Ken Burns National Parks: America's Best Idea

I have to admit that the first I heard of Ken Burns it was from the "Ken Burns Effect" in iMovie. So a few weeks ago when I saw commercial promoting the new documentary by Mr. Burns titled National Parks - America's Best Idea I was intrigued.

I have spent the last 2 days and approximately 10 hours watching 5 of the 6 two-hour episodes. It was one the best examples of wildlife and landscape cinematography I have ever seen. When that is mixed with the history of the parks and Burns excellent storytelling ability it becomes something that every American should see.

It covers the parks from their very beginnings up to the 1980's. I was amazed to learn that many of the original parks were all acquired as the result of wealthy individuals buying the land and donating it to the US government. In fact its first director Stephen Mather was a very wealthy and successful businessman who agreed to take the job for one year and ended up running it for 12 years.

The parks were also initially focused just on spectacular views and gave very little concern to the wildlife in the parks. This was changed by another wealthy individual and park employee, George Melendez Wright, who self-funded the first survey of wildlife in the parks.

The full episodes are only available online until the end of today (10/09/2009) but if you can afford it, buy the DVD. If you can't afford it, hound your local library to purchase it and then borrow it. If you are really fortunate I would urge you to buy an additional copy and give it your local school. This would be an excellent addition to any school library.

Photo courtesy of brian-m on Flickr.