Covering over 85,000,000 acres of land with locations in every state. More than 325 Million People visited the site last year. Over the next 90 minutes we feature a mixture of Natural Beauty and history at eight different parks around the country. We begin just outside cleveland at Cuyahoga Valley National park. Situated along the Cuyahoga River we will learn how the canal system plays a a major re in our nations westward expansion during the 1830s and 40s. [background sounds] [background sounds] the ohio and erie canal as part of a two canal system that was put in place in the early years of america built between 1825 18251832, and basically its a water transportation route the connected lake erie with the ohio river which is part of a larger idea, a National Water transportation route. In the early days of america we had 13 colonies all situated right along the atlantic seaboard. Our leaders at the time saw a problem. That problem was we needed that country to expand westward. However, there was a big obstacle, the appellation mountains. Our first president George Washington happened happen to l engineer, had an idea. That idea was to great this transcontinental water transportation route using two canals, they can wreak canal through the next day, and the connect new york city come hudson river, lake erie, ohio into a canal, ohio river, mississippi all the way to the gulf of mexico. In the early days we didnt have a big federal government. So in terms of funding and delimiting the ohio and erie canal and the erie canal depended on the states. Fortunately the state of new york had a champion there, Dewitt Clinton, became their Canal Commission and got the job done through the state of new york. Then he rose to become the governor of new york. Ohio, facing a a similar challe in terms of funding et cetera, you find it on the verge of bankruptcy. The canal project is worth more than all the value of the land in ohio. How do you fund this thing . Believe it or not new york back the bonds and it was Dewitt Clinton became to ohio for the groundbreaking to build the canal through ohio. Why . Guess what. Make a lot of beneficial differences to the state of new york including the fact new york city became the only port i could export and import goods, making it the Financial Capital of america. In ohio we had a fellow by the name of alfred kelly became the Canal Commission and really took it on as his lifelong legacy if you will to make sure that canal got build and got built on time and under budget. The ohio and erie canal is 309 miles in length. It goes from cleveland to portsmouth, ohio, and the ohio river. The actual construction began in 1825 by 1827, july 4, fourth, the first vote from akron to cleveland got through the canal port in cleveland. By 1832 the entire system was complete from cleveland all the way to the ohio river at portsmouth. It made a tremendous difference. For the nation it allowed us to start to rationalize our economy. Economy. Enchiladas to a internal trade. Prior to that all those seaboard states depended on exporting unordered in terms of making money delivering goods and services. This helped america expand westward. By doing so i mentioned new york city became the Financial Capital of the country. Ohio rises from the wilderness to be the third most populous and third richest state in the union by the 1860s. Canal life life with their slowpaced life, and canals, both to live with about four or five miles an hour. We are standing next to a lock right now and there would have been numerous locks to allow those boats to safely navigate the terrain and the topography. These became kind of elevators, watered elevators that lifted our lord the vote as the made the journey. It was cramped corners. Oftentimes you would find out and people sleeping on the same vote. Some were travelers, summer goods being delivered. A pretty hectic life but at a slow pace. Her dominantly the goods that were moved along the canal especially from ohio eastward were grain, weeds, things of that nature, things that were farmed here. We begin the breadbasket of america for reason and that is this is a good place to grow things. In new england became the early days of the industrial revolution, that became a good place to make things. So basically we had this barter trade system that again was part of our National Economy growing that had on the one hand, food come on the other hand, services, goods, machines, et cetera. The canal in ohio paid for itself. Whats significant is in cleveland we had our way lock. The way lock was you make money. You would have canal vote get weighed at the difference between its original weight and what was docked in at the port of cleveland, thats where you cut your taxes, thats when you made your money. In 74 when the railroads bought the mile of canal land in the city of cleveland, basic but a railroad track, we took that way canal and moved it. We still use the way canal in 1874. That said were still making money on that canal. Railroads arrived in cleveland in 1851. Ironically the guy who helps bring the railroads to cleveland, the same guy who champion the canal. The railroads pretty much had an Immediate Impact on the canal. However, the canal did stain use all the way up until 1913. It just had a different use. It started to become a place where people would go leisurely on a weekend. They would have vote, travel up and down the canals. Many times the canals went to put in place would have little General Stores or taverns, and people would i guess in their day go public crawling, if you will, using a canal vote on a sunday afternoon. One permanent legacy of the canal was the fact that in cleveland especially the river valley became the center of storage. It became allport. He became a manufactured instead of the city itself. Thats where the wealth of cleveland group. It was based on the fact you read that canal as clevelands first port. As time went on in manufacturing rose, cleveland group, we begin the fifth largest city in the country. We had major, major steel mills and Oil Refineries thanks to John Rockefeller. There was a consequence environmentally to those uses. Prior to the Environmental Protection agency and regulations for water and what you can put in water and rivers, et cetera, there were no regulations. In cleveland you had situations where for instance, standard oil and John Rockefeller basically refined oil along the banks of the river and when they did so there were certain byproducts that he could not find a use for and, therefore, the ended up in the river. It was told, and reported, that at one time we had a fire in 195757, and they went and measured the gunk that was on the top of the river. It was more than eight inches deep of oil and other byproducts that were flammable. But the story itself, although its bad, it really has tremendously positive outcomes. It inspires birthday. It helps pass legislation that creates the United States epa. It helped pass clean water bill, the clean air filter so if you look at all the consequences of that particular river fire, the positive fire outweighs the negative of that. And cleveland due to that river fire and due to the exposure it god, we pretty much our the selma of that movement. Then in 1974 Congress Passed legislation that created the Cuyahoga Valley National park and that canal and the towpath associate with it became the central feature of that National Park. We are still whats called an area of concern so theres still some work to be done in terms of completing the job of cleaning up the river but the needle has gone dramatically to the positive and we are just about through the area of concern and, in fact, in 2000 thenpresident bill clinton introduced a program called the American Heritage rivers program, and he basically put the invitation out to anyone who thought that river was significant enough for the story of america to compete for this new designation yet we did. We competed for the Cuyahoga River as part of that and the story was told they went through deliberation process to choose what was going to be the first ten rivers to be nominated for American Heritage river status, that they got to bill clinton, gave him the list of the rivers. He read through and worse it he said where is the cuyahoga . If they apply . Answer was no, they did apply. However, it did make the cut. He goes, this program is all about the Cuyahoga River. The reason he said that was if the comeback of the Cuyahoga River that is the story today. This airy area