Minnesota Parks

Coming in October, the MN Channel brings you two shows which explore Minnesota's own National Parks and the legacy of each generation's citizen stewardship:

Minnesota's National Park Legacy
Airing: Sunday, December 6, 8pm on Sunday, December 13, noon on tptLIFE
Explore the national parks right outside our front door, from the scenic waterways of the Mississippi and St. Croix Rivers, to the historic sites at Pipestone and Grand Portage, to the vast waters of Voyageurs and the national trails weaving across the state.  Co-produced with all National Park Service sites in Minnesota.
	Minnesota's National Parks Legacy preview

	Watch "Parks For The People" preview

The landscape of Minneapolis and Saint Paul was once that of a tall grass prairie with few trees and marshy lakes.  Today the cities are regarded as some of America’s great ‘green’ cities with tree-lined parkways, public-owned lake shores and vibrant neighborhood parks.  How did the cities create a one of a kind park system?  ‘Parks for the People’ tells the surprising story of the origins and evolution of the park systems of the Twin Cities and surrounding areas. 

With a landscape that includes the Minnehaha Falls, Como Lake, the Chain of Lakes, and the Mississippi river, Minneapolis and St. Paul always possessed remarkable natural features.  But what few know is how it took vision, leadership, and civic will to protect, acquire, preserve, enhance and maintain these important amenities.  Through revealing history, High Definition videography, and nostalgic imagery , ‘Parks for the People’ recounts how these places came to be and the unique place the Twin Cities park systems hold in the American Landscape.   

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National Parks

Ken Burns brings his new documentary series, The National Parks:  America's Best Idea to PBS.  This six-part documentary series is the story of an idea as uniquely American as the Declaration of Independence and just as radical: that the most special places in the nation should be preserved, not for royalty or the rich, but for everyone.  The narrative story traces the birth of the national park idea in the mid-1800s and follows its evolution for nearly 150 years.

Watch these clips from National Parks: The Untold Stories Project
Mount Rushmore: Telling America's Stories	City Kids in National Parks	Yosemite's Buffalo Soldiers	Manzanar: Never Again	San Antonio Missions: Keeping History Alive

RESOURCES
PBS | National Parks site	Share your Parks story