Video
Glimpses of National Parks, ca. 1936
Descriptive Transcript
Title card: Image of a bison above “United States Department of the Interior National Park Service presents”
Intertitle card: Yellowstone National Park
Intertitle card: Lower Falls—the second cataract is worth the steep climb to the bottom.
A park ranger and a woman sit on rocks watching a waterfall.
Intertitle card: At Artist’s Point it is hard to believe the Falls are really twice as high as Niagara
Two women stand looking across a canyon towards a waterfall.
Intertitle card: Osprey Falls, hidden in Gardiner Canyon.
A ranger and two women stand on the bank of a rocky river at the foot of a waterfall.
Intertitle card: The nursery of a baby elk and two little deer.
A park ranger, two women, and a toddler stand in a fenced area with two spotted fawns and a small elk. The ranger feeds the elk while a woman feeds the fawn. The child and other woman look on.
Intertitle card: Buffaloes are increasing under Park protection.
The ranger and two women watch a herd of seven or eight bison from behind a high fence. The bison move towards them as a ranger on a horse rides into the scene from the left. He rides off the screen to the right then turns back and crosses off the left side of the screen.
Intertitle card: And the bears in Yellowstone are famous.
A mother and her two cubs are tossed food from off camera. The bears wander off into the woods, walking along a downed tree trunk.
Intertitle card: Boiling springs, depositing lime, have built formations like Jupiter Terrace.
The ranger and two women walk along the top of a steaming limestone terrace.
Intertitle card: There are a lot of hot pools like Morning Glory Pool, clear and blue.
The ranger and two women stand at the end of Morning Glory Pool, peering into its clear water. A close-up of the inside of the pool is seen.
Intertitle card: Riverside Geyser plays “Over the River.”
A steaming pool erupts spewing water into the air. A bridge is seen in the background.
Intertitle card: Every hour—day or night—Old Faithful Geyser suddenly arouses with its eruptions of hissing steam.
An aerial view from a nearby high point of Old Faithful erupting. People can be seen walking in the basin near the geyser. A car goes by on a road in the foreground.
Intertitle card: The top of Mount Washburn is nearly two miles above sea level.
An aerial view from a nearby mountain of Mount Washburn. Cars are see driving up a winding road.
Intertitle card: Yosemite National Park
A view moving through trees reveals a large granite face of a mountain.
Intertitle card: El Capitan, whose massive granite has resisted the grinding glaciers, rises 3,604 feet above the Valley.
The ranger and two women look at El Capitan from the valley floor.
View of a lake with trees and mountains in the background.
About six people sit on large boulders below twin rock columns on a mountain. A handful of women and a girl sit on or stand by a stone bridge railing looking at a river surrounded by trees, to the mountains beyond. Various view of mountains, valleys, and trees.
Intertitle card: When you think of Yosemite you think of waterfalls.
Views of waterfalls running over high cliffs. Five women sit on a rock near the base of a waterfall. One reaches her arms out towards the water as it hits a rock partway down, creating a big mist. Children look at a waterfall in the distance.
Intertitle card: Nature’s real mirrors.
The ranger and two women stand on rocks and the camera pans down to look at the landscape of mountains and trees reflected in the water.
Intertitle card: Many deer—but none so tame as Anne Doe and her chums.
The two women feed three deer.
Intertitle card: From Glacier Point, the Ahwahnee Hotel is a tiny speck far away.
An aerial view of a barely visible Ahwahnee Hotel among trees taken from a nearby high point.
Intertitle card: Remember the Wawona in geography at school? It is a Sequoia tree centuries old.
View of a large sequoia tree in the forest. Open-top auto buses loaded with people approach on a road behind the tree and then drive through the hole in the base of the tree, continuing along the road out of the frame. Close up of a car driving through the tunnel in the Wawona tree.
Scene changes to a ranger standing next to a vertically positioned section of sequoia tree. Half a dozen visitors watch as he points to different marked rings on the tree. Scene changes to a ranger walking along the trunk of a downed sequoia tree. Three women in dresses are walking along the top side of the trunk. A small child pokes her head out of a hole in the tree trunk. Two bears wrestle. A bear paws at food on a feeding platform.
Intertitle card: Rocky Mountain National Park
Intertitle card: Estes Park is a village at the gateway of the Park.
View across roofs of houses and other buildings towards mountains in the distance.
Intertitle card: The Rockies’ snow-capped peaks.
Two women walk into up a trail and through tree branches which frame the mountains in the distance.
Intertitle card: A mountain highway, winding upward, leads to the top of the world.
Over half a dozen cars drive along a steep dirt road on the side of a mountain.
Intertitle card: A mid-summer snow-ball fight at an altitude of 11,797 feet.
The ranger and two women engage in a snowball fight, falling over each other, on the side of a mountain. Other mountain peaks are seen in the background.
Intertitle card: Above timber line, actually up in the clouds—crossing the Continental Divide at Milner Pass.
The two women and ranger hike up a trail. Mountains and clouds an be seen in the background. Silhouettes of two men and two women on horseback ride along a lake trail with mountains in the background.
Intertitle card: Grand Canyon National Park
Intertitle card: The rim of a might gorge thirteen miles wide and a mile deep.
Panning views across the Grand Canyon. When the camera stops a man can be seen on the top of the canyon rim.
Intertitle card: Down Bright Angel Trail.
The ranger and two women do down a steep dirt trail on mules. Distant view of a mule train taking visitors down the trail.
Intertitle card: Kaibab Suspension Bridge, a trembling path over the Colorado River.
View of a bridge suspended between two rocks over a mountain. A man on a horse is crossing the bridge.
Description
Silent black and white film featuring Yellowstone, Yosemite, Rocky Mountain, and Grand Canyon national parks. Intertitle cards provide descriptive information for the different scenes. Images include wildlife, waterfalls, rangers, visitor activities, and scenic views. NPS film in the public domain.
Duration
16 minutes, 18 seconds
Credit
NPS History Collection (HFCA 2486)
Date Created
08/14/2023
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