we are in thp Cuyahoga Valley National park ration area, part of National Park service in december 1974. It became Cuyahoga Valley National park in the year 2000, and with that comes a new idea for bringing National Parks to people. Most of us are not going to get to the gates of the Arctic National wildlife refuge but if we had National Parks nearby, we can get to those. They started making National Parks in urban areas. We have a bait braided backbone with the ohio and erie canal. We are braided backbone with a Cuyahoga Railroad and river. This National Park was greater of land that had been used in some instances of used, left in ruins because it was a wasteland in some places that people didnt see any potential for. And yet we cleaned it up, we t nature do what nature does, and now we are the 11th most visited National Park. There is a huge story here, a story of nic redemption . A story where if we allow nature to do what it does best, if we give it the chance to do what it does best and not interfere or help it, then the land can recover with environmental legislation and laws and with things we have in place. Now we have a river that is coming back to life. The environment has recovered. Yes it was degraded because of man, but it was also helped by man and it is allowed it, without help, it has recovered to create this great area we have now. From the Cuyahoga River in ohio we now travel to the banks of the Mississippi River and gateway arch National Park in st. Louis where a monument to americas westward expansion has become a recognizable symbol for the city played such a vital role in it. I think most people are like, i i was when i first saw it, when you see it from a distance you think, thats kind of interesting, kind of cool. The closer you get to it you realize how massive it is. Getting up to the base of it and touching it, looking up to 630 feet to the top it really is very, very impressive. I think the closer you get to it, the more impressed you become. Right now were standing very close to the famous gateway arch in st. Louis, 630foot tall stimulus steel structure that was designed back in 1947, but not built until the mid1960s and completed in 1965. Each year we get about 2. 5 million visitors who come to see the memorial and see the arch. Its a very busy place especially during the summer months. The gateway arch was designed by a man named eero saarinen, he was born in finland, came here to america when he was ten years old with his father was a very famous architect. He mainly had worked just with his father up to the point in time when an architectural competition was announced for what became the arch that you see behind me. The competition was for Jefferson National expansion memorial which was a National Park service site founded by a president ial proclamation in 1935 to commemorate st. Louis his role in the westward expansion of the United States. So 12 years after the founding of the park, an architectural competition was held to decide what the memorial itself would look like. Basically they had about 90 acres of land to work with, 40 city blocks and tore down completely raised above the original buildings to make way for the memorial on the st. Louis riverfront. So each architect has submitted a design proposal could really do whatever he or she wanted. It could be a huge sculpture. It could be a series of museum buildings. They did want one central feature to be in each of these designs. Some people put an obelisk in. Some people put a big kind of monolithic rectangular block or something. Saarinen decided to go with the idea of the arch, and it was only after he kind of design the arch that he realized it forms a gateway. So its really appropriate for the idea of the memorial to st. Louis role and westward expansion, st. Louis role as a gateway to have gigantic gateway right there on the riverfront. The arch is made out of stimulus steel, one quarter inch stimus steel on the outside, and on the inside its made of threequarter inch carbon steel. So basically you have sandwich. In the lower portion of the sandwich is filled in with concrete, and the upper portions that are tie rods that reinforce, steel reinforcing rods they keep the sections apart. Its a unique structure because it doesnt have any superstructure on the inside. There is no girders or things like that that form the shape of the arch. Its not just clad with stimulus steel on the top. Sometimes visitors are surprised because they havent read about the arch to learn they can actually go to the top of it. They think maybe its just likee a big piece of Outdoor Sculpture and you can just look at it. Theres little arrow shaped capsules that fit by persons in each one, and on each leg of the arch their state eight of this capsules that form a train that run on a track. When people get into the capsule its hanging from the track. As they go to the top by the time they get to the top its on top of the track. In order to accommodate that make sure people are not going to be flipped upside down, actually it shifts and turns to keep the card level. It isnt a thrill ride. It doesnt go really fast like something at a county fair or at six flags or something, but its a unique experience. A lot of people really prize the experience of writing in the strange little capsules up to the top and getting a nice view they get from the top of the arch from the Observation Deck up at the top. Right now were in the midst of a multimillion dollar project that is being funded by many different entities that are partnering with a National Park Service Jewelry revitalize the park itself park service to revitalize the park itself. For many years weve been an island surrounded by highspeed roads, and what is going to happen is a kind of a a lead is going to place over the highways so you can walk directly from the city where you probably will park your vehicle directly to the arch without having to cross any major streets. Its really just an iconographic symbol of st. Louis, sort of like the space needle is to seattle or the Empire State Building of the statue of liberty is to new york. There are certain symbols that it neatly identify a place on the map to people, and the arch is the one, the one for st. Louis. Right now we leave the city once considered the gateway to the west and travel to the great plains and over the Rocky Mountains to the Colorado National monument near Grand Junction to hear how one man helped preserve this area on colorados western slope. I think everybody is just amazed by, its not a widely publicized presence here. The park service doesnt advertise, so people find out about this because they read magazine articles or they see features like you are preparing but its not our typical colorado scenery. Its not what most people think of when they think of colorado. It comes as a pleasant surprise for folks to find it here. John otto was the kind of a vagabond, not in the sense that he was a neerdowell but he just didnt have any permanent roots. He was attracted to this area around 1907 by the promise of employment on a waterline project. And i guess this was just the type of country that was really appealing to him. He began to agitate for the creation of a National Park here. The first thing he did was he wrote a lot of letters to prominent people and so on time to get this established as a National Park here he also constructed a lot of trails to afford access into the canyons and onto the rims of the monument. Im sure the local people came out on sunday afternoon, each of the wagon and, for picnic and so on. When you get other things he did was in 1926 he started collecting buffalo nickels from the kids in town, and use that money to transport a couple of bison here. He wanted to establish a herd of bison in the monument. The elks club conspired to bring in a couple of elk. John got some money from the chamber of congress to build some fences to contain these animals, and for many years we had a bison herd. It felt elf took one look aroud said were out of here, as they went on south into the high country. But oddly enough they are coming back into the monument now. We see more and more elks on. A bison would be removed in 1983 because they were confined to a really small area and they had a really adverse impact on the resource. But that was the kind of thing he did. He was constantly interested in boosting the area and promoting it and so on. But there was no concerted effort until john otto came here to set this aside as a National Park or a National