The National Park system might be the only thing Washington ever got right on the first try.
Grant Callen sits down with Dayton Duncan, Ken Burns' longtime partner in crime and the man who has probably forgotten more about America's national parks than the rest of us will ever know. If you've seen The National Parks: America's Best Idea, you've already met his work.
They cover how politicians, explorers, conservationists, and a few stubborn visionaries managed to convince America to preserve Yellowstone, Yosemite, the Grand Canyon, and other jaw-dropping places instead of carving them up for whichever railroad, mining company, or well-connected wheeler-dealer showed up first.
Along the way, they discuss John Muir, Theodore Roosevelt, why the parks really are a uniquely American invention, and why they say as much about the country's ideals as they do its scenery.
No politics. No culture war. Just a fascinating conversation about one of America's greatest accomplishments, and why future generations deserve to inherit something besides another Buc-ee's parking lot.
11 comments:
Imagine camping with family on a beautiful rocky, wooded river at 13 y.o. with parents and siblings, peeing on a bush to attract flies, catching a few, baiting them on a teeniny hook and catching a couple trout for breakfast. I love our National Parks.
There is oil there, rip them all down and drill baby drill. Make the liberals scream. MAGA!
Let me know when the Think Tank plans to sit down with the testosterone-laden bunch of mud-grippers who run our pitiful state park system. If Tater was not so averse to sunshine, this crap would be corrected.
BoyOboy...Your dad sounds like fun. Did you get to pull his finger?
Just in case most of you haven't heard yet, due to the narrow bandwidth of your information sources, Trump is allowing and encouraging fossil fuel drilling and AI data center construction in the National Parks.
7:45am, pitiful? Are you joking? Our state parks are GREAT for such a small and poverty stricken state! One thing MS has going for it is some awesome state parks. Certainly improvements are needed in places but overall they do a good job of maintaining them with a tiny budget.
I fail to see a problem. The Dept of the interior maintains nearly a billion acres of land. Very few people leave their cars for more than a photo op at a tourist spot at the national parks these days. They aren’t going to drill or build a data center near the tourist spots. Why don’t you get your panties in a twist over the illegals growing drugs and profiting from child prostitution in our national parks?
Speaking of MSDWFP and our Parks. We are the only state on the Mississippi River that doesn't have a state park with an overlook on the river. We did, it was called Great River Road State Park, and it was shut down by Scott Coopwood and his cronies, turned into a private piece of premium hunting property for connected politicians, and then many years later it was turned into a limited use WMA but there is still something amiss with that. Last year 20 people got to hunt it. Lots of shady stuff with this property. They burned the observation tower and let the facilities ruin.
Btw, just because you own a magazine that thinks Oxford is The Delta, doesn't make you an outdoorsman or worthy of a commission spot, you just make donations. There needs to be an investigation into this fleecing.
I wish more people would approach and bring awareness to the checkerboard public lands in the western United States. There is starting to be some traction, but there are tens of millions of acres that are landlock public lands that are supposed to be available for us to use that we have, or are supposed to have, access to, but don't because they are land locked with no access by large landowners who treat it as their own. They sue people who "corner cross", never touching their land, but the airspace above. It is a very hot topic out west and in the outdoor world.
Our "nicest" State Park is Tishomingo and that's only because of the natural beauty. The lake looks like a stinking (fish are all dead due to hypoxia) mud puddle and the facilities are rotten and termite infested. All of the RV pads are broken and you cant get level on them
"7:45am, pitiful? Are you joking? Our state parks are GREAT for such a small and poverty stricken state! One thing MS has going for it is some awesome state parks."
Really? You been to any of 'em lately. How about the run-down Leroy Percy? How about the closed-down Holmes County park that was once beautiful? How about Roseda...Wait, they illegally torched that one and made a private 'friends only' hunting preserve. How about all those that don't even have camping dump sites like every other state? How about all the rotted rail road ties dotting every park? Let's take a tour? You ready? Mississippi is not at all interested in providing state parks that promote tourism and places for locals to enjoy.
Poverty stricken? You're full of shit!
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