The National Parks. America's Best Idea, A Film by Ken Burns. The Empire of Grandeur (1915-1919). Part 3

Description

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.

Runtime

114 min

Series

Subjects

Geography

Genre

Date of Publication

[2011], c2009

Database

Films on Demand

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