Rufus Sage

Transcription

The National Archives [Sound of rushing wind] The Rockies, they say, are the backbone of North America. The mountains split the sky with their enormous mass, And alter the face of half the continent. They create their own climate and thereby, shape their own character. Rising as the ultimate barrier to storms from the Pacific and Gulf of Mexico, the Colorado Rockies ring the skies to support their carpet of life. [Rushing stream] The patterns of life repeat year upon year generation upon generation. Yet, life changes; the landscape changes, And the Rockies of today are not like the Rockies of the past. [music] "FOUNTAIN OF LIFE: ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK" This is an ancient land. The rock is called precambrian: Stone first laid down some 1.7 billion years ago. In effect, this rock preceded most life on earth. Before mammals, before trees, before dinosaurs, Before the earliest animals of land or fish of the seas, This rock lay here. This rock twisted and folded under incredible pressure 300 million years past. Molten rock penetrated the earth and cooled to crystals of granite, And still, only the simplest of life was present. This is the larger geological story of the land, But there is a gap in the story, caused by repeated uplifts and erosion. Along the foothills, younger layers still survive, Carrying a record the mountaintops once held. Aided by uplifts that grazed the mountains more than a mile, Aided by the cooling of the earth's climate, Ice has been the major sculptor of the earth for the past 2 million years. Advancing and retreating, again and again. Reshaping stream valleys into U shapes. Gouging and bulldozing the earth. It was ice that gave the latest touch to the landscape. Mountain lakes like strings of beads lie where ice gouged out the bedrock in its various routes downstream. Great symmetrical moraines, the dumping grounds of glaciers, lie adjacent to the old paths of ice floes. But the thousands of feet of ice did disappear quickly. In as little as 2,000 years, the climate warmed. Snowfall decreased. And the glaciers--the mighty, mountain- moving glaciers--wasted away. The Rockies of today were exposed only 15,000 years ago. It is the character of life to advance where it can. To spread where it is able. Life supports life. The greater the diversity of plant communities, the greater the number of animals. And the larger the area, the greater the diversity of life. This Rocky Mountain wilderness is blessed with both. Plants adapted to cold, spread upon the mountains as fast as glaciers retreated. And with them, came the browsers and grazers and predators of life. Rocky Mountain weather is fickle. And the land can be as bone dry as it is wet. At lower elevations, less then 15 inches of moisture falls each year. Here, sagebrush and bitterbrush defy the stresses of life. At middle elevations, precipitation increases, And ponderosa pine woodlands appear. These are the open forests that cover so much of the West. Higher still, and up to the limit of trees, The dark and cool forest of subalpine fir and angelman spruce thrive where snow piles deepest in winter. Only where they are buried by summer snowbanks, Or pruned into flags or elfin trees by wind-driven ice do they end. And higher, across the roof of the Rockies, lies the alpine tundra -- the land above the trees. Here, the physical conditions that control life are exceedingly harsh. Winter temperatures often plummet to 30 degrees Fahrenheit below zero. Abrasive winds exceed 170 miles an hour. The ultraviolet radiation above 11,000 feet is twice that at sea level. Sunlight is 25% greater. Freezing and thawing perpetually churn the earth, creating fantastic rock patterns. The growing season lasts only 10-12 weeks each year And yet, and yet, life has found a way. Ground-hugging and perennial, the plants of the alpine tundra often possess enormous root systems. They have adjusted to this treeless world by the dozens. One-fourth of these ankle-high plants are the same species that carpet the arctic tundra of Alaska, Canada, and Siberia. But even though adapted to survive the harshness of such climate, tundra plants are fragile. A trampled patch of this alpine tundra make take 400 - 1,000 years to recover. For Rocky Mountain National Park, bighorn sheep stand as the symbol. They thrive where few animals can. Many of them live all year on the alpine tundra. Pica, that little haymaker of the mountains, uses the brief alpine summer to harvest a winter supply of food. while yellow-bellied marmot eat and fatten all summer in preparation for their winter's hibernation. White-tailed ptarmigan blend with the alpine landscape to enhance their chances of survival. And they do the same in winter. Once hunted from these mountains, elk were reintroduced and now outnumber all large mammals. Scattered over the land in summer, they congregate in the fall to mate. Their haunting bugle echos in the mountains and meadows as bull elk compete for the control of harems. [Elks calling] Range upon range, valley