Any of you see this? I missed the first night, but caught the two hours tonight. I like it a lot. The visual aspects are great, of course, but there’s really interesting history behind all this.
Yes, I have watched the first two programs (4 hours). Weaving together the beautiful photographic images, music, and history of the evolution of the park idea is fascinating, which is what we have come to expect from a Ken Burns production. I have been to most of the places that have been featured thus far, so that adds another dimension for me, thinking about that period in my life when I was a visitor.
somewhat related…
Here is a guy that has spent over 16 years doing over 16,000 miles of trails with a camera.
http://www.walkingdownadream.com
I watched the second part and, as usual with a Ken Burns project, am very impressed. I’ll certainly be watching the rest of it. Fascinating to me to hear about the thinking that was behind some of the parks. Interesting also to note that as a people we haven’t changed one bit–our first inclination is to “make use” of any empty space: cut down all trees, plow up all land or mine it, strip it bare and move on. Thank God for Teddy Roosevelt and those who had the vision to stop it in so many places.
Susan
It is interesting to me to see and hear what tune that the producers choose to play in the background while Peter Coyote reads the script. “Akoshian Farewell” was one of the poignant tunes that layered the background of the Civil War Series. It is now a very popular Americana tune, popular with fiddlers. In the Natural Park series thus far I hear “This is my Father’s World”, a Christian hymn that was frequently sung at church when I was growing up in rural Indiana. The lyrics to the tune express John Muir’s concept of God being in the natural world.
I don’t own a TV. But my brother was watching it. I caught a lot wandering through. It was a nice program with great stories.
Stephen R. Fox wrote a book, “John Muir and His Legacy: The American Conservation Movement,” a number of years ago that the first two presentations have followed fairly closely. I thought it was a good read. Growing up we virtually lived in the National Parks/Monuments during the summers. We would often run into the same people traveling from park to park. It was very easy to develop a sense of community after a few run-ins. We rarely stayed in a campground where someone didn’t stop and ask my mother if she was “really traveling all by herself with six kids?” Never struck any of us as unusual. My wife and I did the same thing with our boys years ago, some of the differences in the parks between the years I first visited them and when we took the boys out was very dramatic. Glacier has had some of the most dramatic changes, of course we got to see grizzlies and wolves at the Yellowstone, not something one could see, the wolves at least, when I was a kid.
John Muir seems to be one remarkable dude! Why don’t we learn about him in school? His importance and contribution is breathtaking, as is the man himself. I plan to do some serious research on him. I have been aware of his life, but this series has brought him to life for me and I am fascinated.
Now that both he and Roosevelt are out of the picture, I wonder what the remaining days will show us. I will be watching!
I’ve been watching it. It’s interesting. I find his using the “Civil War” documentary format for it amusing.
Walden, what do you mean “Civil War documentary format?” Maybe it’s more a Ken Burns format?
I swear when I first saw your avatar, Walden, I thought it was Fred Astaire in a wig!!
Susan
Much of the music, as is usually true of Ken Burns work, is recorded by Bobby Horton. Bobby lives in my neighborhood and records in this home studio. Small world.
Ron Rash’s most recent novel, Serena, is about loggers in the Smoky Mountains in the lead-up to the creation of the national park there. I very much enjoyed the book.
That is all.
Yeah, it’s funny. He’s a big deal here because he lived in my home town (Martinez) from 1888-1914, though he spent a lot of time away, as the show explains. We have a school named for him, streets, etc. They showed his house on that first episode. It’s a National Park site, but was a boarded-up no-trespassing site when I was a kid. I lived right behind it and we used to sneak onto the property to steal fruit from the trees he planted. It’s also the site of the Martinez Adobe, which was a home built in the 1840s on a Mexican land grant. My kin lived there. I am on the advisory committee of an upcoming permanent exhibit at the Adobe, so when people come to visit the home, they can experience two phases of Calif. history. If you come up here, I recommend stopping at the site; the house is very cool to see as well as the adobe and orchards.
Muir went to school at my alma mater and just like so many of my friends, a hundred years later, he found it convenient to spend some time in Canada even though cold winds blew there.
My favorite Muir quote: “Nothing dollarable is safe.” Ain’t that the truth!
Susan
He’s in a rut. I think it worked for that series, but it seems like a poor fit for a series on the National Parks.
He founded the Sierra Club, which is now the oldest organization in the US dedicated to the cause of environmentalism. My family were members for a while when I was a kid, and Muir was very well remembered in their magazine.
If you mean the format of having various individuals speaking the lines of the persons in questions (Muir, Rosevelt, etc.) and then contemporary commentators having something to say here it there, the format still works for me. (For many of the PBS type documentaries involving “history” and individuals, the Burn’s style seems to be the norm now. Maybe that’s a rut–maybe not.)
I read a bit of a review the other day that said something to the effect that with something on National Parks, you know there’s going to be good pictures. The question will be is something more added. For my part, I’ve been intrigued by the twist and turns of the history and the unique individual personalities. It’s a good story.
I’m finding it fascinating. I had no idea Mather came up with using a landscape designer for the roads in all the parks–no wonder many of them are so fantastic! They mentioned the mile-long tunnel in Zion Park but not the “windows” in the tunnel. I’m wondering if those were Mather’s idea. Huge cutouts where there were actually parking spaces and you could get out and look out over this magnificent spectacle. The windows are closed to traffic now and you can no longer stop and look out of them. Too much traffic.
(I also enjoy living in a state where there are five national parks in the southern half of the state–deservedly so!)
Susan
The pictures are beautiful and the history is interesting. The music is pretty but depressing, in my opinion. That type of music was suitable for the civil war series but there should be more upbeat music for this one.
However, I get tired of being preached to and told how much better these places would be without development. When I go someplace, I want good roads to get there. I want nice restrooms with indoor plumbing, flush toilets, running water, and electricity - which means all the infrastructure necessary to support that. I want a snack bar where I can get a quick meal without having to cart all my food around with me - and someplace to eat inside away from the yellowjackets. I want decent, clean, affordable lodging with four strong walls, my own bathroom, clean beds, and air conditioning or heating as necessary for comfort. I like having the boardwalks at Yellowstone to show where it’s safe to walk without having to worry about breaking through the crust into a thermal pool and having my skin peel off my bones.
So all the tree huggers can go sit off in the woods and keep their food away from bears and wolves and bees and snakes. I’ll stay in the developed areas, thank you very much.
Always safer in the back country away from all the other Humons in the “developed” areas, that’s why park law enforcement has increased a thousand fold over the last few years. Granted I appreciate the boardwalks at Yellowstone, but I’ve seen more bear damage to the idiots who only stay in the campgrounds 'cause they can’t follow the guidelines or are illiterate or both. There are also the idiots who think it is cute to feed the wildlife and the idiots who are upset because they don’t like the wildlife in “their” parks. I don’t want to forget the idiots who think it is neat to introduce new species to the parks or protect invasive non-native species(“wild” horses) in the park or those who think they should be able to hunt and kill in the parks or remove wild animals for personal gain. Give me a grungy tree-hugger any day of the week. Boy! I wish I was at Jordan Pond House where I could sit down and have someone bring me a nice spot of tea while overlooking the Bubbles and the pond.