THE NATIONAL PARKS is the story of an idea as uniquely American as the Declaration of Independence: that the most special places in the nation should be preserved for everyone. The series traces the birth of the national park idea in the mid-1800s and follows its evolution for nearly 150 years, chronicling the addition of new parks through the stories of the people who helped create them.

Filmed over the course of more than six years at some of nature's most spectacular locales, "The National Parks: America's Best Idea" is a six-part, 12-hour documentary series by Ken Burns and his longtime colleague Dayton Duncan on the history of America's national parks. This is a story of people - rich and poor, famous and unknown, soldiers and scientists, natives and newcomers, idealists, artists and entrepreneurs - who were willing to devote themselves to saving some precious portion of the land they loved and in doing so, reminded their fellow citizens of the full meaning of democracy.