ART, LITERATURE, science, politics, conservation, history, the depression, two world wars, human rights and nature itself. These unequal things are the characters in the story of this country’s national parks being told by a Ken Burns film this week. We in Montana are privileged to have four of these wondrous places within or in close proximity to our borders. Struggles occurring mostly in the first half of the 20th century involving the singular efforts of remarkable men and women are responsible for the system today that stretches from the heart of my home town of Philadelphia to the Hawaiian Islands. From the top of the world in Alaska’s Denali National Park to the bottom some 200 feet below sea level, Death Valley National Park, in Nevada and California.
But there is one unrecognized hero in this story. Philanthropy.
The first naturalists and the first great study of wildlife in the parks would not have happened without philanthropy. Grand Teton National Park and the “parkway” connecting it to Yellowstone would not exist in their present forms without it. This program, of course, would not find an audience through PBS without it. Great people. Great wealth. A powerful sense of responsibility. Recognizing the Big Idea. Acting on behalf of the people and of future generations like ours.