Living in the Rocky Mountain States: Changing frontier lands. (1974)

[Music] [Music] Rocky Mountains, rugged peaks, river valleys and rolling hills, and lots of room. Six states make up this region, half a million square miles with only about 6 million people. The Rockies form the Continental Divide, separating the rivers that flow east and south into the Gulf of Mexico or the Atlantic Ocean, from those that flow westward into the Pacific Ocean. The land was first officially explored by Lewis and Clark almost half a century before it became part of the United States. The Mormons came out in search of religious freedom in 1847 and established Salt Lake City. Today it's the capital of Utah and one of the largest of the cities in the Rocky Mountain states. The Mormons founded their community in desert land, but turned it green with irrigation. The Mountain states today couldn't get along without irrigation. Irrigation is necessary if you want to carry on productive agriculture without much rain. The water for irrigation comes from reservoirs. And the reservoirs, they come from dams. This is Hoover Dam in Nevada with Lake Mead behind it. Lake Mead is one of the largest man-made lakes in the world. Glen Canyon Dam in northern Arizona is on the Colorado River. I've been here at Glen Canyon since '65, about a year after the dam was completed. Haven't had any real problems yet. It's doing its job, irrigation, power, flood control, and recreation, too. The dam's one of four in the Colorado Big Thompson project. We produce more electricity from water power in Arizona than any of the other Rocky Mountain states. About half the electricity generated out here is used for industry. And the water from the whole system of dams irrigates 3/4 of a million acres of farmland. Irrigation makes sugar beets possible. Sugar beets are one of the most important crops in this region. More than half of the US production of sugar comes from sugar beets grown and processed here. Beans are raised on irrigated lands, too. So is alfalfa. And so are potatoes, Idaho potatoes. About 20% of the nation's potatoes are grown and processed in Idaho. But some crops don't need as much water as potatoes. Wheat doesn't. It can be dry farmed. Wheat is the major crop of the region. Milling of the wheat into flour is usually done in Denver, Colorado, where milling is a leading industry. Denver is the largest city in the Rocky Mountain states. It's the major commercial and financial center of the region. It's one of our nation's most important meat handling centers. [Music] The importance of the Rocky Mountain states in the meat industry began back in the 1800s. Texas cattlemen drove herds of longhorn cattle into the region. The sheepmen came, too. The railroads helped bring in homesteaders. As the cattlemen, sheepmen, and farmers took over the Indians' land, the Indians fought for it. [Music] The Indians lost the big battles, although they won some well-known small ones, like the battle near the Little Bighorn River against General Custer. This monument marks Custer's last stand. Today, livestock is a big industry. Most farm income is from livestock. Dairy products are also a big part of farm income. Sheep thrive in drier regions. Most of the wool is sent east to textile centers in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. Cattle are fattened in feedlots before being shipped to stockyards for slaughter. Being a federal meat inspector means I check meat, and I check the whole operation for sanitation. I'm sort of carrying on the work of my grandfather. He came out here as a cowboy in the 1890s. He rode herd on cattle, meat on the hoof. I do, too, but mine is meat off the hoof. Lots of meat packing work in Denver. Although Denver is a meat handling center today, it was founded during the Pikes Peak gold rush of 1858. The expression Pikes Peak or bust entered our language then. Discoveries of gold and silver attracted many fortune hunters. Mining towns suddenly came into being and just as quickly died. Today, small prospecting for gold and silver is over, but the big mining operations still go on. There's silver in Idaho, copper and gold in Montana, molybdenum and uranium in Colorado. The Rockies are rich in metals. At Bingham Canyon in Utah is North America's largest open-pit copper mine. Smelting of the ores into their metals is a big industry in the Rocky Mountain states. By the time the copper ore gets to me, most of the waste rock is gone. The idea of smelting is to get rid of the impurities that are left in the copper. We can get copper about 99.9% pure here. About a quarter of the world's copper comes from the US. We're the largest copper producing country in the world. Most US copper comes from around here, Utah and Arizona, more than a million tons a year. I sort of grew up in the industry. My dad worked here, and my son's studying metallurgy at the Colorado School of Mines. I expect he'll be a copper man, too. Materials important in construction are also found in the Mountain states. Gypsum is processed in this plant in Nevada. Gypsum is used in making wallboards. The gypsum quarry is nearby. Other building materials like sand and limestone are also found in this region. Mountain forests are another source of construction materials. Sawmills cut millions of trees each year and process them for lumber. But even though more than 10% of all US forest land is in the Rockies, lumbering is not very important here because of high transportation costs. New found deposits of oil and natural gas have made these resources the greatest source of income in the Rocky Mountain states. [Music] This rig is in an oil field in eastern Montana. Nearby are oil tanks and tanks of natural gas. The new discoveries in the Rocky Mountain states have created refining industries. But something that's been known about for a long time will have an even greater impact on the region. People usually call this oil shale, but geologists call it marlstone. When you crush the rock and heat it, a material it contains, called kerogen, breaks down into oil, shale oil. We're sitting on a mountain of oil in Colorado. We know where it is. It's all mapped. We just have to reduce the cost of processing it. Environmentalists worry about what a shale oil industry will do to the landscape. The beauty of the land is one of the main reasons that the Rocky Mountain states attract millions of tourists each year. Yellowstone Park is under the supervision of the National Park Service. We may not have many people living out here in the mountain states, but we sure have a lot of things for people to come see. I'll name a few. Shoshone Falls in Idaho. [Music] The Grand Tetons. They rise from a level plane at Jackson Hole, Wyoming. [Music] The Garden of the Gods in Colorado. [Music] Bryce Canyon, Utah. [Music] Devil's Tower in Wyoming. [Music] There are Indian cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde in Colorado, over a thousand years old. You can watch a glacier creep down a mountain side at Glacier National Park in Montana. Or see skiers come down a lot faster at mountain resorts. You want excitement? There's always the rodeo. [Music] Peace and tranquility? That's here, too. Being a park ranger really suits me. I like the outdoors. I like working in remote places like this, and I love Yellowstone Park. Yellowstone is the oldest and the biggest of our national parks, and it's got a lot of things to see, like the geysers and hot springs. Animals just roam around free. They sort of know they're safe here. [Music] Tourists really love the snow bus. Part of my job is working with tourists, being a guide or just giving advice. But most of the time, I'm on my own in this fantastic wilderness. I've been here two years, and I still haven't gotten over these truly magnificent works of nature. [Music] Works of man also attract tourists to the mountain states. [Music] Tourism is a big source of income here. [Music] One problem in the region is high transportation costs. And there are other problems. More irrigation is needed in the arid land. Mineral resources lie undeveloped under the mountains and deserts. The reason shows up in population signs. Many small towns, and not many big ones, mean there aren't enough people to do the work. But things are changing. New roads, like the Lewis and Clark Highway, are providing better trade routes. Huge irrigation projects are being built. Industries are diversifying. The lumber industry is beginning to manufacture wooden products. The availability of jobs with the government and government-related activities has brought many people out here. And the Rocky Mountain states have encouraged new industries, which have attracted permanent residents. It's a big area with big opportunities. This region of changing frontier lands. [Music]