IN THE AMERICAS WITH DAVID YETMAN Season 10


#101 - Slickrocks and monuments in the Four Corners
Nowhere else in the world offers a more graphic view of deep forces of geology at work than the Four Corners portion the Colorado Plateau. The arid climate, the peculiar volcanoes, the powerful forces of erosion, and the clashes of Earth’s tectonic plates makes for the highest concentration of national park features in the United States. We travel from wind-swept deserts to dense forests as we move through the spectacular formations. In the process we witness the slow death of a modern lake.

#102 - Ancient peoples of the Colorado Plateau
More than a thousand years before the arrival of Europeans in the southwestern U.S. native peoples were establishing their occupation of the Colorado Plateau. They learned early how to derive a living in a dry climate where winters were bitter and summers torrid. And they left behind proof of their scientific and technological accomplishments in plain sight—with a little assistance from contemporary archaeologists.

#103 - The wild and explosive past of northwest New Mexico
For thousands of years, New Mexico’s northwestern quadrant has been home to a wide variety of native peoples. The places they chose to live are a showcase of the powers of volcanoes and erosion. These natural monuments help define the territories these people have chosen and have become symbols for their homelands. Towering volcanic remnants shoot up from the earth while others record disruptive flows of lava that continue nearly to the present. Some formations defy normal human expectations.

#104 - The Northern Jaguar Preserve: Where the great cats roam freely
A little over one hundred miles south of the U.S-Mexico borders in the state of Sonora, international conservation groups have discovered the ideal habitat for jaguars, mountain lions, and ocelots. Through their efforts, former cattle ranches in some of the roughest country in North America now belong to these top predators, who leave their images on cameras that now document populations of the secretive beasts. The photographs reveal jaguars so at home in the region that researchers have given them names.

#105 - The Salton Sea. Life and death in an inland ocean.
For more than a thousand years, the Salton Sink In southeastern California has been home to the largest body of water in the state. It is there because the San Andreas Fault is tearing southern California apart and the bottom is dropping out. Three hundred years ago, it was Lake Cahuilla, a freshwater lake, but changing geology, the whims of the Colorado River, and the negative side of extensive, industrial agriculture have resulted in a very salty and polluted sea. Once a booming tourist mecca, drought, agriculture, and failed development have produced a nearly dead body of water. All around the lake are fragments of broken dreams. One place, a most unusual one, continues to thrive.

#106 - Whales and their offspring in San Ignacio Lagoon
For millennia, gray whales have made an annual pilgrimage from the cold, rich marine waters in the Gulf of Alaska to the warm, protected waters of San Ignacio Lagoon. The calm bay sits onthe west coast of Baja California. There the mother whales feel safe from predators and give birth to their calves. They also urge the newborn giants to make contact with humans, who await them in boats, hoping for an opportunity to pet them. In this vast shelter, both the Mexican government and the boatmen, fishermen the rest of the year, guard the whales and nurture the friendship between people and the gentle leviathans.

#107 - As the waters of Lake Powell recede
The Colorado River was dammed at Glen Canyon in the early 1960s. The resulting reservoir, Lake Powell, is the second largest reservoir in the United States. As a prolonged drought grips the southwestern United States the lake is shrinking. The falling water levels reveal a wonderland of canyons from angles never before seen. And the new landscapes reveal fragments of ancient peoples who made Glen Canyon home.

#108 - Colon’s Spain and the quest for western lands.
Christopher Columbus set out from Huelva, on Spain’s southwest coast, in 1492 in a quest to chart unknown lands with hoped-for riches. With him he brought three ships and a cultural impact that changed the world forever in the space of thirty years. Huelva and its surrounding area reveal a wealth of cultural and historical influences, from Romans through Moors to Spaniards, from technology to disease, through Italians and (perhaps) Portuguese ancestry that Columbus and subsequent would-be conquerors carried with them. They would transform the Americas into a European province.

#109 - Christopher Columbus, his time and his plans.
Columbus spent nearly a decade in Spain lobbying for his expedition. More than anywhere else, he remained in Huelva, a port on Spain’s southwestern coast. With him on his voyages he brought the heritage of his surroundings and their many assumptions. His quest shaped his mission and the sailors he chose were of critical importance to the success or failure of his mission. Understanding them and their times helps clarify the influence– and the destruction they would heap on the Americas.

#110 - 1492: Americans discover Europe.
Americans, perhaps thirty million strong, did not submissively accept the rule of Europeans. Their resistance and reception of the foreigners varied greatly. We visit Dominican Republic, where Columbus established a beachhead and then to the Mexican port of Veracruz where Hernán Cortés landed 28 years later. We follow his route across lofty mountain chains to Tenochtitlán of the Aztecs, today’s Mexico City, where the final showdown took place. Along the way we show some of what Cortés encountered.