163 --> 01:24:22,657 executive orders creating 17 national monuments covering 1210 01:24:22,700 --> 01:24:26,830 56 million acres of the most critical areas 1211 01:24:26,871 --> 01:24:29,271 in Udall's bill. 1212 01:24:29,307 --> 01:24:32,765 ln Alaska, all hell broke loose. 1213 01:24:44,022 --> 01:24:46,616 MAN: l'd be in favor of sending a contingent of state 1214 01:24:46,658 --> 01:24:49,183 troopers to Washington to arrest President Carter 1215 01:24:49,227 --> 01:24:52,856 and Andrus for conspiracy to commit a felony, namely the 1216 01:24:52,897 --> 01:24:57,425 theft of millions of acres of land in Alaska. 1217 01:24:57,469 --> 01:24:59,061 DlFFERENT MAN: ln a new national monument near Mt. 1218 01:24:59,103 --> 01:25:02,231 McKinley, about 1,500 Alaskans staged what they said was 1219 01:25:02,273 --> 01:25:03,433 a trespass. 1220 01:25:03,475 --> 01:25:06,603 They ran races, shot guns, claimed they had violated 27 1221 01:25:06,644 --> 01:25:11,604 laws, and dared park rangers to arrest them. 1222 01:25:11,649 --> 01:25:15,107 HEACOX: You have a frontier mentaliry in Alaska. 1223 01:25:15,153 --> 01:25:18,247 ''We want to do things our way.'' 1224 01:25:18,289 --> 01:25:20,689 The opposition was intense. 1225 01:25:20,725 --> 01:25:22,556 Park planes were burned. 1226 01:25:22,594 --> 01:25:25,290 President Carter was burned in effigy. 1227 01:25:25,330 --> 01:25:28,561 People protested in the streets. 1228 01:25:28,600 --> 01:25:30,966 RUNTE: ln New York Ciry, 99% of the people would be 1229 01:25:31,002 --> 01:25:32,594 for the park. 1230 01:25:32,637 --> 01:25:36,095 ln Alaska itself, 99% of the people in some of these towns 1231 01:25:36,140 --> 01:25:39,166 were against the parks because they lived there, and they 1232 01:25:39,210 --> 01:25:41,542 didn't see how the tourist industry was going to benefit 1233 01:25:41,579 --> 01:25:44,104 them in any way. 1234 01:25:47,151 --> 01:25:50,120 CO YOTE: To handle the volatile situation on the ground, 1235 01:25:50,154 --> 01:25:53,988 the administration chose John Cook, a westerner who had 1236 01:25:54,025 --> 01:25:57,961 earned a reputation as a tough problem-solver. 1237 01:25:57,996 --> 01:26:00,055 The parks were in his blood. 1238 01:26:00,098 --> 01:26:02,589 His father and his grandfather had worked at the Grand 1239 01:26:02,634 --> 01:26:06,468 Canyon, and he joined the Park Service the day he graduated 1240 01:26:06,504 --> 01:26:12,136 from high school, steadily working his way up the ladder. 1241 01:26:12,176 --> 01:26:14,701 COOK: When l stepped off the plane, l was the third least 1242 01:26:14,746 --> 01:26:18,204 popular person in Alaska. 1243 01:26:18,249 --> 01:26:22,208 The least popular was President Carter. 1244 01:26:22,253 --> 01:26:24,687 Cecil Andrus was pretty unpopular as well. 1245 01:26:24,722 --> 01:26:28,021 He was the number two man, and then it was me. 1246 01:26:28,059 --> 01:26:31,722 We were told they would kill the first Park Service person 1247 01:26:31,763 --> 01:26:37,258 that set foot in Duffy's Tavern in northeast Alaska. 1248 01:26:37,302 --> 01:26:40,829 4 days later, l walked into Duffy's Tavern with a tape 1249 01:26:40,872 --> 01:26:44,035 recorder and a roll of maps, wearing Alaska clothes, 1250 01:26:44,075 --> 01:26:48,307 in the middle of winter flew a ski plane in and sat there 1251 01:26:48,346 --> 01:26:52,248 with 200 people, half of them getting pretty tanked up, 1252 01:26:52,283 --> 01:26:55,684 and faced them all, talked to them, told them what was gonna 1253 01:26:55,720 --> 01:26:59,816 happen and what wasn't gonna happen. 