a foundation was established by a benefactor of to create a system for the visitor center to be owned by the foundation and that the profits from the go to r center would maintain -- help maintain the garden of the gods park. proud of that effort because this is so significant. this a tempted to make were nal park and they trying to combine the garden of the gods and pike's peak, but there was too much privately land between the two. set hat request was -- was aside by congress and, it would , i think yellowstone, certainly capture that -- but this remains a draw to in excess of 2 million people to 2 1/2 million people.

when you get the kind of attention, you know, one, the economic benefits to our region. >> all weekend, "american history tv" is featuring colorado springs, colorado. during the 1700's, both french lived in sh settlers the area, but after the louisiana purchase, more americans moved into the territory. c-span cities to her staff recently visited many sites showcasing the city's history. learn more about colorado springs all weekend here on "american history tv". [grumbling noises] >> nikola tesla became

fascinated with this new creation going on in the world of electricity. when he came to this country, away arted working right with thomas edison, but there there because ict what developed is what is to as the current wars because edison was very committed to using direct-current, and tesla alternating alternating

current was more -- was more economical and more effective. it could be transferred over great distances at a far less cost. but tesla was interested in a lot of other areas of physics and electricity. eventually, he comes to colorado in 1899. >> this exhibition really explore some of the ideas that tesla was exploring during his career. through some historical information and through reproduction of photographs, and also through artists' projects. that is one of the things we found really interesting to explore is some of the overlaps in artistic process and scientific movement -- the science is that totally straightforward. and error s of trial doesn't involve qualities like intuition or creativity.

i think that was really proven untrue. science is very sort of creative and intuitive. a little to make that more transparent, thinking about tesla and his process. come, in ideas seem to some cases, from nowhere. those trajectories from where where he ended up is a little unclear. we wanted to sort of look at that -- that process. mean for a t scientist to sort of make intuitive leads -- were seemingly intuitive leads. this case is by artist doug bradshaw. is called "tesla's radio rock". it is a of an ongoing series using rocks to transmit radio signals. one of the things that tesla was exploited when he was here

in colorado springs was he was understand whether the earth had enough resnick that you could directly radio signals through the earth to get a transmission to the other side of the globe. that was one of the things he was exploring here and he left colorado springs thinking that this was a possibility because did find some resonant capacity of the earth. unfortunately, it is not resonant enough. then the intergalactic signals referenced a phenomena that he experienced when he was here. he heard some very mathematically precise and repeated radio bursts when he with his large receivers and felt that the he could come n to was that it originated from sign of that it was a

intelligent life because there was a sign of regularity. back tists, later on, came

and replicated the experiment -- which comes in these very regular mathematic, predictable bursts. so you can hear that space noise transmitted to the rock and space. >> tesla was friends with a man named leonard curtis and he knew some of the experiments that tesla wanted to conduct. so he invited him to come here and he said, if you want to test the upper atmosphere in new york -- basically, you're at sea level -- but he said that if you come here, you are at 6000 feet. so he arrived here on may 17 of 1899 and was here for the next seven months. the first thing -- when he -- he works out with leonard curtis -- so curtis provided him all the needed in his lab. he was interested in testing out his theories on wireless telegraph. basically being able to send messages without using wires. you have to understand the context of that time that if you wanted to send a message to someone in another city, there had to be a wire. so you either use the telephone or a telegraph, but by that

point, tesla understood scientifically that we could sign things -- send things without using wires. his phrase when he gave his first talk here was that he wanted to send a message from pike's peak to paris and he he could use wireless wireless method to -- and distances of, say, 50 feet. that and little to have but he needed a transmitter that had far more power. that is one of the things he is in his laboratory that oped this transmitter created 10,000,000 v in order send messages or whatever

long distances. and he also had developed

receivers that would connect properly with that transmitter. so, the big -- the pictures we have seen of him at his laboratory, which was about 222 feet tall, and he tested out what we know as the tesla crown. basically by having lightning go off in the room because the tesla coil takes current that we get normally and increases the frequency to a point where it is in the numerous -- an enormous amount of voltage. one of the popular stories that came out of his experiments here was that he and his were working with light -- and all of a sudden, electricity filling his lab, creating thunder, it the top, and about five or six seconds, it went off. tesla asked why did you shut that off. and she said, i didn't. what happened was that he blew out the power plant in town. but in terms of the practical things that came out of his work here, he certainly laid the basis for x-rays, for fluorescent lights, and a things we have today and he was one of a scientists at that time that made a major contribution to the technological age we have today. >> all weekend, "american