Monument. There are a couple of distinction between National Parks and National Monuments. One of the distinctions is legal, relating to the method in which its established. And the other is more based on its resource qualities. John otto agitated for the creation of a National Park year, but the creation of the National Park requires an act of congress, and so its much more difficult to do. And National Monument can be established by a president ial proclamation. And so although john otto wanted a National Park, it was much easier to establish a National Monument, and thats what happened when president taft proclaimed the area in 1911. The other distinction is resourcebased. Generally a National Monument is set aside in recognition of one spectacular feature. In this case, the erosional qualities of the monument. The National Park is like multiple National Monuments all thrown together. For example, yellowstone which was the first National Park has its wildlife values and has a Mountain Range running through it, has a huge high elevation lake. Its got all of the thermal features and so on. Thats what generally sets parks apart for monuments. Its a fuzzy boundary between them so there are areas that are National Parks that probably more rightfully should be monuments, and vice versa. John otto early attempts to make them on assessment would building trails in some of the canyons and also pioneering a wrote of the esa of them on it called the serpents trail. The serpents trail surface only to afford access to the monument but it also afforded access for ranchers living south of the monument access to the land and so on. At some point john otto envisioned that serpents trail would be the starting point for a road he called the union road, which would continue all the way from Grand Junction area to southern california. He was a big schemer. He was always dreaming of these huge projects and so on. Thats one of the reasons he eventually left the monument is other forces thought they would like to have that same road but not running through the monument come running to the grand valley basically along the route of the railroad. Basically along the route of interstate 70 today. So otto ended up on the short end of that argument and thats one of the things because he was so vociferous pickups one of the things that help easing out the door. Beyond the serpents trail though park service thought it would be some value in having a road, and otto also did that would run along the rim rocks so people would have these spectacular visits when they drove across and entered the monument. In 1929 park service had already established drawings for what is todays rimrock drive. Some were actually started on it with money from the chamber of commerce and some other sources. But the Road Construction didnt start in earnest until after the start of the great depression. 1933 after president roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt was inaugurated, in his first 100 days he did all kinds of things to stimulate the economy and one of them was the creation of the civilian conservation corps. There were several camps of cc enrollees in the monmouth ccc and basically postman along with some local folks built rimrock drive. Its a road they could not be built today. I mean, for environmental reasons and cost reasons and so on, no one would even attempt such a project. I think at the peak of the project the were as many as 600 people working on it. A lot of the work was and work, using mules and picks and shovels and so on but the defense of mechanized equipment and did a lot of blasting and so one as well. It wasnt just the ccc. The Works Progress administration had a presence here. The emergency Recovery Administration and someone. There were a lot of the socalled alphabetical relief agencies that worked here during the depression years. They built a bunch of really fabulous sandstone structures, but most of that work was done by local stonemasons from local experienced men they called them. They endure to the state and theyre all on the National Register of historic places, really gorgeous buildings. John otto said this place was like the heart of the world to him, and i think thats the feeling a lot of us have who have been privileged to work year. Its a terrific place, so i would urge anyone who has the opportunity or is coming this way this week is to take the time to pay us a visit. You can spend two hours driving across the road or you can get out and enjoy a little threshold experience with a short hike or you can commit to a longer stay. Theres a lot here to see and do. Since the establishment of yellowstone in 1872, a National Park system has grown to 419 sites across the United States and u. S. Territories. We now take you to one of the most recognizable, Mount Rushmore National Memorial near rapid city, south dakota,. The heart of south dakota black hills. There it is, the 60foot head of George Washington. Three of the units will follow, jefferson, lincoln and did a roosevelt to be honored and unveiling ceremony. When i look at the president s, the first thing i think about is some individual achievements for each of those people. But really what they do for me and what this whole memorial does for me is it reminds me about what they stood for. Standing for freedom, for democracy, for republics. I get to think about that every day. I get share that with people everyday. I meet people from all over the world may not know who those president s are, but understand what freedom means. The original idea was by robinson, a state historian, and down had conceived of carving statues, giant are all the way around and the people at lewis and clarke, chief representative cloud, fremont. When he hired his artists, borglum, he said youre not thinking enough. Selecting the four people that are up there, the four president s, that was the artist, gutzon borglum. When you look at and you can figure out why they were selected. George washington, our first president. The person who gave up the power come he couldve stayed in power, he is very popular. Thomas jefferson, a lot of people will say that must be of course because of the declaration of independence. But thats not why the artist borglum chosen. Borglum chosen because of the Louisiana Purchase doubling the size of the country. Lincoln, you can probably figure that out, keeping the country together during the civil war, taking care of the nation. The challenging one, theater roosevelt. Selected by the artist but he wasnt the most popular guy at the time. Borglum selected roosevelt because of the panama canal. So he took the nation from being bound by the oceans and expanded and went international. He also the president was standing for the common man. Both of those things resonated with the artist. Two of the four were slave owners and so does that engender a discussion as well amongst and you will talk about that in your interpretation of these president s, washington and jefferson . Some of the president s were slave owners. There is discussion that pops up around the property about that. Its not as much discussion as you might expect because you would think thats a major controversy. What it does it is certainly something we step forward and we are talking about. All of our interpretive programs you come anytime youre a park ranger talking about something presenting a program, they did their own research. They put their own program together into the own presentation. So we dont focus on one thing in particular. Its the passion of the interpreters, and weve had some, the focus was slavery and what that meant to this country, not just president s were slave owners for president who wrestled with slavery. Can you describe where we are located, where Mount Rushmore is and put in context of the black hills . Mount rushmore is in the state of south dakota. South dakota has the black hills. We are on the western side of the state, and if youre looking at rapid city, we are not 2000 feet higher than rapids. Some people refer to this as the turtle on the prairie. You can see the black hills from a long distance. Tribes that consider this a sacred site considered the black hills a sacred site. They were referencing, they could seat in a distant it looked like because of the ponderosa pines. So you can see us along with across the state of south dakota. Now, over the years there has been discussion from native americans and others about the location of the black hills, it is sacred to native americans, and right here