National treasures

PASADENA, Calif. — "The National Parks: America's Best Idea" is one big story told through a series of smaller stories.

And those smaller stories often seem like the same story told over and over again.

It goes something like this: Americans discover an incredibly beautiful part of their country; some people try to exploit it; others try to protect it.

When it is protected, local political and business interests complain bitterly. But, eventually, everyone decides it was a great idea.

Places like, say, the Grand Canyon.

"Every time that you start to turn over a rock of the story of any national park, what you found is some sort of permutation of that story," said Dayton Duncan, who wrote and co-produced the six-part, 12-hour documentary with Ken Burns. "There were people who saw that canyon as a place that needed a dam and there were people who saw that forest as something that needed to be cut. But there were some people who said, 'Stop!' Who said that they loved that place so deeply that they dedicated themselves and, using the tools of democracy, saved it so that generations that had yet to be born could fall in love with that place just as much as they had. And could see it just as they had.

"And, to me, that is a hell of a story."

The title — and the theme of the documentary series — comes from Utah writer Wallace Stegner, who called the national parks "the best idea we ever had."

"National Parks" recounts the history of the national park system, beginning with the first — Yellowstone. While Utah has more national parks than any other state, none of them plays a big role in the documentary.

"We're telling a narrative that begins with the natural national parks and follows the evolution of ideas and the stories of compelling individuals," Burns said. "And as such, and not wanting to be an encyclopedia, we don't feel compelled to list every single one."

(There are now 391 units in the national park system.)

"We show an image — at least an image — of every one of the 58 natural national parks," Burns said, as opposed to showing the historic sites.

"National Parks" opens in 1851 as the U.S. Army rides into Yosemite to exterminate the Indians and the troops are amazed by what they see. It ends, more or less, in 1980.