country told us the most important issues for the presidential candidates to address our climate change, gun violence, teen vaping, college affordability, mental health, and immigration. we are awarding $100,000 in total cash prizes. the winners for this year's competition will be announced on march 11. up, our c-span cities tour visit to amarillo continues as we take you just outside the city to palo duro canyon state park, the second largest canyon in the united states. drivinge experience of into palo duro canyon state park today is a lot like it has been for thousands of years. all of a sudden, you come across this huge drop into the earth. even today, it is still a shocking experience. maybe even more so because you

are traveling so fast. the fact i get to see this every , i have to take it in and make sure i appreciate getting to be here every day. the canyon has been forming for about one million years or so. the bulk of the formation has happened in the last 100,000 years. it runs from here close to the town of silverton. you can make a really good case the canyon is at least 80 miles in length. the river is probably more like 120 miles. it is the second largest canyon in the united states after the grand. it is not a single canyon. there are many canyons that branch off to the side. we can see three canyons from where we are at right now. it is a much bigger system than people realize even with a brief visit to the state park. >> i grew up in amarillo. as a young kid, i remember coming out in elementary school.

and after that, as soon as i got my drivers license, i was driving out here bringing friends. we would explore some of the caves. i can tell you it is much bigger than what you think it is from looking at. when you get into the canyon with your hiking stick and boots, you better make sure you have a lot of water because it is much farther than you think. there are all kinds of treasures out there we have been searching for. one of the draws is just being around extreme nature. you could say this is extreme nature. there are so many places out here that you can go to and see the beautiful cliffs and rock outcroppings. when i was growing up, the only footage you had from the air was like helicopter shots the local television stations would do and things like that. when the drones got popular several years ago, i had to be right there. i am a gadget guy.

another one of my shortcomings, i guess. i have to have the latest gadgets. of course, i have my drawn out here. it was amazing. it helped having all that experience and knowledge of where to go to look at these things. spending my life looking from the ground up, i knew where i wanted to go and get the view from the air down. i already had all these shots set up in my mind and went and executed as many as i could. there are so many places out here. you could stay on the trail and be suitably amazed with everything you see. there is plenty to look at and take photos of and experience, but there are so me other places just off the trail --so many other places just off the trail. jeff: palo duro canyon is a story of edges. we are on the edge literally of

the canyon right now. it has also been a place that has been on the edge of these battles, these conflicts between different cultures, on the edge of these cultures. thethe vast majority of history of this area and canyon, the people who came here were nomadic. they did not build anything permanent. they lived in temporary structures they could move as they traveled. they were mostly traveling -- following large game. in the early days, that was large, now extinct bison, mammoths, ground sloths, the ice age mega fauna that no longer exists. you get intoat, the late prehistoric period when they were more like you're more typical image when you think of native americans. tribes heremerican included the southern cheyenne, the comanche, the apache. towards the end of the southern

plains we have life in the 1860's -- way of life in the 1860's and 1870's, this became almost a stronghold for people trying to escape from the soldiers, settlers, hunters, people taking their land. because this was in the center of comanche territory, it was very hard to get to. of course, the native americans had thousands of years of knowledge of this area and the people coming into the area did not so they used this is a stronghold to escape. there was a series of battles in 1874 that became known as the red river war. wasmost decisive battle what we call the battle of palo duro which happened here in september of 1874. basically, the comanches and cheyenne set up a winter campground like they had for years on the floor of the canyon. they were under the mistaken impression that they would be safe and left alone in the canyon that winter.

they did not realize the government had sent five separate columns of troops into the area to try to force them back onto the reservation in oklahoma. of the unitedvary states army discovered there in canton late -- encampment late in september. 1874, the28 in cavalrymen led them into the canyon floor and charged into the village of mixed native americans. it is not a battle that had a high casualty count. it is more of a route. imagine waking up and you are laying there with your wife, your husband, your grandmother, your children, all of these people are with you. and you wake up to armed soldiers attacking your town. what would you do? ? they did the only thing they could do which was to flee. they ran setting up pockets of resistance to hold off the