you have something that represents to some people the u. S. Governments policy towards native americans has not always been they have a look at it the same way. What do you talk about when you tell people about that issue and Mount Rushmore . There was some controversy right from the start. Carving in the black hills. That controversy came from tribal people as well as people that today we would call people who werent ecologists. The tribes, theyre looking at the place that they would come in were with coming in at honor and have honor ceremonies, spent some time. At that time. Mac, we talking 1825, that wasnt looked at the same way we look at it today. Today we do still have tribal people who are concerned about the black hills being carved come People Living in the black hills, and we try to honor that. Some of it to our interpretive programming but we also have please reset up in the park thats called a lakota heritage village. So every summer we hire cultural interpreters. These are people who are lakota, and they come in and they talk about the lakota story. So were trying to show the importance of the black hills for all of these people as well as what that sculpture means. Its a balance. The sculpture, gutzon borglum, had started in georgyporgy started Stone Mountain in georgia. There was a conflict there. He left. He came up here to work for robinson and the state of south dakota. Of course the first challenge was i need a place to cart can find something appropriate. They found this big granite outcropping. Your next challenge is how to turn that into a sculpture . As an artist the first thing borglum had to do was make small sizes and make them bigger and bigger until he gets to 112 model, we today have that original model. Every internet model is a foot up on the sculpture. As you are sculpting, that might be nice and easy in clay or plaster but when youre looking at the mountain, youre talking granite, very fine grained, tough stuff. So 90 of that sculpture is carved with dynamite. I dont always think of dynamite as an artist brush but it sort it was in this case. [background sounds] in 1927 when they start the blasting, thats the beginning. There were people coming appear visiting the sculpture watching that whole carving process the entire time. So the wasnt a formal opening day. They had multiple dedication for each president and borglum was begun dedications and celebrations because he knew thats how he would get everyones attention. Ultimately that summer funding would come in. He was constantly going to washington, d. C. Approaching congress, approaching the president trying to get more money. Always trying to get more money. There were times his workers were not getting paid. Borglum is putting all this person money into it. He was making a trip to washington, d. C. In march 1941 to ask for more money. He stops in chicago on the way. He is in operation and he dies as the result of that operation. So his son, lincoln, takes over the work. Lincoln had started here when he was about 12 so he was brought up with this. He knew all the different jobs, blasting, drilling, pointing. He is an artist himself. So take it over the sculpture must have been both sad and wonderful. Lincoln declared that sculpture was completed october 31, 1941. People talk all the time and asked all the time about adding someone up on the sculpture. Many president s have been mentioned, many other people have been mentioned. It wont happen. The sculpture is complete. The great stone faces of four president s stand in lonely silence as a last work will leave the late borglums might project the machine is a spell or with the death of the sculpture lessening all the cleanup work was abandoned. His son lincoln puts away models. Teddy roosevelt a and neighborg lincoln with the last of the four faces. Borglums tools are laid awake him tools of unfinished masterpiece. Even though unfinished, the Mount Rushmore National Memorial stands as an eternal shrine of democracy and the four great americans who helped carve this enduring nation. A note. There are 83 National Monuments in the National Park system, the most of any designation. Next, we visit petroglyph National Monument one of the largest sites of its type in north america. Today what petroglyph National Monument specific with the volcanoes. Still located within albuquerque, new mexico. The volcanoes deluge area provides trails, i volcanoes and it looks out over the city of albuquerque out towards the sandia mountains. The volcanoes are important to petroglyph National Monument because they begin to tell the story, the geologic story, about 200,000 years ago official informed, i crack in the earths crust and hot molten lawful poured out in a series of volcanic eruptions. Some spreading a couple of miles. As these eruptions took place they flowed out over layers of the soil that were here in the rio grande valley. And as these layers hardened, they hardened into basalt. What we have here is 17 milelong curvilinear chair of black basalt boulders of which weve got over 24,000 petroglyphs. So while were here at the volcano, the story of petroglyph National Monument isnt just about a single petroglyph or petroglyph concentrations. It also includes the volcanic cones and the mesa top that spreads out towards albuquerque. The pueblo people would come up to the mesa topic with evidence of them carrying water and farming. Sometimes they would send their children up here to keep the rabbits away from their crops. We see many ancient trails appear, if this becomes part of a larger spiritual landscape thats important to most pueblo people. We are here at the canyon about halfway along that 17mile escarpment and we will be walking on the macarthur what we see here is 113 feet tall. These black boulders once came from several sheet flows from the volcanoes that canyon is easiest place to see petroglyphs and most of her 150,000 visitors stop your first. This is one of the first petroglyphs that people who come to petroglyph National Monument might see. Its a carving on to the rock. The pueblo people would use stone chisels and hammers to carve out the dark black patina exposing the white color of the rock which varies from a gray to light brown to sometimes a registered some people ask is how the petroglyphs were discovered for the pueblo indians there is there as old as time note that the since their creation story. Modernday archaeologists date most of these images from about 12001650. A few few are older, those which are done by early spanish sheepherders a good part of the land grants. In the 1970s archaeologists came up to the west mason began to inventory these images. Later interest in his crew and eventually it became a National Monument to the pueblo people, they believed that the petroglyphs choose when and to whom to reveal themselves sometimes its the shadow. Sometimes its the glare or sometimes its just the attitude and the sensitivity with which we look at these hectic with images that reveal themselves. Sometimes telling people not to touch the petroglyphs is not enough. We know that nobody should touch the petroglyphs but we do give people an opportunity to touch an artificial boulder that we have created for such purpose so the gift attaching out of the way. We want people to understand that these are sacred images and they continue to be important to the pueblo people. Eventually overtime patina will form and thats what is meant to happen, but until then we as people not to touch these images. Petroglyph National Monument is one of the two National Park units thats actually owned and operated not solely by the National Park service. Petroglyph National Monument is managed by the city of albuquerque and the National Park service, and we Work Together with the city to help protect and preserve these resources for the future. In the last 20 years weve had several challenges, land acquisition, being everything for everybody, the creation of trails, vandalism, the construction of roads that the monument, expansion of a general aviation airport but probably our biggest challenge is storm water runoff from upstream suburban development. Because we are completely surrounded by the city of albuquerque. As you walk the trails of petroglyph National Monument and youre looking along the escarpment, you might notice large concentrations of black boulders and thats where we often see concentrations of petroglyphs. We are in the heart of the canyon was theres a dance concentration of petroglyph. We have document over 