The national parks, America's best idea. Episode two, The last refuge (1890-1915)

"Some Americans begin to question the nation's headlong rush across the continent that has devastated forests and ravaged entire species of animals. Conservation's greatest champion is the new president, Theodore Roosevelt, who audaciously sets aside 800,000 acres of the Grand Canyon. John Muir fights the battle of his life to prevent the city of San Francisco from burying the Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park under a reservoir, and dies broken-hearted."@en
"By the end of the 19th century, widespread industrialization has left many Americans worried about whether the country will have any pristine land left. At the same time, poachers in the parks are rampant, and visitors think nothing of littering or carving their names near iconic sites like Old Faithful. Congress has yet to establish clear judicial authority or appropriations for the protection of the parks. This sparks a conservation movement by organizations such as the Sierra Club, led by John Muir; the Audubon Society, led by George Bird Grinnell; and the Boone and Crockett Club, led by Theodore Roosevelt. The movement fails, however, to stop San Francisco from building the Hetch Hetchy dam at Yosemite, flooding Muir's "mountain temple" and leaving him broken-hearted before he dies."@en

"The national parks, America's best idea. Episode two, The last refuge (1890-1915)"@en
"The national parks America's best idea. Episode two, The last refuge (1890-1915)"@en