1254 01:26:59,857 --> 01:27:02,917 CO YOTE: On the Kenai Peninsula at the head of Resurrection 1255 01:27:02,961 --> 01:27:07,660 Bay was the small town of Seward, named for the 1256 01:27:07,699 --> 01:27:11,100 much-maligned politician who had made Alaska part 1257 01:27:11,135 --> 01:27:14,332 of the United States. 1258 01:27:14,372 --> 01:27:17,398 lts economy revolved around fish harvesting 1259 01:27:17,442 --> 01:27:21,435 and a commercial port that had briefly boomed with activiry 1260 01:27:21,479 --> 01:27:25,609 during the oil pipeline's construction. 1261 01:27:25,650 --> 01:27:29,780 Nearby was the Harding lcefield, a sheet of ice 700 1262 01:27:29,821 --> 01:27:34,485 square miles wide and one mile thick, spawning more than 30 1263 01:27:34,525 --> 01:27:38,985 glaciers, many of which descend directly to sea level, 1264 01:27:39,030 --> 01:27:44,593 where they have carved a series of deep coastal fjords. 1265 01:27:44,636 --> 01:27:50,199 Their waters teem with wildlife--whales, sea lions, 1266 01:27:50,241 --> 01:27:53,472 and seals beyond number. 1267 01:27:54,879 --> 01:28:00,317 Carter's proclamation had created a 570,000-acre Kenai 1268 01:28:00,351 --> 01:28:04,685 Fjords National Monument in hopes it all would eventually 1269 01:28:04,722 --> 01:28:08,214 become a national park. 1270 01:28:08,259 --> 01:28:12,127 The sentiment in Seward was dead-set against it. 1271 01:28:12,163 --> 01:28:14,723 Twice, the ciry council passed resolutions 1272 01:28:14,766 --> 01:28:18,065 condemning the idea. 1273 01:28:18,102 --> 01:28:21,663 MAN: Beverly Dunham. 1274 01:28:21,706 --> 01:28:24,266 DUNHAM: Alaskans are being criticized for wanting as much 1275 01:28:24,308 --> 01:28:27,072 of state lands under Alaskan control as possible. 1276 01:28:27,111 --> 01:28:29,579 We have been termed selfish for wanting development... 1277 01:28:29,614 --> 01:28:31,138 DUNHAM, VOlCE-OVER: l was fearful of it. 1278 01:28:31,182 --> 01:28:33,548 l thought the same thing that most people did, that it was 1279 01:28:33,584 --> 01:28:35,415 going to harm us. 1280 01:28:35,453 --> 01:28:38,479 Any interference by the federal government in any way 1281 01:28:38,523 --> 01:28:41,253 was offensive to Alaskans in general and Sewardites 1282 01:28:41,292 --> 01:28:43,385 in particular. 1283 01:28:43,428 --> 01:28:47,626 We were just fearful of what would happen to us. 1284 01:28:50,468 --> 01:28:53,494 COOK: l was sent up there to make it work, and what l did 1285 01:28:53,538 --> 01:28:54,937 is l hand-picked people. 1286 01:28:54,972 --> 01:28:57,065 l brought up a task force the first year. 1287 01:28:57,108 --> 01:29:00,976 l said, ''Whatever you do, never lie to the people. 1288 01:29:01,012 --> 01:29:04,209 ''Don't whitewash anything. Go from town to town. 1289 01:29:04,248 --> 01:29:06,739 ''Live in the towns. Be truthful.'' 1290 01:29:06,784 --> 01:29:09,514 lt's awfully hard to stay angry at your neighbor if your 1291 01:29:09,554 --> 01:29:12,079 neighbor's a good neighbor. 1292 01:29:12,123 --> 01:29:15,286 Governor Hammond and l came up with a term that he used to 1293 01:29:15,326 --> 01:29:18,784 help soften things, and that was that the new national 1294 01:29:18,830 --> 01:29:23,631 monuments and tourism would be Alaska's permanent pipeline 1295 01:29:23,668 --> 01:29:26,899 because we won't run out of visitors but in a long time 1296 01:29:26,938 --> 01:29:30,203 run out of oil. 1297 01:29:30,241 --> 01:29:33,574 CO YOTE: While John Cook tried to dampen the local hostiliry 1298 01:29:33,611 --> 01:29:37,547 to Carter's