24,000 240 petroglyphs within the monument boundary. They can is home to 5000 of them. We see an animal over here we are not really sure what it means. Something that looks like a sheep brand, maybe across so mightve been carved by early spanish sheepherders. I see something that looks like a bird and some unidentified animals up on that rock. Here we see a concentration of boulders with many and images of different sizes. Some of which have an additional appendix. The pueblo people believed if a child is born missing a finger or with an additional tell, that is a sign of power. With the concentration of hand images here, we have to wonder why. Maybe its because people passed through this way. Maybe this is a type of a calendar. We dont really know. Only the people who carved these images know for sure. What we do know is if we follow this from the heart of the canyon, we would end up in the pueblo, 1100 room adobe multiple plaza structure located on the rio grande. It was important to them because of the location to the petroglyphs. The high peaks where mother earth needs father sky, and he would come appear, spirit ways if they would say prayers. It would make offerings, in the wood carved images into the rock. Sometimes its a form of passageway or a map. Others might be a counting mechanism or clan image. But too many pueblo people, they say the spirit would leave this world and going to the next world through these petroglyph images. The pueblo people call this place a place that people speak about. It belongs to all of us, all americans, not just today but future generations. Its a place of respect. Its a place of solitude. Its the place of wonder. While petroglyph National Monuments story predates the United States of america, the selma to Montgomery National stork trail in alabama marks a watershed moment in our nations history. Stretching picky four miles through central alabama, 1965 protesters walked this route to the state capital demanding equal Voting Rights for africanamericans. National park Service Guide April Baldwin tells the story of the march and what led to it. Many people think the selma to montgomery march sprung up overnight and was a one off idea for the benefit in Rights Movement brewing in some alabama since the 1930s. In selma, alabama. Here in selma, alabama, and in many places throughout the south africanamericans were denied the right to vote not because it wasnt the constitutional right but because they were folks throughout the south especially positions of power and did not want these folks to have the right to vote. That way they could be considered secondclass citizens. Poll taxes and literacy taxes were methods used to deter africanamericans from having the right to vote. Poll taxes would be this fixed price that you have to pay for your in order to get on the voting rolls. Lets say i lived in Dallas County come live in a rural area and i am taking 60 a year. But the poll taxes are a dollar a year. We might have a rant that is 40 a year, so 40 out of the year of my 60 entire your income is going to go to the rent, but then im going to have 20 in which have to feed, close i can provide some sort of comfort for my kids. There are not many black people who are going to extra money left over to pay a poll tax. Lets say on some women that have an extra dollar left over and i go down to this courthouse right here, Dallas County courthouse, and i show up saying i would like to register to vote. So i would actually come up to the county registrar. I i would have my whole tax rea. Now, if mr. Connell, lets call him that, is going to take my whole text of you but also administer a literacy test would be another type of barrier that africanamericans faced when attempting to register. That task could take many forms. It could be how many counties are there in Alabama Court to which i was a 67. He might ask you that in every probate judge in the county or in the entire state of alabama. So now im going to have to try to scramble to find the names of all of these probate judges who are in charge of enforcing the laws of these particular counties throughout the state. There wasnt any google or type of wikipedia that would tell me this information in 1965 so it was going to be difficult for me to do that. That was one form of test i could take it could be in the form of question as if how many gallons close to the Alabama River . He could ask me how many bubbles are in a bar of soap. I had 38 minutes to complete this test and this was done in more formal setting so that a large group of folks coming to take it were as a white patron is coming into registrable, they might pay the poll tax and all have to answer 20 of those questions were an africanamerican might have to answer all 68. Right now were standing at the Dallas County courthouse and this was one of the most integral pieces of Voting Rights movement. The Voting Rights movement didnt start like a second 1965. There were protests every single day from the beginning in 1963 when the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee came to work your in selma. They began growling that you of selma to come to a protest where the parents were not necessary to join in just yet. You had this place were marchers were being led to almost every single day during the summer and fall of 1963, and then resurging in 1965 with splc, the southern christian Leadership Conference came in with dr. King and they would marching contingent throughout the time going from january until bloody stunt in march 1965. On any given day during the Voting Rights movement if you have a protest thats coming directed at the Dallas County courthouse most people are going to wind up on the sidewalk year down the side of the building. You might have sheriff jim clark standing right at the top of the step. If you guys see into with the door is, thats for mr. Clark or sheriff clarke will be standing. You have protesters lined up into the Voter Registration office. He would have folks lined up wrapped around the building singing freedom songs and protest songs in doing chance and things of that nature. Anybody was walking by my dear a good woke up this morning with my mind set on freedom i woke up this morning with my mind set on freedom i woke up this morning with my mind, it was set on freedom hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah you are a brown chapel ame church and this is one of the movement churches, one of the main churches that was used during the Voting Rights movement to hold mass meetings and Training Session and to house civil rights moving leaders. This is one of the oldest black churches and see a selma. Dr. King gave his first speech on generous second, 1955. The businessman, the mayor of the city, the Police Commissioner of the city, and everybody in the white power structure of the city must take responsibility for everything that jim crow does. Pretty much legend of folks who know that the movement now had a kind of new voice. Throughout the 1930s the Dallas County Voters League really had been the Main Organization working here in selma to achieve Voting Rights for africanamericans. They were the main People Holding Voter Registration drives and conducting Voter Education classes for blacks throughout the county and in the city. They worked throughout the the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s in order to really attack the problem of African Americans here in selma not having the right to vote. In 1963 1963 in february of tht year, sncc sent first represented here to be the voice for sncc here in the area. Sncc was beginning to going to places that have not been touched by the sole Rights Movement in in a way. They were the main people who actually working with young folks here in selma to prepare them for the work that civil rights and to march and protest in the streets. Sncc laid the foundation of the groundwork for sdsu to come and build off of in 1965. Sncc did that meet here at brown chapel ame church but they begin in the basement of Tabernacle Baptist Church on broad street. Interesting thing about tabernacle baptist is the fact the church as to make faces. A black architect in 1920s and during that time segregation ordinances in the city somewhat prevented africanamericans from entering or exiting the building on broad street which is the main street that runs the middle of the city. When Tabernacle Baptist Church was built in the 1920s, the architect played a trick on the city officials. That is the entrance like the facade of the building