CALIFORNIA'S GOLD: CALIFORNIA'S STATE PARKS (TV)
Summary
One in this series of travel programs featuring host Huell Howser, who tours California, exploring the state's diversity. In this episode, Howser visits two of CaliforniaÕs 275 state parks. He begins in the Mojave Desert at the Providence Mountain State Recreation Area and Mitchell Caverns. Park rangers take Howser and his cameras on a tour of the Caverns, providing both a geological and a human history of the area and pointing out the notable rock formations in the caves. The story of Jack and Ada Mitchell is then told by their daughter Ruth Beauchamps, who vividly recalls her parentsÕ hard work to make the caverns accessible to the public in the 1930s, '40s and '50s. Next, Howser travels to the Sierra Nevada foothills, to the Indian Grinding Rock Historic Park. Historical guide Rita Nunes and two members of the Sierra Native American Council, Marcus Peters and David Snooks, lead a tour of a reconstructed Miwok tribal village. In the village, Howser explores the traditional cedar-bark dwellings and the ceremonial round house. He then speaks with a Miwok craftswoman, who presents her baskets, beads, and other work. The tour concludes at the large grinding rock, and Howser learns about the rockÕs long history as a communal cooking area as he watches a demonstration of traditional Miwok acorn-meal preparation.
Cataloging of this program was made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, 1999.
Details
- NETWORK: KCET-TV (Los Angeles, CA) / PBS
- DATE: May 1, 1994 Sunday
- RUNNING TIME: 0:29:09
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T:54885
- GENRE: Magazine
- SUBJECT HEADING: Parks - California; Caves - California; Miwok Indians; California - Description and travel; Indigenous Peoples Collection
- SERIES RUN: PBS KCET - TV series, 1991-2012
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Huell Howser … Producer, Writer
- Phil Noyes … Associate Producer
- Charles Bausback … Researcher
- Huell Howser … Host
- Ruth Beauchamps
- Ada Mitchell
- Jack Mitchell
- Rita Nunes
- Marcus Peters
- David Snooks