proclamations, the Alaska Coalition prepared 1299 01:29:37,582 --> 01:29:40,551 for another Congressional battle to settle all 1300 01:29:40,585 --> 01:29:45,682 the Alaska land issues once and for all. 1301 01:29:45,723 --> 01:29:49,056 My friends, the vote you make in just a few moments is the 1302 01:29:49,093 --> 01:29:51,391 one you've got to live with and your grandchildren have to 1303 01:29:51,429 --> 01:29:52,896 live with. 1304 01:29:52,930 --> 01:29:55,694 There ought to be a few places left in the world the way 1305 01:29:55,733 --> 01:29:58,566 the Almighry made them. 1306 01:29:58,603 --> 01:30:01,071 We'll never see a buffalo herd again, but if we're wise 1307 01:30:01,105 --> 01:30:03,539 today, your grandchildren might be able to see 1308 01:30:03,574 --> 01:30:06,042 a caribou herd. 1309 01:30:06,077 --> 01:30:08,272 This is the test of conservation in your 1310 01:30:08,312 --> 01:30:09,506 Congressional career. 1311 01:30:09,547 --> 01:30:14,985 This will be the most important vote you will cast. 1312 01:30:15,019 --> 01:30:18,455 CO YOTE: On December 2, 1980, after another year 1313 01:30:18,489 --> 01:30:21,515 and a half of debate and compromise, President 1314 01:30:21,559 --> 01:30:25,256 Carter signed the Alaska National lnterest Lands 1315 01:30:25,296 --> 01:30:28,424 Conservation Act into law. 1316 01:30:30,968 --> 01:30:34,267 lt wasn't everything he and the Alaska Coalition had once 1317 01:30:34,305 --> 01:30:38,674 hoped for, but it was still the largest single expansion 1318 01:30:38,709 --> 01:30:42,577 of protected conservation lands in world history, 1319 01:30:42,613 --> 01:30:47,141 creating 4 national forests, 10 national preserves, 1320 01:30:47,185 --> 01:30:51,144 16 national wildlife refuges. 1321 01:30:51,189 --> 01:30:55,455 The national park system, with 47 million acres added to 1322 01:30:55,493 --> 01:30:59,987 its care, had suddenly more than doubled in size. 1323 01:31:00,031 --> 01:31:05,833 Within those additions were 7 brand-new national parks. 1324 01:31:59,657 --> 01:32:02,922 WOMAN: l got a question which-- to write an article on why 1325 01:32:02,960 --> 01:32:07,260 we need national parks, and the question struck me 1326 01:32:07,298 --> 01:32:08,526 dumb for a minute. 1327 01:32:08,566 --> 01:32:10,864 lt was like saying, ''Why do we need air?'' 1328 01:32:10,902 --> 01:32:13,200 l mean, we need to have these places, 1329 01:32:13,237 --> 01:32:15,296 even if l never go--the only place l've never been 1330 01:32:15,339 --> 01:32:17,500 is Alaska. 1331 01:32:17,541 --> 01:32:23,776 Even if l never go to Alaska, l need to know it's there. 1332 01:32:53,210 --> 01:32:56,236 CO YOTE: And at Seward, the national monument at Kenai 1333 01:32:56,280 --> 01:33:02,708 Fjords became the seventh of the new national parks. 1334 01:33:02,753 --> 01:33:06,883 5 years later, as the tourist economy and Seward began to 1335 01:33:06,924 --> 01:33:10,883 emerge as a crucial part of the town's livelihood, 1336 01:33:10,928 --> 01:33:15,763 the ciry council quietly but officially rescinded its two 1337 01:33:15,800 --> 01:33:21,033 previous resolutions denouncing the park idea. 1338 01:33:21,072 --> 01:33:24,303 Several years after that, they asked that the national 1339 01:33:24,342 --> 01:33:29,245 park at their doorstep be expanded. 1340 01:33:29,280 --> 01:33:30,770 DUNHAM: l think it's great. 1341 01:33:30,815 --> 01:33:34,342 lt has done a lot for Seward. 1342 01:33:34,385 --> 01:33:36,353 As far as tourism is concerned, it has made 1343 01:33:36,387 --> 01:33:39,151 a vast difference. 