The National Parks: America's Best Idea - Part 3: Empire of Grandeur

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In the early 20th century, America had a dozen national parks, but they were a haphazard patchwork of special places under the supervision of different federal agencies. This episode traces how the conservation movement pushed the government to establish one unified agency to oversee all the parks. This led to the establishment of the National Park Service in 1916. Its first director, Stephen Mather, launched an energetic campaign to expand the NPS and attract more visitors. It was Mather who protected the Grand Canyon from encroaching commercial interests and established it as a national park, rather than a national monument
Transcendent Spaces (2:26)
A Collection of Special Places, No Master Plan (1:25)
Turning Point in the History of the Parks (1:59)
A New Leader for the Parks (2:20)
The John Muir of the Rockies (2:58)
The Perfect Man for the Job (2:18)
For Love of the Great Outdoors (2:03)
The Conceptualizer and the Implementer (2:03)
No One Goes There (2:37)
The Mather Mountain Party (2:04)
Making Converts, Not Preaching to the Choir (1:54)
Using Patriotism to Promote the Parks (1:11)
Homeland of the Blackfeet (2:18)
See America First (2:24)
Performing for the Tourists (2:01)
The Dollar Value of the Parks (1:17)
Describing Kilauea (2:23)
Hawaii's Volcanos (2:02)
New Land (2:27)
Painters' Paradise (1:38)
Cottages (2:03)
Idealistic Dreams for Mt. Desert (2:12)
The Hancock County Trustees of Public Reservations (1:58)
Working Toward a National Park (0:59)
Conflicting Views of Conservation (2:04)
The Paradoxical Purpose of the National Parks (2:28)
The Goal is Finally Achieved (2:04)
Mather Suffers a Breakdown (2:29)
Pursuing a Passion (2:21)
Scaling Mt. McKinley (2:38)
Abundant Wildlife (2:09)
Patrician Populist Power Elite Push for Parks (3:00)
The Windows of Heaven (2:40)
Albright Tries to Protect the Parks (2:27)
Zion National Park (1:32)
Growing Up With Zion NP (1:44)
The Inspiring and Calming Influence of Nature (2:03)
Beethoven's 9th Symphony in Stone (2:16)
The Grand Canyon (1:57)
The Grand Canyon Suite (2:21)
The View From Below (1:46)
Grand Canyon Entrepreneurs (2:00)
Moving Pictures of the Canyon (2:38)
A Tough Opponent (2:06)
Staking Claim to the Grand Canyon (2:55)
The Greatest View in the World (1:54)
John D. Rockefeller, Jr.'s Contributions (1:58)
Acadia National Park (2:53)
The Beginning of the Beginnings (3:23)
Credits: The National Parks: America's Best Idea--A Film by Ken Burns--Part3, "The Empire of Grandeur" (1915-1919) (3:00)

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