We went to the Visitor's Center at the Colorado National Monument and I wanted to do my normal routine of watching the video. We watched a video that was content-free ... misty-eyed photographic images (I am even skeptical that some of the images were from this national park) with new-age massage therapy music in the background ... all designed to leave one with a lovely, sanitized national park "feel good about beautiful nature" sensation and not one wit of environmental, geologic, biologic, historic and/or cultural information.
Where is the information about the Colorado Plateau Uplift and inland sea forming sedimentary deposits that have been eroded by the Colorado River water system and wind and weather to form the intricate canyon lands of Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico? Where is the information on the flora and fauna of the canyon lands (including the bighorn sheep that a ranger told us were so plentiful as to be a hazard on the roadways)? What about the history of the C.C.C. in building the roadway and the loss of nine lives when a tunnel collapsed and the amazing experience of these young men as they worked, learned, earned and survived the Great Depression? What about the cultural history of the Ute Native Americans who made this area as part of their homelands? What about the story of John Otto and his efforts to build a roadway into the park and to get it designated as a national park (and his brief marriage to a woman who realized that he really intended to have them live in the wilderness and left him)?
Certainly not everything needs to be packed into a 20 minute video ... but the content-free, feel good imagery accompanied by new age piano pieces does nothing to advance the importance of wilderness and to create an army of defenders committed to keeping it wild. A missed opportunity to impact the lives of the visitors to this amazing national park ... and, I for one, am disappointed and angered.
Where is the information about the Colorado Plateau Uplift and inland sea forming sedimentary deposits that have been eroded by the Colorado River water system and wind and weather to form the intricate canyon lands of Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico? Where is the information on the flora and fauna of the canyon lands (including the bighorn sheep that a ranger told us were so plentiful as to be a hazard on the roadways)? What about the history of the C.C.C. in building the roadway and the loss of nine lives when a tunnel collapsed and the amazing experience of these young men as they worked, learned, earned and survived the Great Depression? What about the cultural history of the Ute Native Americans who made this area as part of their homelands? What about the story of John Otto and his efforts to build a roadway into the park and to get it designated as a national park (and his brief marriage to a woman who realized that he really intended to have them live in the wilderness and left him)?
Certainly not everything needs to be packed into a 20 minute video ... but the content-free, feel good imagery accompanied by new age piano pieces does nothing to advance the importance of wilderness and to create an army of defenders committed to keeping it wild. A missed opportunity to impact the lives of the visitors to this amazing national park ... and, I for one, am disappointed and angered.
2 comments:
I trust you left this well written blog with the folks running the center? That would be disappointing to me also.
Hear, Hear! A riled up retiree with a clear perspective I strongly support. If you want more of the same pablum go to Glacier National park - no one mention of geology! I am beginning to wonder if there is any place for content discussions anymore in federal institutions.
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