has an entrance on broad street but the real entrance is on mentor avenue. So its called the church with two faces. This is where the basement sncc is doing its own training for High School Students and others who are interested in protesting the right to vote. Sncc didnt work just out of tabernacle baptist. Over the course of 1953 they moved their operations over to first Baptist Church, the black first Baptist Church here and selma, alabama, which is right in the street from where we are now. First baptist served as headquarters for many sncc mass meetings including one right before freedom day in october 1963 where dorothy heise was the main attraction. She was the speaker for the evening and she gave a lot of encouragement to those who go out and purchase at the Dallas County courthouse. Selma was a logical place for the Voting Rights movement to have its push because of the fact there were so many factors that made it a a real hotbed fr this particular issue. So you had a population thats mostly africanamericans. Only 240 registered black voters throughout the entire county and that also was agitation, proper type of education that would be needed to make this movement successful. So you had a sheriff who was very belligerent towards africanamerican protesters, towards those who just are not his cup of tea at that precise moment and his name was sheriff jim clark and sheriff clarke provided the path of resistance that groups like nclc needed in order to make selma dr. King brought three things when he came down to selma. He brought money from the nclc and the donors who are able to help get a lot of people bailed out of jeffrey also brought motivation to we have a big deal at dr. King coming to a small city like selma, hes been over since someone who lead the masses, who can speak so eloquently and inspire people. He brought a lot of motivation within and that was in desperation for a lot of adults to get involved with the movement. He also brought the media, and the media is what put the nail in the coffin for the Voting Rights movement here. They were able to show that even though these protesters were nonviolent and it only practicing civil disobedience, they were still being mistreated because of the attitude towards them. So we had made our way from brown chapel ame church over here to the Edmund Pettus bridge which is a movement that africanamerican protesters in selma during the Voting Rights movement would have made three separate times. The first is known as bloody sunday. Sunday march 7, 1965, about 6 or protesters gathered at brown chapel ame church and flagrant area in order to get their wits about them and be prepared to go all the way from selma to montgomery. How did they get i did to us in march here in selma all the way to montgomery . It was actually the direct action that they wanted to take in response to the death of Jimmy Lee Jackson. Jimmy lee jackson was a 26yearold veteran who lived in marion alabama and entering the night much in favor 18th of 19 signified in that city he was shot by the Alabama State trooper are trying to protect s mother and grandfather from getting assaulted a a case whee he died. The march in someone to do something every was an honor of Jimmy Lee Jackson and they decided that taking his body all the way to the Alabama State capital landed on the steps to show George Wallace how important Voting Rights was to them was the right thing to do. So instead of actually taking his body of which montgomery they did decide to continue with the iq to march to month, but they marched in spirit. On the first attempt on march 7, 1965, protesters left around chapel ame church in the afternoon and progressed down phyllis street to alabama avenue and then walked right here on broad street to cross the Edmund Pettus bridge. As they crested the top of the bridge those who led the march, Posey Williams and john lewis, saw a sea of blue made up of Alabama State troopers and Sheriff Deputies can come citis that have been deputized by the local sheriff here, jim clark. So when they crested the top of the bridge they did feel a twinge of fear but even though there were a little bit scared even though the fear did rise inside them they continue to put one foot in front of the of and marched about 100 yards past the edge of the bridge before they were stopped by major john cloud over the Alabama State troopers for that day. Alabama state troopers, the sheriffs deputies and those deputized citizens rushed marchers on the bridge, across the bridge with night sticks, billy clubs and even furniture wrapped in barbed wire and tear gas cannisters going off and they marched them back into the carver homes area where we were just were. There were accounts of Law Enforcement throwing women into baptismal pools at the church. This was the first attempt. What made it significant, so many media cameras there, not only still cameras like from Spider Martin in the news, and National News that were filming this. And in the middle of nuremberg, the bloody sunday, everybody got to see what was happening. And after dr. King found out about the march and the things that happened to the protesters here in selma, alabama he put out a call to many clergy members across the country to calm down and march on tuesday march the 9th. So he wanted these folks to come and be the face of this particular march, but the next morning when he arrived back in selma he got word there was an injunction placed on the march by George Wallace. The injunction had gone to federal court judge Frank Johnson and he notified Martin Luther king that there was and junction, and put it for march 11thment and thats two days after they marched on the 9th. And how would he keep his word and beginning on march 8th through march the 9th to march in protest to the right to vote for africanamericans the and he got on the phone with top people in washington including the president and fbi representatives and they came up with the solution that he would march to the spot of bloody sunday where the attack began, and then turn back around and this march is became known as turnaround tuesday on the march the 9th 2000 people gathered at the chapel a e church and up the bridge. As they crested the top of the bridge this time that same sea of blue stared them in the face, its the Alabama State troopers and the sheriffs deputies. As they saw this sea of blue, dr. King, who led the march, knelt in praise and sang freedom songs and turned around and the majority of the people on the march did not know those were his intentions and only the top were privy to the information. 2000 folks who assumed they were going to march to montgomery. And they turned around. And some were happy because they didnt want a bloody sunday attack and that led snick to leaving selma and continuing the fight for Voting Rights up to montgomery and tuskegee. After the ministers march there was the death of james reed, a unitarian minister from boston. He had come down from boston to be a part of the march and he was brutally beaten by white citizens in selma for his involvement with the movement. He actually died about two days later from his injuries and hes known as the second martyr of the Voting Rights movement, but his death actually inspired a lot of thought from white citizens across the country. So thats another reason that this day is known as turnaround tuesday because whites attitudes towards blacks having the vote started to change. Frank johnson the District Court judge began hearings on march 11th and heard from many civil rights leaders and heard from mr. Lewis and others involved with the movement and from opposition, jim clark, the governor, governor wallace, and others who were not fond of the march and thought it would disrupt Public Safety and after this, he issued his decision, pretty much saying that his march would be necessary in order for africanamericans to obtain the right to vote. There had been such an injustice done to those by those issuing the injunction that a march was appropriate. That ruling was march 17th and had four days to get everything together to make the entire trek from selma to montgomery. Beginning on march 21st, they gathered at the brown chappell at a e church and begin the march to montgomery. They came down the bloody sunday route. Across the bridge and no sea of blue and continued to march for five days and four nights, staying at different camp sites were typically on black farms in Dallas County, different counties before they got to the Alabama State