1344 01:33:39,190 --> 01:33:43,650 There are, l think, a thousand seats on day cruisers that 1345 01:33:43,694 --> 01:33:47,926 come in and take people out to the fjords. 1346 01:33:47,965 --> 01:33:51,264 lt has proven that it hasn't hurt anything. 1347 01:33:51,302 --> 01:33:53,964 lf anything, it's enhanced it. 1348 01:33:55,439 --> 01:34:00,240 COOK: And in Alaska, man was acknowledged. 1349 01:34:00,277 --> 01:34:03,804 The natives, who were a part of that landscape long before 1350 01:34:03,848 --> 01:34:08,615 European man came and called it wilderness, were using it. 1351 01:34:08,652 --> 01:34:11,883 They still get to use it for subsistence purposes. 1352 01:34:11,922 --> 01:34:15,358 lt's still a part of their culture, and they are a part 1353 01:34:15,393 --> 01:34:17,657 of the preservation. 1354 01:34:17,695 --> 01:34:20,255 And it's not preserving museum lndians. 1355 01:34:20,297 --> 01:34:23,892 lt's preserving a dynamic culture that's within 1356 01:34:23,934 --> 01:34:28,064 a dynamic landscape that's also changing. 1357 01:34:30,908 --> 01:34:33,775 CO YOTE: Mt. McKinley National Park, which had been 1358 01:34:33,811 --> 01:34:38,043 in existence since 1917, was also affected by 1359 01:34:38,082 --> 01:34:42,178 the Alaska Lands Act. 1360 01:34:42,219 --> 01:34:47,555 lts area was nearly tripled in size--2.4 million more acres 1361 01:34:47,591 --> 01:34:52,619 to the park itself, plus an additional 1.3 million acres 1362 01:34:52,663 --> 01:34:56,929 in two national preserves next to it--a dramatically larger 1363 01:34:56,967 --> 01:35:01,495 expansion than even Adolph Murie had proposed just before 1364 01:35:01,539 --> 01:35:03,700 his retirement. 1365 01:35:05,876 --> 01:35:09,642 The old park, surrounded by the new additions, was now 1366 01:35:09,680 --> 01:35:13,275 officially designated a wilderness, bringing with it 1367 01:35:13,317 --> 01:35:17,014 even greater protections to the land and animals Murie 1368 01:35:17,054 --> 01:35:19,682 had championed. 1369 01:35:21,292 --> 01:35:24,784 And as if to symbolize all that had happened, the park's 1370 01:35:24,829 --> 01:35:29,823 name was changed to reflect its deeper history. 1371 01:35:29,867 --> 01:35:32,961 lt would revert to the Athabaskan lndian name 1372 01:35:33,003 --> 01:35:38,066 for the tremendous mountain at its core--Denali, 1373 01:35:38,109 --> 01:35:42,068 the high one. 1374 01:35:42,113 --> 01:35:46,140 COOK: History will, of course, view the creation of those 1375 01:35:46,183 --> 01:35:50,745 national parks along with Seward's purchase of Alaska. 1376 01:35:50,788 --> 01:35:55,521 History will show that it was the right thing to do. 1377 01:35:55,559 --> 01:35:59,154 CO YOTE: John Cook would soon go back to the lower 48 to 1378 01:35:59,196 --> 01:36:04,600 become superintendent of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. 1379 01:36:04,635 --> 01:36:08,537 As his father and his father's father had done, he would pass 1380 01:36:08,572 --> 01:36:12,941 on his love for the national parks to his children, 1381 01:36:12,977 --> 01:36:16,071 including his daughter Kayci, who would become the fourth 1382 01:36:16,113 --> 01:36:21,278 generation of the Cook family to serve in the Park Service. 1383 01:36:25,156 --> 01:36:27,920 KAYCl COOK: At the end of my father's career in 1999, 1384 01:36:27,958 --> 01:36:31,257 l had become what l always wanted to be, 1385 01:36:31,295 --> 01:36:38,167 a superintendent, and l used my power in that position to 1386 01:36:38,202 --> 01:36:41,763 honor my father for his 43- year career with the National 1387 01:36:41,805 --> 01:36:47,300 Park Service, and l invoked the tradition of the military 1388 01:36:47,344 --> 01:36:49,972 tattoo at Fort McHenry National Monument Historic 1389 01:36:50,014 --> 01:36:54,451 Shrine, and l bestowed upon my father the title of Honorary 1390 01:36:54,485 --> 01:36:58,182 Colonel of the Fort McHenry Guard. 