Re: Ken Burns In Yosemite National Park For Media Interviews And To Provide A Sneak Preview His New Documentary

Yosemite Media Advisory
April 20, 2009
For Immediate Release
Media contacts:
Scott Gediman and Kari Cobb – Yosemite National Park, 209-372-0248
Pete Bartelme – The Yosemite Fund, 415-664-1503
Joe DePlasco – For Ken Burns, 917-742-6760
Acclaimed Filmmaker Ken Burns In Yosemite National Park For Media Interviews And To Provide A Sneak
Preview His New Documentary NATIONAL PARKS: AMERICA’S BEST IDEA

What:
Considered one of the most influential documentary makers of all time, Ken Burns will preview NATIONAL PARKS:
AMERICA’S BEST IDEA in Yosemite National Park and will be available for interviews.
Coproduced and written with Dayton Duncan, this new film was created over more than six years at some of nature's most
spectacular locales – from Acadia to Yosemite, to the Gates of the Arctic in Alaska. It traces the evolution of the national
park idea from the Yosemite Grant in 1864 to the present day – a story of people from every conceivable background
willing to devote themselves to saving lands they loved. The six-part, 12 hour film will air on PBS in September 2009.
Prior to Yosemite, Burns and Duncan will also be participating in a one-day conference on the National Parks and
Diversity – “Parks for All” – in San Francisco on Wednesday, April 22 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Cowell Theatre (for
more information contact Joe DePlasco at 917-742-6760).
When: Friday, April 24, 2009 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Who:
Ken Burns – Filmmaker
Dayton Duncan – Producer and writer
Dave Uberuaga – Acting Superintendent, Yosemite National Park
Mike Tollefson – President, The Yosemite Fund
Yosemite National Park officials and park staff

Where:
Yosemite Theater, Located behind the Yosemite Valley Visitor Center
Photo Ops/Interviews:
Individual interviews with Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan are available in 15 minute increments from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.
m. Please call the Yosemite Media Relations Office at 209-372-0248 to reserve an interview time. Other officials at the
event are available for interviews any time during the event.

A one hour screening of the film will occur subsequent to the above mentioned media availability.

The Yosemite Fund’s Mike Tollefson is available to discuss improvement projects planned for 2009 and to tour successful
efforts funded by the nonprofit organization such as approach to lower Yosemite Fall, restored meadows, and the famous
Tunnel View overlook.Yosemite’s spectacular waterfalls will be in full force as the winter snow pack continues to melt.

April 24, 2009
For Immediate Release
Media Contacts:
Scott Gediman 209-372-0248
Kari Cobb 209-372-0529
Ken Burns visits Yosemite National Park to preview his latest film: NATIONAL PARKS: AMERICA’S BEST IDEA

Acclaimed filmmaker Ken Burns visited Yosemite National Park today to preview his latest film National Parks:
America’s Best Idea. Burns visited Yosemite landmarks, such as Yosemite Falls and Cooks Meadow, interacted with
Yosemite Institute participants, and showed a one hour preview to Yosemite National Park employees and park partners.
Coproduced and written with Dayton Duncan, this new film was created over more than six years at some of nature's most
spectacular locales – from Acadia to Yosemite, to the Gates of the Arctic in Alaska. It traces the evolution of the national
park idea from the Yosemite Grant in 1864 to the present day – a story of people from every conceivable background
willing to devote themselves to saving lands they loved. The six-part, 12 hour film will air on PBS in September 2009.
Ken Burns visited Yosemite along with other national parks and cities throughout the country to preview his film and
share his experiences with National Park Service employees and national park enthusiasts.

Anyone have info on how the Ken Burn's show went?