capital march 25 25th. More than 8,000 of us started on a mighty walk from selma, alabama. They told us we wouldnt get he here. That was owed to the fact that we would get here over their dead body. Well, all the world today knows that we are here and that we are standing before the forces of power in the state of alabama saying we aint going to let nobody turn us around. A few months later, the Voting Rights act of 1965 was signed ensuring that africanamericans would be granted the right to vote and this march was the direct cause for africanamericans having their right to vote ensured by the federal government. So this march and this demonstration have been the realization of the desire of africanamericans to have the right to vote for over 100 years since the end of reconstruction. God bless you from selma and civil rights in 1965, we travel back 100 years to virginia and the end of the civil war. Apotmata krch apotmatac appomattox historic park and well hear what the village was like after the war. Im standing in front of perhaps one of the most famous courthouses in the United States where really nothing of significance happened. Appom a. Appomattox courthouse. Its in the village, courthouse, one word and cou court house two words. And 1865, effectively bringing about an end to the certainly of the beginning of the end of the American Civil War. This town has a lot of history for its size. Today we would like to talk a little about why the Appomattox Court house is famous and talk about Untold Stories. As i said, the court house is a village, complete with a tavern, stores, homes, it wasnt more than 130, 140 people in 1865. Its an unlikely place for two large military forces to meet. General lees Army Northern virginia, and general grants multiarmied force, all the told about 95,000 soldiers within a six mile radius. Unlikely because its not where either army wanted to be, but where they ended up. As fate would have it for general lee, his army was practically surrounded here by general grants forces and on palm sunday, 1865, general lee, right in the afternoon, 1 30 this the afternoon general lee would meet general grant over at the mclane house, one of the nicer upper middle class homes. And they would agree on terms of is your r ender effectively bringing back the end of the war. And thats a crucial story, nationally significant and its no doubt the reason that this has been designated a National Historic site. However, there are plenty of Untold Stories about appommattox. Its been referred where the nation reunited. And we struggled with that idea. If that were true, the 150 years that had followed the American Civil War dont make a whole lot of sense. And in fact, during the centennial, the 100th anniversary of the civil war in 1965, a tremendous celebration took place here, marking the occasion, meanwhile, the schools in appamattox, it was five years away from integration in 1970. So, why isnt it the place where our nation reunited . Well, part of the story starts with the large fields behind me. Something that a lot of people dont realize about Appomattox Court house, general lees decision wasnt arbitrary to surrender, but because of the realities that surrounded him. On the field behind me, the battle was fought. Roughly 9,000 confederates engaged a large federal force and eventually put over 20,000 federal soldiers on this field behind me. During this battle that raged on morning of april the 9th, there was one known civilian casualty of the court house, Hannah Reynolds. Hannah reynolds like 52 of all human beings that lived in the county at that time, she was enslaved. She was enslaved by dr. Samuel coleman. She lived in a home about one mile to the west of where im standing in the battlefield. She was unfortunate to be hit by a confederate artillery shell and attended to by surgeons of the 8th maine infantry unit. She was able to survive three days, and died on april 12th, that wednesday. April the 12th is a very important date, too, in the history of appomattox. It was on this road im standing on april 12th that confederate infantry stacked their arms and flags and ammunition along this road. You could say that the individual confederate soldier actually surrendered on this road, not in the parlor of the mclane house the way that general lee did. Hannah died on april 12th and died an enslaved woman and died emancipated woman, three days later. Thats a notion that struck this park and the citizens on the 100th anniversary and given us cause to explore this story and others like it more deeply. Exactly what did happen in this village and throughout the country in the weeks and months that followed surrender. In history it seems almost to be a good idea to ask the question, so what . General lee surrendered to general grant april 8th 1865. They would fight no more. A big so what. And what about the rest of the enslaved community and what was the future of the slave holders and lower and middle class whites that didnt own slaves, but would still be deeply affected by what was about to happen . Were going to head down to the other end of the village and were going to visit the kelly house that could also be known as robinson house, and explore a story right here in the village that sheds some light also of a National Significance of what happened after the surrender. Here on the eastern edge of the village of Appomattox Court house at the time of the kelly surrender. Unlike the mclane house, upper middle class, perfect for the surrender meeting for kelly and grant. The this house represents what most would have lived in in the mid 1860s. Its down here that we found an excellent example of an untold story. We talked about what happened to Hannah Reynolds immediately after the war and unfortunately, she passed away from wounds she received in the final battle. At the kelly house the eastern edge of the village what happened next after the surrender. The kelly house was completed in 1855. The kelly family was a large one. In fact, there were five sons in this family that all five fought in the war, in the Army Northern virginia. In fact at least one, maybe two, were here for the surrender in their own hometown on april 9th and stacking of arms on april 12th, 1865. In the years that followed the war, eventually this house would be purchased by a man named john robinson. Now, we dont know a great deal about John Robinsons early life, but this is a good idea what emancipation looked like in the months and years that followed. And perhaps two of the most tangible examples of emancipation that you would have seen on the landscape that summer of 65 would have been the development after friedman school, the legalization of black education, very much so a tangible evidence and the second would be the ability of black citizens of appomattox to form their own chups. In fact, in many of these cases they were members of ironically integrated churches. At least within. But as a result of the surrender got permission to leave those churches and create their own church. The first such church to be created here in the county was galilee. One of the first was john robinson, the treasurer and trustee of the church. Initially our understanding is in the months that followed the surrender, the congregation would form in what was known an arbor church, simply meeting outside under the trees, but by 1867, the congregation had had been able to form enough money and resources to actually build a log church that exists just about a mile to the west of the courthouse. About 50 years later in 1916, the new church would be built on the same ground and thats the church thats still there today, more than 100 years later. So the story of john robinson, hes not only a home owner and cofounder of a church, hes also a business man. Hes a shoe cobbler and apparently a pretty good one because he ran a business here for more than 50 years. John robinson didnt pass away until 1933, but after rising a large family, successful business and in fact some of the Robinson Family members are buried in the back yard of the Kelly Robinson house. So right here in the village, we can see the so what of the surrender and unfolds before our very eyes and weve only had to look more deeply to see the Untold Stories. Almost 150 years after the establishment of yellowstone as americas first National Park, there are now more than 60 designated National Parks in the u. S. Today. Next, we take you into the sonora desert of arizona to saguaro National Park and reaching a more Diverse Group of