1391 01:36:58,222 --> 01:37:03,489 l felt very proud doing that for him, and as we stood up 1392 01:37:03,527 --> 01:37:06,758 and saluted one another, commander to commander, l felt 1393 01:37:06,797 --> 01:37:10,563 much more strongly that it was a mantle that he was passing 1394 01:37:10,601 --> 01:37:15,197 to me much more than anything that l was giving to him. 1395 01:37:20,744 --> 01:37:24,111 l have a 4-year-old son, Sean, and he has already 1396 01:37:24,148 --> 01:37:28,517 expressed an interest in being a ranger like his mommy. 1397 01:37:28,552 --> 01:37:31,487 He sees me put this uniform on every day. 1398 01:37:31,522 --> 01:37:35,822 He loves to wear my hat around. 1399 01:37:35,859 --> 01:37:38,054 l think he's showing some real promise in terms of being 1400 01:37:38,095 --> 01:37:42,589 a fifth generation, and that would not hurt my feelings. 1401 01:37:55,112 --> 01:37:59,879 [Car horn honks] 1402 01:37:59,917 --> 01:38:02,943 MAN: When l was a child in Detroit, national parks really 1403 01:38:02,987 --> 01:38:05,012 didn't exist. 1404 01:38:05,055 --> 01:38:08,923 There were no family trips to national parks, so it really 1405 01:38:08,959 --> 01:38:12,258 didn't exist for me and for my friends. 1406 01:38:12,296 --> 01:38:15,390 We didn't sit around talking about, ''Boy, can't wait to get 1407 01:38:15,432 --> 01:38:17,093 ''to the Grand Canyon,'' you know. 1408 01:38:17,134 --> 01:38:19,864 That didn't come up as a topic of conversation in Detroit 1409 01:38:19,903 --> 01:38:22,633 for me as a child. 1410 01:38:22,673 --> 01:38:26,905 But always, there was this desire to see Yellowstone. 1411 01:38:26,944 --> 01:38:32,746 There was a desire to see the Grand Canyon, to see Yosemite. 1412 01:38:32,783 --> 01:38:37,117 There was a desire to fully invest my physical self and my 1413 01:38:37,154 --> 01:38:40,783 spiritual self in America because that's a part 1414 01:38:40,824 --> 01:38:42,416 of America that l didn't know, and l wanted to become 1415 01:38:42,459 --> 01:38:45,087 familiar with it. 1416 01:38:45,129 --> 01:38:48,724 CO YOTE: ln 1984, Shelton Johnson became the first 1417 01:38:48,766 --> 01:38:52,998 generation of his family to visit a national park when he 1418 01:38:53,037 --> 01:38:56,632 stepped off a bus at the entrance to Yellowstone 1419 01:38:56,674 --> 01:39:01,441 and immediately fell in love with everything it offered. 1420 01:39:01,478 --> 01:39:05,312 Johnson soon started a career in the Park Service and by 1421 01:39:05,349 --> 01:39:09,410 the 1990s he was working in Yosemite as an interpretive 1422 01:39:09,453 --> 01:39:13,014 ranger, proudly telling visitors the little-known 1423 01:39:13,057 --> 01:39:17,585 story of the African American buffalo soldiers, the park's 1424 01:39:17,628 --> 01:39:20,392 earliest protectors. 1425 01:39:26,437 --> 01:39:29,565 ln the last decades of the 20th century, the focus 1426 01:39:29,606 --> 01:39:32,336 of the Park Service shifted. 