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Old Faithful
Yellowstone National Park |
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. It is a story full of struggle and conflict, high ideals and crass opportunism, stirring adventure and enduring inspiration - set against the most breathtaking backdrops imaginable.
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Arches National Park |
The National Parks: America's Best Idea is a six-episode series directed by Ken Burns and written and co-produced by Dayton Duncan.
With 391 units (58 national parks, plus 333 national monuments and historic sites), the National Park Service has a presence in 49 of the 50 states (Delaware is the sole exception). Like the idea of freedom itself, the national park idea has been constantly tested, is constantly evolving and is inherently full of contradictory tensions: between individual rights and the community, the local and the national; between preservation and exploitation, the sacred and the profitable; between one generation's immediate desires and the next generation's legacy.
Nebraska Educational Telecommunications (NET) is collecting stories from our community about their National Park experiences. You can search these local stories as well as similar ones from across the country. Please click here to share your story. |
More than 1,000 visitors attended the Traditions Festival at Homestead National Monument in Beatrice in September to celebrate America's national parks, in conjunction with the PBS Ken Burns series The National Parks: America's Best Idea.
Guests enjoyed cultural entertainment, from Irish dancing to Caribbean steel drums, by a dozen performance groups from Southeast Nebraska. More than 150 people also enjoyed a free screening of the film This is America at the Hevelone Center, sponsored by NET Television. Click image at right for photos from the event. |
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