In honor of the 100th anniversary of the founding of New York’s park and historic site system, we knew we wanted to do something special. Telling our full story in-house in a documentary style — and ensuring that the agency’s 100-year legacy was shared accurately and completely — seemed like a daunting task for our small (but mighty!) Public Affairs team.

Above all else, it required bringing the right voices to the table:

• Professional storytellers who value public resources.
• Team members with vast institutional knowledge, from Indigenous history to environmental conservation and New York State’s recreation evolution.
• Powerful visuals that do our 250+ facilities justice.
• Staff and like-minded individuals who are passionate about our open spaces and rich cultural resources, and are working to preserve and protect them, day in and day out.

Thankfully, from discussions early on, Capital region PBS affiliate WMHT demonstrated enthusiasm for working on a documentary that would share our state park and historic site system’s Centennial story with New Yorkers. And it was this author’s honor to play a small role in seeing the enormous undertaking come to life.