upon valley, The land is nearly as wild as when those first unnamed people approached and saw that it was good. The traces of those first people are subtle. Since their arrival about 11,000 years ago, the earth has erased most of their marks. But their stone tools and firepits lie buried in the ground. Their trails still cross the mountains. They left no written record, nor did the Ute or Arapahoe. or early French trappers. But in late September of 1843, a mountain man entered the foothills of the Rockies and later described what he saw. "The locality of my encampment presented numerous and varied attractions," wrote Rufus Sage. It seemed indeed like a concentration of beautiful, lateral valleys, intersected by meandering water courses, ridged by lofty ledges of precipitous rock and hemmed in upon the west by vast piles of mountains climbing beyond the clouds. The fame of the Rockies began to spread. Joel Estes settled here in 1860. And short on the heels of the early homesteaders came adventurous travelers whose writings brought more and more fame to the region. Into this mountainous country, in 1873, rode an unprepossessing British woman, Isabella Bird, who lived in rustic style, climbed Long's Peak, and described the land in a way that captivated readers. "This is a glorious region, and the air and life are intoxicating. "This is surely one of the most entrancing spots on earth. "The glades which begin so softly are soon lost in the dark, primeval forests. "Every valley ends in mystery." This was the west where riches were in store for those who know how to find them. And so the search for wealth came to northern Colorado. The land was reshaped. In 1879, promising gold and silver ore was discovered in the upper headwaters of the Colorado River. And with the rush to the region, Lulu City was born the following summer, Carrying visions of riches, the hopeful miners poured in. But promises were only promises. The ore never justified a stamping bill. And eventually, even the most optimistic dreamers moved on. By 1884, the bears and mountain lions ran a government of their own. Lulu City began to fade back into the earth. Horseshoe Park became a place to raise hay, As did Moraine Park and much of the Kawuneechee Valley. But ranching is marginal in the mountains, and one by one, the settlers learned that travelers -- a new breed that came to the mountains for leisure -- were happy to find a place to bunk for the night. The era of early-day Dude Ranching was born. However primitive, such hostelries began to serve a travel-hungry America. But others came, too. Market hunters pursued wildlife herds. Water developers made their claims. Cattlemen grazed their herds. And lumbermen downed the alpine forests. By 1909, the idea for a Rocky Mountain National Park was born. The issue was an emotional one, and naturally so, for it pitted commercial interests against those who would preserve such places. [Rushing water] "Listen awhile," declared Enos Mills. "Let music say the things that words can never teach. "Forget the language of the world." To him, the Rocky Mountains were a fountain of life. This was his home and inspiration. Enos Mills became the chief spokesman for the park cause. "The greatest resource of the people "is that which empowers and inspires them to do their best," exhorted Mills. "People are restless for the medicine and the spell of the wilderness." After six years, Mills saw his dream achieved. Rocky Mountain became the 10th National Park in America. What do people see? Why do they come? The answers are as varied and numerous as the people themselves. For many, the mountains mean a journey up Trail Ridge Road to the top of the Continent, to stand in the alpine world astride the Continental Divide where waters diverge to either the Altlantic or Pacific Oceans. For some, it is a place to savor a pace of living not easily found in today's world. For others, life is a search to learn something of the world. "You must seek the beauty," observed Enos Mills. Ranger, "They used those to make the hats when the beaver hats were in fashion." "We'll pass this around." And to the woods and alpine meadows they go. Into the winter storms, and to the mountain tops. There are no roads, no power lines, no vehicles, no conveniences. What they find may not be in the world, but within themselves. Afternoon lightning and wind, sudden snow storms, and dizzy heights far above the trees add the element of unpredictability. For each traveler, the experience is unique, colored by the nature of their personal encounter with the mountains. There is space enough to dream. This is again the world of river otter and peregrine falcon. Bighorn and elk again claim the high country. Where this exists, it is preserved. Where it is changed, it is being restored. There lies the space -- the wide and high and dazzling space of the mountains. 'FOUNTAIN OF LIFE" "ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK" [Credits] "Presented by" "NATIONAL PARK SERVICE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR" The End