1427 01:39:32,376 --> 01:39:36,210 More and more historic sites were saved, including 1428 01:39:36,246 --> 01:39:41,115 reminders of painful episodes in American history, set aside 1429 01:39:41,151 --> 01:39:44,382 on the belief that a great nation could openly 1430 01:39:44,421 --> 01:39:47,288 acknowledge them. 1431 01:39:47,324 --> 01:39:51,522 From Kingsley Plantation in Florida, preserving not only 1432 01:39:51,562 --> 01:39:55,123 the owner's grand home, but also the cluster of small 1433 01:39:55,165 --> 01:39:58,692 cabins used by the slaves who made his comfortable 1434 01:39:58,736 --> 01:40:01,102 life possible. 1435 01:40:01,138 --> 01:40:04,505 The central high school in Little Rock, Arkansas, 1436 01:40:04,541 --> 01:40:09,001 where in 1957 federal troops had to escort 9 African 1437 01:40:09,046 --> 01:40:13,642 American teenagers past angry mobs to their classes, 1438 01:40:13,684 --> 01:40:18,849 crystallizing the crisis of school desegregation. 1439 01:40:18,889 --> 01:40:22,222 From Andersonville, a deadly Civil War prison camp 1440 01:40:22,259 --> 01:40:28,562 in Georgia to a polished slab of marble in Washington D.C. 1441 01:40:28,599 --> 01:40:33,559 listing the names of 58,000 dead and missing soldiers 1442 01:40:33,604 --> 01:40:38,337 who served their country in Vietnam. 1443 01:40:38,375 --> 01:40:42,539 From Sand Creek and Washita on the Great Plains, where Chief 1444 01:40:42,579 --> 01:40:45,605 Black Kettle's peaceful Cheyenne villagers were 1445 01:40:45,649 --> 01:40:49,517 massacred by American soldiers. 1446 01:40:49,553 --> 01:40:53,546 To Manzanar in the high desert of eastern California, 1447 01:40:53,590 --> 01:40:57,048 where American citizens of Japanese descent were kept 1448 01:40:57,094 --> 01:41:02,532 behind barbed wire during World War ll. 1449 01:41:02,566 --> 01:41:07,663 From Oklahoma Ciry, where 168 empry chairs now 1450 01:41:07,704 --> 01:41:11,470 commemorate the men, women, and children killed 1451 01:41:11,508 --> 01:41:17,845 in a senseless act of domestic terrorism in 1995. 1452 01:41:17,881 --> 01:41:21,078 To a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, that 1453 01:41:21,118 --> 01:41:25,248 immortalizes the sacrifices made by passengers aboard 1454 01:41:25,289 --> 01:41:31,558 United Flight 93 on September 11, 2001. 1455 01:41:34,698 --> 01:41:36,461 CRONON: When you're asked, ''Well, what is coherent 1456 01:41:36,500 --> 01:41:39,025 ''about a system that contains natural wonders 1457 01:41:39,069 --> 01:41:42,095 ''and birthplaces of famous people?'' 1458 01:41:42,139 --> 01:41:45,336 l think the answer you come to is that they are all finally 1459 01:41:45,375 --> 01:41:49,971 about a vision of where the United States comes from. 1460 01:41:50,013 --> 01:41:53,642 We come from nature, but we also come from our own past, 1461 01:41:53,684 --> 01:41:56,915 and so the interpretation of nature and history together is 1462 01:41:56,954 --> 01:41:59,445 not a distraction that the parks face. 1463 01:41:59,490 --> 01:42:02,618 lt is the very core of the enterprise. 1464 01:42:02,659 --> 01:42:06,425 They are all about where we come from. 1465 01:42:11,668 --> 01:42:14,569 CO YOTE: ln the years to come, Americans would continue 1466 01:42:14,605 --> 01:42:18,371 expanding the number of national parks and continue 1467 01:42:18,408 --> 01:42:24,369 using them in ever-increasing numbers, from 255 million 1468 01:42:24,414 --> 01:42:30,182 visitors in 1990, then closing in on 300 million visitors 1469 01:42:30,220 --> 01:42:35,487 a decade later--each visit an opportuniry to forge a new 1470 01:42:35,526 --> 01:42:42,557 relationship to their land, their nation, and themselves. 1471 01:42:42,599 --> 01:42:46,035 MAN: We need national parks to have people--especially our 1472 01:42:46,069 --> 01:42:51,234 kids--understand what America is. 1473 01:42:51,275 --> 01:42:53,402 America is not sidewalks. 