Rocky Mountain National Park and PBS's Education Series is proud to present The National Parks: America's Best Idea Series each Saturday evening at 7:00 p.m. through January 20 at the Beaver Meadows Visitor Center. Nearly a decade in the making, The National Parks: America's Best Idea, a documentary series from acclaimed filmmakers Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan, is a breathtaking journey through the nation's most spectacular landscapes and a celebration of the people, famous and unknown, who fought to save them for future generations to treasure.
Saturday, November 6, 7:00 p.m. - The Scripture of Nature: Yellowstone
Reports emerge from Wyoming Territory of a fantastical place at the headwaters of the Yellowstone River. An exploration confirms the rumors, and in 1872 Congress creates the world's first national park at Yellowstone, but does nothing to provide for its protection. In 1886, General Phil Sheridan and the U.S. Cavalry ride to the park's rescue.
Saturday, Nov. 13, 7:00 p.m. - The Last Refuge: Theodore Roosevelt
At the end of the 19th century, some Americans begin to question the nation's headlong rush across the continent that has devastated forests and ravaged entire species of animals. Conservation's greatest champion is the new president, Theodore Roosevelt, who creates parks and wildlife refuges, and then audaciously uses the Antiquities Act to set aside 800,000 acres of the Grand Canyon as a national monument.
Saturday, Nov. 20, 7:00 p.m. - The Last Refuge: John Muir
President Teddy Roosevelt continues to establish National Parks while John Muir fights the battle of his life to prevent the city of San Francisco from burying the Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park under a reservoir, and dies broken-hearted after he loses.
Saturday, Nov. 27, 7:00 p.m. - The Empire of Grandeur: Stephen Mather
America boasts a dozen national parks as the park idea turns 50 years old. A millionaire businessman named Stephen Mather impulsively accepts the offer to oversee them for one year and transforms the concept of National Parks.
These evening programs are held at the Beaver Meadows Visitor Center in Rocky Mountain National Park at 7:00 p.m. They are free and open to the public. For more information about Rocky Mountain National Park, please call the park's Information Office at (970) 586-1206.
Source: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service