visitors. The desert landscape, the amount of wildlife that you see, the amazing sunsets, the variation in the terrain. This park goss from the sonoran dese desert. Up to the mountains close to 9,000 feet. So the diversity is amazing and i think thats one thing that makes this park pretty special is the diversity of the vegetation, the wildlife and the landscape that youre seeing everywhere. The National Monument was established in 1933 and one of the primary reasons was for the protection of this cactus before us, that is surrounding us here and in the 1930s, it was a vast and very dense stand of large and small saguaros. And throughout with repeat photography of the site it was shown that the Cactus Forest appeared to be disappearing. And many of the mature saguaros were dying and leaving the population and not many new ones were recruited. Weve since learned that impacts from widespread harvest of mesquite trees and other trees, verde, impacted this forest. Saguaros depend on a nurse tree early in their growth, theyre getting established, being protected from the extreme heat and sun and also from the cold temperatures during the winter. So if a seed falls and a young saguaro is established under the nurse tree, it helps ensure that its going to grow. Theyre slow growing. Many of the cactus are approaching 200 years owe potentially older. The large ones with the arms can be a couple of centuries old. Maybe when theyre 15 feet tall they start to grow their first arms. Even an saguaro a couple feet on the ground has been there for decades. As time goes on, you can see the healthy forest of mesquite and palo verde, theyre acting as nursery trees again. One thing you dont see behind me is the fact that there is a lot of young saguaros weve done extensive surveys and using a lot of volunteers and citizen scientists who have come out here and helped us walk across the landscape in a grid fashion to document all of the saguaros in a mile square area here and what we see is even though you cant see it looking out across this valley, there are many, many, many more saguaros that are going to be be coming up and turning into the majestic saguaros for many, many years to come. Were monitoring and every 10 years coinciding with the u. S. Census we have the established plots where we go out and measure the saguaros and how many nest cavities are in them and arms on them and monitor the population of the saguaros through time and help inform us as to whats happening in the populati population. We are on the historic cactus loop of our East District of the park. We refer to this as the mountain district. This roadway was constructed by the ccc and has served as a primary, you know, tourist loop on the way to get out into the park, see the saguoro cactus and vegetation, you see whats in the park, gila monsters, jack rabbits, roadrunners, probably up over 100 bird species potentially and then obviously all of this unique Sonoran Desert vegetation, the cactus, are namesake, saguaro cactus and many species. Ones you have to look close to find and others that are large ap prominent on the landscape and then people refer to the desert, they think of sparse landscape thats hot and theres nothing there. But actually, as you can see out the window here, this place is thick with vegetation. Its still really green right now because of the monsoon rains and theyre leafed out and its a sea of plants and wildlife out here. 2015 was our highest visitation on record and we continue to see the numbers increase on a month to month basis this year, so, you know, people are finding the park here at saguaro National Park and i think across the country visitation has been increasing, and the centennial and the Advertising Campaign and initiatives to get people engaged with their parks, you know, in their community and across the country, has, i think, is has been extremely successful. We want to be reaching out to our the diversity of our communities and improving our visi visitation, not just in numbers, but the richness of visitors that we have in our parks, representing what america is today. I group up just south of here as a kid, but then i came up here to university of arizona to go to school. Got my undergrad and grad degree here and ive been here in tucson and weve got an exploding population in tucson, about 44 latino and like i said before, ive been to college and lived here for 26 years and id never been to the National Park here in tucson. I got recruited out of the local county government here as the Community Engagement coordinator because i was, as they said, the target audience of the next 100 years. So it was almost an experiment to see what it would take to engage folks of my demographic to attend the park and some argue that historically the park service has not been inviting, but i would say the last five years theres a concerted effort to try to engage not just folks of color, but folks of different abilities and a lot of us that make it accessible to folks with disabilities and thats part and parcel of what i think is keeping some folks away, but they still any its the old National Park service thats limited to vehicles, limited to its almost like some folks think were set up for professional hikers and were not. It really is designed to be accessible to all. Here in tucson, recently we had funding to establish an all ada accessible walkway. While the walkway, unfortunately wars part of the trails and we had a horse vandalize, purposely or involuntarily, they damaged one of the trails and the Community Came out and horsemans association and said, hey, were sorry about that, we want to help out. Here is a small contribution to help the trail and so, folks take care of each other in tucson and care about making sure the parks are accessible to different folks. Having National Parks, you know, its one of those true american ideas that originated in the United States. The people in this country, we know that they value the National Park system and all of these wonderful places and different resources that we have, natural ap cultural resources. You know, advocacy is something thats really important and be relevant to our current parks visitors is extremely important. We want to provide an opportunity for them to get outside, to learn about the outdoors, the these resources that the wildlife is dependent upon, were dependent upon, clean water and air and these things originate in National Parks. The more people that can visit and understand that, the more likely we are to have a new generation that embraces the importance of that and wants to protect it into the future. Cspans cities tour travels the country exploring the american story with the support of local cable providers, we bring you the history and literary life of a different city on book tv and American History tv. To watch videos of any of the places weve been, go to cspan. Org citiestour and follow us on twitter at cspan cities. Financial regulators testify on the impact of regulations on diversity and minorities before a House Financial Services subcommittee today. Live coverage begins at noon eastern on cspan2. Congress is set to return from summer recess with the senate back in session today. Theyll take up a number of judicial nominations starting with bret ludwig to be a judge for the Eastern District of wisconsin, thats live at 3 p. M. Eastern. The house returns for business next week with work expected on condemning antiasian bias during the covid pandemic, decriminalizing marijuana at the federal level and law inintelligence agencies. Two not on the schedule, but could see by the end of week, a paired down fund level, and current funding levels when they expire. And look for that on cspan2 and the house when they return on cspan. A shameful role call of the most catastrophic betrayals of our lifetime. Our current president s fail in his most basic duty of the nation, hes failed to protect us. Hes failed to protect america. And my fellow americans, that is unforgivable. The first president ial debate between President Donald Trump and former vicepresident joe biden is tuesday, september 29th, at 9 p. M. Eastern. Watch live coverage on cspan. Watch Live Streaming and ondemand at cspan. Org or listen live on the free cspan radio app. A senate panel now hears about Lessons Learned on Remote Working during the coronavirus. And how private companies were utilizing remote work and how the federal government could reduce their office work space
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