1474 01:42:53,443 --> 01:42:55,434 America is not stores. 1475 01:42:55,479 --> 01:42:58,004 America is not video games. 1476 01:42:58,048 --> 01:43:01,279 America is not restaurants. 1477 01:43:01,318 --> 01:43:03,912 We need national parks so people can go there and say, 1478 01:43:03,954 --> 01:43:06,684 ''Ah. This is America.'' 1479 01:43:12,963 --> 01:43:17,332 DUNCAN: And then it was my turn to take my family out to 1480 01:43:17,367 --> 01:43:20,803 see the national parks. 1481 01:43:20,837 --> 01:43:26,434 lt was gonna be our own epic journey as a family. 1482 01:43:26,476 --> 01:43:29,036 lf there's a national park between Arizona 1483 01:43:29,079 --> 01:43:31,240 and the Canadian border along the spine of the Rocky 1484 01:43:31,281 --> 01:43:36,048 Mountains, we went there. 1485 01:43:36,086 --> 01:43:43,891 We broiled in the sun in Arches and Canyonlands, 1486 01:43:43,927 --> 01:43:50,730 went and visited Dinosaur as l had when l was a small boy, 1487 01:43:50,767 --> 01:43:56,000 hiked around Jenny Lake in the Grand Tetons, then to wear 1488 01:43:56,039 --> 01:43:58,303 bear bells, which was very exciting for the kids 1489 01:43:58,342 --> 01:44:04,008 because bears might be around. 1490 01:44:04,047 --> 01:44:06,607 At Yellowstone, l got to watch my children see their 1491 01:44:06,650 --> 01:44:10,347 first bison. 1492 01:44:10,387 --> 01:44:13,254 And then we came to Glacier National Park, and it was 1493 01:44:13,290 --> 01:44:16,589 something of a sentimental return for Diane and me 1494 01:44:16,627 --> 01:44:20,654 because 1 3 years earlier, when we were courting, we had 1495 01:44:20,697 --> 01:44:22,722 gone there. 1496 01:44:22,766 --> 01:44:28,864 And as we went up Going to the Sun Highway, l took a picture 1497 01:44:28,905 --> 01:44:33,740 of my daughter, about to become a beautiful woman 1498 01:44:33,777 --> 01:44:39,147 in the same place that her beautiful mother had once sat 1499 01:44:39,182 --> 01:44:45,382 for a photograph, and then we got to Logan Pass, and my son 1500 01:44:45,422 --> 01:44:50,724 Will and l decided to go on a buddy hike and headed up 1501 01:44:50,761 --> 01:44:53,787 toward Hidden Lake. 1502 01:44:53,830 --> 01:44:57,527 And we came around a corner, and coming toward us were 1503 01:44:57,567 --> 01:45:02,004 these mountain goats. And l said, ''Shh. Just be quiet. 1504 01:45:02,039 --> 01:45:05,304 ''Don't do anything to disturb them, and maybe we'll get to 1505 01:45:05,342 --> 01:45:07,572 ''take a picture.'' 1506 01:45:07,611 --> 01:45:10,341 Well, we just stepped to the side, and this family 1507 01:45:10,380 --> 01:45:13,611 of mountain goats came right down the trail within about 2 1508 01:45:13,650 --> 01:45:19,020 or 3 feet of us, and l don't know whose eyes were bigger, 1509 01:45:19,056 --> 01:45:22,924 Will's or mine. 1510 01:45:22,959 --> 01:45:26,759 l had asked everybody to keep a diary during our trip, 1511 01:45:26,797 --> 01:45:34,067 and that night in his diary, Will wrote, ''This was the most 1512 01:45:34,104 --> 01:45:40,043 ''exciting day of my life.'' 1513 01:45:40,077 --> 01:45:44,844 And so it was the most exciting day of my life, too. 1514 01:45:52,522 --> 01:45:57,118 CO YOTE: ln January of 1995, a convoy of trucks entered 1515 01:45:57,160 --> 01:46:01,096 Yellowstone National Park at its northern gate, where 1516 01:46:01,131 --> 01:46:05,090 a stone arch dedicated by Theodore Roosevelt proclaims 1517 01:46:05,135 --> 01:46:09,196 the park's purpose--''for the benefit and enjoyment 1518 01:46:09,239 --> 01:46:11,901 ''of the people.'' 