Viddler

Funded by NCPTT, Montana Public Television has produced a series of videos that highlights the nation’s underwater archeological treasures and features the preservation work of the National Park Service’s Submerged Cultural Resources Group (SCRG).

According to Ronald Tobias of Montana Public Television, “The project came as a result of the realization that the Submerged Cultural Resources Unit had been archiving images of the America’s underwater parks for many years and that it was being under-utilized as a valuable internal resource. Since outreach is such an important part of our federal research mandate, Larry Murphy of SCRG agreed to allow Montana Public Television access to the archives, and with the grant money awarded to us from NCPTT we were able to create a series of programs for public television about the work being done to preserve many of our country’s treasures underwater.”

As a result of NCPTT funding, six half-hour programs have been created that chronicle the work of the Submerged Resources Unit’s effort to save and preserve several important sites, including the USS Arizona in Hawaii, the B-29 Bomber at the bottom of Lake Mead, the Ellis Island ferry in New York harbor, and shipwrecks at Fort Jefferson and Biscayne National Park and at Yellowstone National Park and Glacier National Park. Public awareness of the Park Service’s work to preserve our national heritage is an important part of the mission of the Park Service, and NCPTT’s funding made these presentations possible. Without the support, the archive material would have slowly slumped its way toward oblivion.