soldiers long enough to escape. most of the native americans were very successful getting away. the problem was in their flight, they were not able to take much with them. they gave the fourth calvary the opportunity to come back and destroy all of their supplies. they also destroyed the bulk of their horse herd which for the comanches was there way of life. that was a big load to their way of life to lose not only their winter encampment but their horse herd as well. over the months, they slowly trickled back into the reservation and that ended the southern plains where life. a new group came in and saw the opportunity. those were ranchers. the first one here to set up a permit cap ranch was charles good night -- cattle ranch was charles goodnight through most of the 1880's. it was about 1.3 acres at its

largest size. it was one of the largest in texas. a lot of that encompassed parts of the canyon behind us. this was great grazing land for bison and works great for the cattle they brought in also. the wrenching -- ranching in this spot lasted until 1933. texas3, the state of purchased about 15,000 acres that became the original state park. the people of the area had a strong desire to have a park care. ifor to this being a park, you did not know someone who owned some of the land, you had to trespass to see it. it was all privately owned. the land owner had events where they allowed people to come out and visit the canyon. sometimes tens of thousands of people would show up in the 1920's and 1930's to see it.

ve for a huge dri surrounding cities who wanted a part here because they knew how andrtant it was to protect that people would come from all around to see it. the ranching continues all around us. but we are this little pocket of public land that people can visit. that is part of what makes this so special. we would not have a park here if not for the civilian conservation corps. they were a new deal relief effort for the many groups started by president roosevelt in response to the great depression. they arrived here shortly after the creation of the ccc. it is one of the oldest parks in texas and across the nation. they got here in the summer of 1933 and set up their camp. one of the first projects they worked on was the road into the canyon. you cannot build the rest of the

facilities until you have access. it is a reminder i give myself all the time when i come through as i'm driving down every day, that they built this road by hand basically for $1 a day. it changed their lives in that they were able to feed themselves, provide for their families, and they learned a lot that served them well later in life. it also provides for us today because we have so many amazing historic structures, the road into the canyon. without their work, we would not have everything we have today. >> being up here in the texas panhandle, there is not a lot of written history. there is not a lot of history you can go back to and look at. this is one of those places you can go back and look at some of the history of the mortar stones. there is a rock that had indian art probably from 2000 years ago

that you can still go to. it is not as vivid as it was back in the day, but it is still pretty vivid. i like that connection of being able to look at history that is more than just your grandfather's history. stateas state parks, parks across the nation, national parks, these are your public lands. we want people to visit them and join us in our mission of stewardship of these places. we are here as caretakers of the lands for other people. i always asked little kids who owns palo duro canyon, and they always say i do or you do. it would be cool if i did, but i don't. this belongs to the people of the world. we want them to come here and see this. we want them to understand how critical they are to the mission of stewardship of this place. our cities tour staff

recently traveled to amarillo, texas, to learn about its rich history. to watch more video from amarillo and other stops, visit /citiestour. you are watching american history tv on c-span3. eastern, at 9:00 p.m. she makes the argument against medicare for all in her latest book. >> just in december, there were over 4 million brits on the waiting list to get treatment. for cancer treatment is not supposed to be delayed from seeing a general practitioner to treatment more than 64 days. they have not met that standard for over five years. the world health organization the brits are at the

bottom rung of industrialized countries. tonight, we visit the james madison university classroom to hear about how rural areas evolved after the civil war. using his hometown as a case study, he looks at rural industries and the rise of tourism aided by expansion of the railroads. here is a preview. he wrote that flower gardens are numerous. ornamental grounds are often seen and fine cottage homes and villas such as one would expect love and happiness to dwell in are found up on every street. it sounds like a calm kinkade painting, doesn't it -- sound like a thomas kinkade painting,

doesn't it? sounds almost too good to be true. this is a small town depicted as the opposite of the ills of the city. again, it is like stepping out of modern life with all of its problems and being able to recharge your batteries for week -- a week in the countryside. as they created and marketed the tourist landscape, it joined the widespread romanticization of rural life. the very qualities of quietness, relative isolation, that led many young people to leave for the cities could now be emphasized in order to draw city ifple to the country, even for only a week. tonight at classroom

8:00 eastern to learn more about how small towns changed after the civil war >> patrick charles, senior -- next, patrick charles, senior historian for the united states airforce, talks about the history of the nra, including changes in gun control and views on the second amendment. this interview was recorded at the annual american historical association meeting. pet charles is all former marine and senior historian for the u.s. airport and the author of the book "armed in america." -- patrick charles. thank you for being with us on c-span. >mr. charles: thank you, steve. lete: