Latest work helps documentarian unlock his own cherished memory

Ken Burns has a good memory. But if you had asked him, he would have told you he had never set foot in a national park before he began researching his latest documentary film series.

For generations of U.S. families, the glorious scenery of our national parks has provided the backdrop for countless memories. A trip to Yosemite, Yellowstone or any of the 58 natural national parks (as distinguished from the 391 units of the National Park Service) can provide enough familial snapshots to last a lifetime.

That was great for others, but not for Burns. From age 3, his boyhood had been darkened by the grim shadow of his mother's cancer. She died when he was 11, and many of his childhood memories were buried with her.

But his first trip to Yosemite during the filming of "The National Parks: America's Best Idea" would change that. His memory of a trip to Shenandoah National Park with his father pushed into his consciousness like a wildflower through snow.

"There had been no catches in the backyard, no baseball game attendance," Burns said. "But one day he picked me up and took me to Shenandoah National Park. I had forgotten that. When I began this project, I knew I'd been to battlefields ... but I was telling my colleagues I had never been to a national park before as I entered Yosemite and had that just jaw-dropping experience that anyone who has been to Yosemite has had.

"That may be the most beautiful spot on Earth."

Then that small, beautiful memory blossomed. It had been there since 1959 waiting for the 6-year-old in him to come along. The result of that epiphany and others is the six-part, 12-hour series that airs this week on PBS.

The national parks are not only important to our nation's humanity. They play an essential role in our collective memory. Burns weaves that memory with stunning scenery and the stories of the incredible lives of the men and women who defied long odds to create the national park system.

As he recalled his own childhood memory, he said excitedly, "All of a sudden I had access back to this amazing time when I had my dad to myself in a pretty difficult time for the family. We hiked and caught salamanders and did all the stuff that fathers and sons do at that age. ...

"It turns out so much of intimate American family memory is tied to a visit to a national park. Your parents take you there on that grand tour. Then you take your kids, and your kids are taking their kids. And you're perpetuating a kind of intimate relationship to these vast geological wonderlands."

Even more amazing is the fact so many Americans managed to set aside self-interest for the greater good.

"For the first time in human history, land was set aside not for kings or noblemen or the very rich, but for everybody and for all time," he said. "The traditional, natural instincts of human beings, the inquisitive and extractive instincts, which we Americans have in spades, was checked. And we were able to set aside, beginning in the middle of the 19th century, some of the most beautiful landscape on Earth. And we did it for everybody."

Burns borrowed a line from Wallace Stegner, the great historian of the West, for the title of his series. But lately he's taken to memorizing something from educator John Wesley Hill:

"What is it that inspires love of the flag, that tunes the ear of America to sing 'My Country 'Tis of Thee'? Is it industrial efficiency, irrigation statistics or trade output? Is it the hideous ore dumps of the sordid mining camp? Is it the blackened waste that follows the devastation of much of our forest wealth? Is it the smoking factory of the grimy mill town? Is it even the lofty metropolitan skyscraper that shuts out the sun and throws its shadow over all below? No, our devotion to the flag is inspired by love of country. Patriotism is the religion of the soil, and the national parks are our richest patrimony."

Amid this grinding recession, Americans can do worse than be reminded of our better angels and the greatness of our land. "The National Parks: America's Best Idea" comes along at just the right time.

John L. Smith's column appears Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. E-mail him at Smith@reviewjournal.com or call (702) 383-0295. He also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/smith.