1519 01:46:11,942 --> 01:46:17,209 Riding in cages in the trucks were 14 gray wolves recently 1520 01:46:17,247 --> 01:46:22,708 captured in western Canada. 1521 01:46:22,753 --> 01:46:26,348 Two months later, after being kept in small pens to 1522 01:46:26,389 --> 01:46:30,120 acclimate them to their new surroundings, the wolves were 1523 01:46:30,160 --> 01:46:34,529 set free, part of a long-range plan to reestablish 1524 01:46:34,564 --> 01:46:38,557 the predators in their former habitat and make the world's 1525 01:46:38,602 --> 01:46:43,039 first national park a little more representative of what it 1526 01:46:43,073 --> 01:46:45,166 had once been. 1527 01:46:48,712 --> 01:46:54,241 l keep imagining that first wolf coming out of its cage, 1528 01:46:54,284 --> 01:46:57,617 and l think of Adolph being there, and he probably would 1529 01:46:57,654 --> 01:47:01,215 have cried. 1530 01:47:01,258 --> 01:47:05,718 Just think--we now have wolves in Yellowstone. 1531 01:47:08,665 --> 01:47:11,634 CO YOTE: Within only a few years, the wolves were 1532 01:47:11,668 --> 01:47:15,900 thriving--part, once more, of the entire 1533 01:47:15,939 --> 01:47:18,931 Yellowstone ecosystem. 1534 01:47:22,312 --> 01:47:25,213 WHlTTLESEY: l was in the back country with one of my good 1535 01:47:25,248 --> 01:47:29,184 friends, and we're standing out there in the dark, and we 1536 01:47:29,219 --> 01:47:36,057 hear this long, low, throary howl, and l'd never heard that 1537 01:47:36,092 --> 01:47:37,457 sound before. 1538 01:47:37,494 --> 01:47:39,928 [Wolves howling] 1539 01:47:39,963 --> 01:47:43,922 And l knew immediately what it was, and l remember standing 1540 01:47:43,967 --> 01:47:46,060 there thinking... 1541 01:47:48,171 --> 01:47:52,039 ''l am so lucky to get to hear that 1542 01:47:52,075 --> 01:47:55,875 ''sound that has not been heard in the back country 1543 01:47:55,912 --> 01:48:01,873 ''of Yellowstone for 60-some years.'' 1544 01:48:06,423 --> 01:48:08,914 WlLLlAMS: l think our challenge as lovers of our 1545 01:48:08,959 --> 01:48:11,792 national parks in the 21st century will be the challenge 1546 01:48:11,828 --> 01:48:14,126 of restoration. 1547 01:48:15,866 --> 01:48:19,302 l think that's the story that's yet to be told, 1548 01:48:19,336 --> 01:48:21,804 the story of restoration. 1549 01:48:24,107 --> 01:48:27,372 And not only are our national parks a gift, l think they're 1550 01:48:27,410 --> 01:48:29,469 a covenant. 1551 01:48:29,512 --> 01:48:34,950 They're a covenant with the future, saying, ''This is 1552 01:48:34,985 --> 01:48:36,418 ''where we were. 1553 01:48:36,453 --> 01:48:41,152 ''This is what we loved... 1554 01:48:41,191 --> 01:48:43,853 ''and now it's in your hands.'' 1555 01:48:52,035 --> 01:48:56,267 MAN: One learns that the world, though made, is 1556 01:48:56,306 --> 01:49:04,611 yet being made, that this is still the morning of creation. 1557 01:49:04,648 --> 01:49:10,746 This grand show is eternal. 1558 01:49:10,787 --> 01:49:16,157 lt is always sunrise somewhere. 1559 01:49:16,192 --> 01:49:21,789 The dew is never all dried at once. 1560 01:49:21,831 --> 01:49:25,961 A shower is forever falling. 1561 01:49:26,002 --> 01:49:31,304 Vapor is ever rising. 1562 01:49:31,341 --> 01:49:37,439 Eternal sunrise, eternal sunset, eternal dawn 1563 01:49:37,480 --> 01:49:39,914 and gloaming. 1564 01:49:42,552 --> 01:49:48,787 On sea and continents and islands, each in its turn, 1565 01:49:48,825 --> 01:49:53,319 as the round earth rolls. 1566 01:49:53,363 --> 01:49:55,593 John Muir.