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The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.
-- Carl Sagan

A little more on Burns' Yosemite Visit:

http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/story?section=news/local&id=6778003
Burns' Yosemite Documentary
Friday, April 24, 2009 By Sara Sandrik
Fresno, CA (KFSN) -- Yosemite National Park plays a starring role in a new documentary by one of the most acclaimed filmmakers in the world.
Friday during a screening in Yosemite, Ken Burns provided a sneak peak at his film that will air on PBS. The sights here in Yosemite are of course spectacular, but it's the history of this national park and others that inspired Ken Burns to create what he calls his best work. ……

Mike Tollefson, former Yosemite superintendent said, "Many people don't realize that during the Civil War, Lincoln set Yosemite aside for the people of the nation, and while Yellowstone people call it the first national park, it really is Yosemite where the idea started." (kibitzer says: How about Hot Springs National Park?? http://www.hotsprings.org/things_to_do/historic_hotsprings/hs_national_park.asp)
The film features historical accounts of the people who helped promote and preserve our nation's parks, as well as modern day stories of people like Yosemite Ranger Shelton Johnson who grew up in Detroit thinking such pristine places were out of reach.
Shelton Johnson, a Yosemite park ranger said, "This film will probably be the definitive statement in film for a long time on the idea of national parks."
……
Burns added, "I've made films on the Civil War and the Second World War that have made people weep, but we've had more tears out of this film just in remembering oh yeah, my dad took me, or my mom took me, and you get this amazing sense of kinship."
Burns said he visited 53 of the 58 national parks featured in his film, but it was Yosemite that made his jaw drop for the first time.

\.

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The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.
-- Carl Sagan

Quote
Frank Furter
Mike Tollefson, former Yosemite superintendent said, "Many people don't realize that during the Civil War, Lincoln set Yosemite aside for the people of the nation, and while Yellowstone people call it the first national park, it really is Yosemite where the idea started." (kibitzer says: How about Hot Springs National Park?? http://www.hotsprings.org/things_to_do/historic_hotsprings/hs_national_park.asp)
The film features historical accounts of the people who helped promote and preserve our nation's parks, as well as modern day stories of people like Yosemite Ranger Shelton Johnson who grew up in Detroit thinking such pristine places were out of reach.
Shelton Johnson, a Yosemite park ranger said, "This film will probably be the definitive statement in film for a long time on the idea of national parks."

I think it was the idea in the Yosemite Grant of 1864 that a natural area should be set aside for preservation before it was exploited for its natural resources. It was considered to be a park land from the beginning of the Yosemite Grant.

Hot Springs as a federal reservation would seemed to have been set up as a way to regulate the unchecked use of the area for commercial interests. Apparently it took years from the time the state of Arkansas asked for it to be set aside. However - the history seems to indicate that the original concept was to regulate the businesses using the water from the mineral springs similar to a mining resource. The history of the area doesn't say that it was set aside as any kind of park land until 1880.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/12/2009 02:04PM by y_p_w.

http://usparks.about.com/blplanner-hotsprings5.htm

I'm just playing the Devil Advocate and being pedantic. It depend on what the definition of "park", "national" ,"designation" ,"governmental", "protection", or "is" is.
Tollefson was emphasizing the "concept" of governmental federal protection for public use as originating in Yosemite. I suspect that the idea of a public land reserved for public use pre-dated Yosemite and the usual original federal action is associated with Hot Springs Area which eventually became a national park. Officially, the first land to be called a national park by congress, I believe, was Yellowstone. When I last read on the subject, Yosemite Valley was protected for the citizens of California,or something like that, as essentially a state park. I don't believe it was originally established as a federally protected area. I would have to research this to be sure.

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The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.
-- Carl Sagan

Quote
Frank Furter
http://usparks.about.com/blplanner-hotsprings5.htm

I'm just playing the Devil Advocate and being pedantic. It depend on what the definition of "park", "national" ,"designation" ,"governmental", "protection", or "is" is.
Tollefson was emphasizing the "concept" of governmental federal protection for public use as originating in Yosemite. I suspect that the idea of a public land reserved for public use pre-dated Yosemite and the usual original federal action is associated with Hot Springs Area which eventually became a national park. Officially, the first land to be called a national park by congress, I believe, was Yellowstone. When I last read on the subject, Yosemite Valley was protected for the citizens of California,or something like that, as essentially a state park. I don't believe it was originally established as a federally protected area. I would have to research this to be sure.

The Yosemite Grant was from an act of Congress. The federal government acquired Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove, but then transferred the land to California to run as a state park. That was the case until it was declared a National Park in 1890.

When I read about Hot Springs, it sounds more like a resource management issue. Sort of how a piece of land would come under BLM control for them to manage as a resource for people.

Y_P_W:
I don't disagree with what you write. One point is that there is a difference between Yosemite Valley and land beyond the valley that eventually became the park. There is a implication that the actions of Congress were driven by concern about the exploitation or destruction of Yosemite area natural resources for commercial benefit.

Additional info:
http://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/yosemite_resources/state_grant.html

From Linda W. Greene's book Yosemite:The Park and Its Resources (1987) :
On 30 June 1864, Congress passed an act segregating for preservation and recreational purposes the
“Cleft” or “Gorge” in the Granite Peak of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, situated in the county of Mariposa . . . and the head-waters of the Merced River, and known as the Yosemite Valley, with its branches and spurs, in estimated length fifteen miles, and in average width one mile back from the main edge of the precipice, on each side of the Valley, with the stipulation, nevertheless, that the said State shall accept this grant upon the express conditions that the premises shall be held for public us£, resort, and recreation; shall be inalienable for all time. . . .2
[2. The Yosemite Guide-Book (Cambridge, Mass.: University Press, 1870), 2. Conness further stated in the Senate hearing that the grant areas
are for all public purposes worthless, but . . . constitute, perhaps, some of the greatest wonders of the world. The object and purpose is to make a grant to the State, on the stipulations contained in the bill, that the property shall be inalienable forever, and preserved and improved as a place of public resort. . . .
Ibid. According to the Yosemite Valley commissioners, the area’s governing body, although the Yosemite Grant covered fifty-six square miles, only about three percent of the tract could be made useful for any other purpose than that to which the act of Congress devoted it—namely, as a place for public resort and recreation. The section of the grant along the foot of the bluffs was either too high, very rocky, or covered with such a thick growth of heavy timber that it was rendered “entirely unfit for purposes of cultivation.” On the valley floor, only 745 acres were meadowlands, while the rest were fern lands requiring clearing and cultivation before they could be farmed. Obviously, agricultural pursuits were being considered from the beginning. Biennial Report of the Commissioners to Manage the Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa _Big Tree Grove For the Years 1887-88 (Sacramento: State Printing Office, 1888), 8.]
The Yosemite Grant included 36,111 acres and was entrusted to the state of California with certain stipulations. The act also granted, under similar conditions, four sections of public land, or 2,500 acres, containing the Mariposa Grove of Big Trees (see Appendix D). The grove was included in the grant to protect it from logging and other commercial exploitation. The purpose of the grant, as indicated by the stringent boundaries that ignored the ecological framework of the region, was to preserve monumental scenic qualities rather than an ecosystem. Although the words “national park” were not used in the legislation, in effect the Yosemite Grant embodied that concept, although neither Congress nor the federal government accepted any responsibility for the valley’s preservation or improvement. The act clearly stipulated that the valley and grove were to be managed by the governor of California and eight commissioners appointed by him and serving without pay, although the state would fund their traveling expenses. On 28 September 1864, Gov. Frederick F. Low of California proclaimed the grant to the state, and, in accordance with the act’s stipulations, appointed eight commissioners to manage the area: Frederick Law Olmsted, J. D. Whitney, William Ashburner, I. W. Raymond, E. S. Holden, Alexander Deering, George W. Coulter, and Galen Clark.

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The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.
-- Carl Sagan

A man came up to the ranger at Yosemite and said, "I've only got an hour to see Yosemite. If you only had an hour to see Yosemite, what would you do?"

And the ranger said "I would go right over there and sit on that rock and I'd cry."

Quote
Vince
A man came up to the ranger at Yosemite and said, "I've only got an hour to see Yosemite. If you only had an hour to see Yosemite, what would you do?"

And the ranger said "I would go right over there and sit on that rock and I'd cry."

Dang. I know I've read this somewhere before. Just can't remember where.
Anyone?
I think it may even have been said as 'only a day' too??

I know Schaffer said if he could only do one dayhike in the park he would do Half Dome.
I think I'd go sit on THE ROCK (El Cap.) and just cry.

If I make it to 75 I think I'll take the misses to El Cap meadow for the entire day and just do that.
Then say F it... and go to the Ahwaaaaaanee and blow 5grand on a room. Heck, I might even
raise a glass to good ol' Vince.