Ken Burns: The National Parks - America's Best Idea
pbs documentaries

Ken Burns: The National Parks - America's Best Idea

PRIMETIME EMMYS® 2X winner
Season 1
The National Parks series, from filmmaker Ken Burns, is a breathtaking journey through the nation’s most spectacular landscapes and a celebration of the people—famous and unknown—who fought to save them for future generations to treasure.
IMDb 8.620096 episodesX-RayTV-14
Free trial of PBS Documentaries or buy

Terms apply

Episodes

  1. S1 E1 - The Scripture of Nature (1851-1890)

    September 26, 2009
    1 h 53 min
    TV-G
    In 1851, Indian fighters in California encounter a place of astonishing beauty, setting in motion events that bring other newcomers to Yosemite Valley. Then, in 1872 Congress creates the world's first national park at Yellowstone.
    Free trial of PBS Documentaries or buy
  2. S1 E2 - The Last Refuge (1890-1915)

    September 27, 2009
    2 h 11 min
    7+
    Conservation's greatest champion is Theodore Roosevelt who sets aside 800,000 acres of the Grand Canyon. John Muir fights to prevent San Francisco from burying the Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park under a reservoir.
    Free trial of PBS Documentaries or buy
  3. S1 E3 - The Empire of Grandeur (1915-1919)

    September 28, 2009
    1 h 50 min
    TV-G
    In John Muir's absence, a new leader steps forward on behalf of America's remaining pristine places; a new federal agency is created to protect the parks; and in Arizona, a fight breaks out over the fate of the grandest canyon on earth.
    Free trial of PBS Documentaries or buy
  4. S1 E4 - Going Home (1920-1933)

    September 29, 2009
    1 h 54 min
    TV-G
    Mather and Albright ally themselves with the automobile to "democratize" the national parks. Horace Kephart and George Masa launch a campaign to save the forests of the Smoky Mountains from destruction by establishing a national park.
    Free trial of PBS Documentaries or buy
  5. S1 E5 - Great Nature (1933-1945)

    September 30, 2009
    1 h 53 min
    13+
    FDR expands the national park idea and enters battles to create national parks on the Olympic Peninsula, Florida's Everglades, and California's High Sierra. George Wright argues that the parks are not doing enough to protect wildlife.
    Free trial of PBS Documentaries or buy
  6. S1 E6 - The Morning of Creation (1946-1980)

    October 1, 2009
    1 h 53 min
    7+
    After World War II, an increasingly mobile nation visits the parks. When President Carter sets aside 56 million acres in Alaska, the largest grassroots movement in conservation history fights for the creation of seven new Alaska parks.
    Free trial of PBS Documentaries or buy