else pure the armies coming to the area were like locusts on them. the shenandoah valley, what sheridan was supposed to do was to go out there and destroyed those that could sustain the army but allow american people to live. but sheridan is sheridan. he did what he did. what you run into. the civilian population, even for although -- all their hardships, they will have shortages of sugar, coffee, anything you can think of. they are going to still have a very high morale. there has been some fantastic articles written on the fact that even though the war is just about lost in every sense, the folks at home still have a glimmer of hope. for fisher still stands. oh, we lost it, but we can still win the war. they have the metallic event they might be able to pull it

out in the end. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] anyhe berlin wall fell to five years ago. we will revisit that on sunday, november 9, with c-span video featuring president george bush from the oval office. reaction from senate leaders and speeches from president kennedy and president reagan to galvanize berliners in the free world. that is next sunday here on c-span3's american history tv. all weekend, american history tv is featuring colorado springs, colorado. this explorer is credited with discovering pikes peak which y -- lies west of colorado springs. it inspired katharine lee bates " america the beautiful." we recently traveled to colorado

springs to explore the city's rich history. learn more about colorado springs all weekend here on american history tv. >> the garden of the gods part is so magnificent, and many it is do not realize that a city park. it has national significance and a world-famous view. the fact that we are a national natural landmark, i really love the description of the garden of the gods park as being perhaps the most striking contrast between mountains and plains and all of north america. the natural history, the history of the earth, is almost like an open book here in colorado springs. what we are seeing here is the , lagoons, sand dunes the bottom of an ocean, and even glacial gravel that have

million from the last 3 years. if you walk in the visitor center out into the park, it is like a walk back in time. in about a half mile, you can go 300 million years ago. the first people we know of in the pike's peak region were the utes. this was their homeland, the whole pike's peak area, and they would circumnavigate pike's peak as part of their seasonal journey. because in the summers, they could find plenty of game, bison and elk, on the west side of the mountain. and as fall would approach, they would start making their thisnal journey back to area of colorado springs. in the wintertime, if you can think of the red rock providing shelter and some warm areas to overe have cars dated two

3000 years ago -- we have areas dated to over 3000 years ago. the 1800's, the people heading westward huge tumultuous impact on the native people. however, the native people did negotiate with the u.s. government to keep part of their homeland in colorado, and the utes lived on parts of the reservation and southwestern colorado and certainly all over the state and nation. and then we have the pikes peak gold rush. that gold was actually found in cherry creek in the denver area. but pike's peak is such an amazing landmark that it became the pikes peak or bust gold rush. knew theyors in 1858

would be to supply town, so they came up to this area to set up a small town. they were stunned by the beauty of these up and it rocks -- upended rocks pair they said we should call this the garden of the gods, and that name stuck. this is truly an extraordinary 80 park. , the wisdom of carl's perkins was to give this gift to the city of colorado springs that it would remain free to the people forever. this park isory of about a gift that really all is after our founders. one provided a very large section of our existing parks department today. likes that perkins philosophy, so he informed his children that is what he is going to do. charles perkins was a friend of general palmer's, and he owned

the burlington railroad, probably speculated on developing some of this land. so because palmer was engaged in wanting to make certain that the right environment for the people who were going to live here, he adopted his same philosophy. so when it came time to do something with this property, it was easy for him to make the decision that it would stay a park and be forever free to the people, and it stays that way today. unusual for a city parks and recreation department to have to take on something that really has national significance. this has always been a draw, and people come here for two natural reasons, in addition to health and other things, but they come to see america's mountain and they come for the garden of the gods. those are the natural reasons. it remains that today.

1909, it was realized that this would always be important to the people. we keep that functioning today. the city has well over 100 ft -- parks, but this is most significant because of the national draw. it is unusual to have to maintain something like this with the same kind of dollars you would perhaps do a neighborhood or a smaller community part. in 1995, a foundation was established by a benefactor of for park to create a system the visitors center to be owned by the foundation and that the profits from the visitors center would go to maintain the garden of the gods part. we are very proud of that effort

, because this is so significant. they attempted to make this a national park, and they were trying to combine the garden of the gods and pike's peak, but there was too much privately owned land between the two, so that request was set aside by congress. otherwise, i think it would have been -- not the first or second national park, but yellowstone certainly captured that. but this remains a draw to nexus people according to park department records today. when you get that kind of attention, you know the economic , to have aour region can of visitation come here to see our natural resources.

>> colorado springs, colorado. rit rich history. you're watching american history tv. all weekend, every weekend on c-span3. 2015 c-span student video competition is underway. opened all middle and high school students to create a 5-7 minute documentary on the theme, the three branches and you great you.ng help prizes totaling $100,000. for a list of rules and how to get started, go to student cam.org. >>