♪♪(Guitar strumming)♪♪

Secretary Salazar: President Obama and his family decided as

part of their summer they would actually visit national parks

because it is a unifying American idea,

fundamentally democratic, and very much a part of our future.

President Obama: I have great memories of being here.

My grandma, my mom, and my sister, who is with us today,

she was two at the time, and we traveled throughout the

country the entire summer.

Our last stop was our favorite stop.

Ken Burns: The national parks, I think, are studies in leadership.

How presidents have related to the national parks have been in

some ways defining aspects of their larger leadership quality.

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Park Ranger: Well, I think it's always special when a president visits anywhere.

Chester A. Arthur was the first to visit Yellowstone in 1883.

President Theodore Roosevelt, Roosevelt came in 1903.

Then in 1923 Warren Harding.

In 1927 silent Calvin Coolidge visited us.

Then in 1937 FDR, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, came.

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Newscaster: President Franklin D. Roosevelt, swinging through the west on a

campaign tour, took time out for a visit to Yellowstone National Park.

An exponent of conservation, Mr. Roosevelt backed many

measures aimed at enlarging our national forests and preserving wildlife.

This was a moment of relaxation amid the scenes he loved.

Former President Ford: This is a moment that I have been looking forward

to for a long, long time.

To return to Yellowstone where I spent one of the greatest

summers of my life.

Park Ranger: Gerald Ford was an interesting example of a President,

because he had been a park ranger in Yellowstone.

Then after Ford, Jimmy Carter came to Yellowstone and was

again fishing, was his primary focus.

After Carter, George Herbert Walker Bush who came to

Yellowstone in 1989.

Bill Clinton was here twice.

Former President Clinton: Yellowstone is the symbol of our

national parks because it's the oldest one and the first one in

the history of the world.

Park Ranger: And then after Bill Clinton, of course, we had

President Barack Obama.

President Obama: You know, the thing I remember most was,

you know, driving by and seeing -- it was elk.

And I remember bison.

In fact, I ran up close to a bison and took some pictures of him.

(laughter)

Park Ranger: It's never a good idea to approach bison closely.

Park Ranger: The Recovery Act has been a real boon for us.

It's been welcome dollars.

The great thing about the way the National Park Service in

Yellowstone approached the Recovery Act,

the funding with that, was we wind up a variety of projects

that we already had in the queue of things that we wanted to do.

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President Obama: The notion that collectively we come together and we say,

you know, we're going to preserve some things

that last beyond our individual lives,

that we're going to pass that on.

And we have to do it together.

You know, that's part of what is hopefully best about our government.

And so every once in a while we need the ability to step back

from our personal wants and project something finer and

better for future generations.

That's what the park district is all about.

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