The National Parks: America's Best Idea - Season 1 - Eps 2: The Last Refuge (1890 – 1915)
By the end of the 19th century, widespread industrialization has left many Americans worried about whether the country - once a vast wilderness - will have any pristine land left. At the same time, poachers in the parks are rampant, and visitors think nothing of littering or carving their names near iconic sites like Old Faithful. Congress has yet to establish clear judicial authority or appropriations for the protection of the parks. This sparks a conservation movement by organizations such as the Sierra Club, led by John Muir; the Audubon Society, led by George Bird Grinnell; and the Boone and Crockett Club, led by Theodore Roosevelt. The movement fails, however, to stop San Francisco from building the Hetch Hetchy dam at Yosemite, flooding Muir's "mountain temple" and leaving him broken-hearted before he dies.
About The National Parks: America's Best Idea
Title: The National Parks: America's Best Idea
First Air Date: 2009-09-27
Last Air Date: 2009-10-02
Status: Ended
Rating: 7.9/10 (from 22 votes)
Language: EN
Seasons: 2
Total Episodes: 6
Network: PBS
Genres: Documentary
Production Companies: Florentine Films
Synopsis
Filmed over the course of more than six years at some of nature's most spectacular locales – from Acadia to Yosemite, Yellowstone to the Grand Canyon, the Everglades of Florida to the Gates of the Arctic in Alaska - “The National Parks: America's Best Idea” is nonetheless a story of people: people from every conceivable background – rich and poor; famous and unknown; soldiers and scientists; natives and newcomers; idealists, artists and entrepreneurs; people who were willing to devote themselves to saving some precious portion of the land they loved, and in doing so reminded their fellow citizens of the full meaning of democracy.
Cast
Adam Arkin
Philip Bosco
Peter Coyote
Narrator
Amy Madigan
Tom Hanks
Murphy Guyer
