On January 1, the old saying that everyone loves a parade will meet up with the national parks. From 1968, I remember my first Tournament of Roses Parade, that is, the first one I watched in color. Two weeks earlier, my mother had agreed to purchase a color television set for Christmas, provided I contribute half. A 20-inch, RCA table model, it cost $400 (the equivalent of $2,800 now).

At that price, color television was still rare in our neighborhood, so we invited friends over to watch the Rose Parade. I, for one, was enthralled. In contrast to frigid, upstate New York, sunny Pasadena never looked more inviting. Best of all, for a few hours the country’s troubles faded into the background as those glorious floats took center stage.

From 1906, the Santa Fe Railway advertises the Rose Parade in Scribner's Magazine. Further note this bottom sentence. "Daily service. Chicago to Grand Canyon, Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco." Equivalent to any city, the railroad consistently touted Grand Canyon as a must-see stop/Ebay

Little could any of us know what lay ahead. Before half the New Year was out, Dr. Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy would be assassinated, and thousands more Americans killed and wounded in Vietnam. Like the Rose Parade, the February Tet Offensive was broadcast “in living color.” That fall, preceded by rioting at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, a bitterly contested presidential election further split the nation to the core.

The war I had hoped would end before I graduated college now finally stared me in the face. Within a few short months I would be eligible for the draft. At least, the year was ending wondrously. Finally in deep space, the Apollo 8 astronauts circled the moon on Christmas Eve, taking turns as they read from Genesis. Transfixed, we watched that in black and white, and then, on January 1, 1969, welcomed back the Rose Parade in full color.

This is to explain what makes the parade a national treasure. Held in the best of times and the worst of times, it has always been terrific therapy. This year, with Paris weighing on our hearts—and San Bernardino—the 127th showing of the Rose Parade is exactly what we need.

Further by keying 2016’s parade to the National Park Service Centennial, the principals got it right. After all, both the parade and the parks grew up with the country. Finally adding to our single park at Yellowstone, California’s Yosemite, Sequoia, and General Grant national parks were also established in 1890.

At that point in the history of travel, everything depended on America’s railroads. Much as the Southern Pacific Railroad took the lead in promoting the nation’s newest parks, the Santa Fe Railway lured passengers west with the Rose Parade.

The final stop on the Santa Fe before arriving Los Angeles, Pasadena was eager to attract more growth. In 1890, barely 5,000 residents called the city home; Los Angeles itself had just 50,000. With the Rose Parade, Pasadena expected to boost its figures, led by tourists who came back to stay.

The Santa Fe Railway, further inspired by Yellowstone, then added Grand Canyon to the mix. From Chicago, the railroad’s first-class train, the California Limited, offered connections with the East. By September 1901, all passenger service became seamless and direct, using the railroad’s new canyon spur to South Rim.

From December 1910, this widely circulated advertisement demonstrates how much visitation to the national parks has changed. The young lady has arrived by train-and knows only trains for long-distance travel. Where to locate South Rim parking lots was never an issue when America moved by rail/Runte collection

Although still not a national park (or until 1908 a national monument), Grand Canyon gave the Santa Fe an enviable boost. Unlike Yellowstone, which officially closed in September, South Rim was open to tourists the entire year. As important, California-bound tourists were plentiful, America’s first snowbirds, so to speak. Alerted to the Rose Parade and California sunshine in the fall, many added Grand Canyon as a worthy stopover.

Offering encouragement, the railroad bought full-page ads in popular magazines. Lavish exhibits were also employed. In 1901, an “electric diorama” of Grand Canyon opened at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. The railroad’s then legendary model of Grand Canyon, at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, covered a whopping six acres of the grounds.

Soon Grand Canyon, and in season the Rose Parade, required additional trains. Beginning in 1916 through World War II, the California Limited would be supplemented by other coach and luxury services, notably the Chief, Grand Canyon Limited, Super Chief, and El Capitan.

Parade of Stars

Featuring Yellowstone, another wonderfully suggestive association with the Rose Parade is a 1953 painting by Walter Oehrle (pronounced EARLY). Every year, announcing the opening of Yellowstone in June, the Union Pacific commissioned an artist (usually Oehrle) to paint the cover of its promotional brochure.

Beginning with the first brochure, in 1923, the subject was always bears. The four-page, letter-sized leaflet was then folded into a standard business envelope and mailed to travel agents. After the knockout cover, the two inside pages then specified how their clients might reach the park using the Union Pacific gateway at West Yellowstone. The back cover was generally the schedules or more information about other parks.

Before World War II, two trains, the Yellowstone Express and Yellowstone Special, departed Salt Lake City for the park, further adding sleeping cars off the railroad’s transcontinental trains at Ogden and Pocatello. On arrival at West Yellowstone, each train represented every corner of the country.

Together, by the late 1920s, they also carried a majority of the park’s railroad business. No doubt, Union Pacific’s cartooned bears had contributed. Consequently, despite intense competition from the automobile after 1945, the railroad continued mailing out opening-day leaflets (and operating the Yellowstone Special) through the summer of 1960.

Obviously, everything about “Parade of Stars” is whimsical, and is that not the point? The appeal of the illustration goes well beyond consumption. More important than our addictions is the sense of community Oehrle’s bears evoke.

To be sure, long after the railroads started losing money on passenger trains, most remained committed to the national parks themselves. At Union Pacific, until their retirement in 1960, bears were ambassadors of a national endeavor.

Rightly, bears are back in the wild. The theme of this year’s Rose Parade, “Find Your Adventure,” still owes much to Oehrle’s images instilling pride in what the railroads built.

Certainly, come January 1 and the Rose Parade, I will be channeling my favorite bear. In “Parade of Stars,” he is the Union Pacific reporter (UPRR) in the left hand corner holding the walkie-talkie.

News flash! Our best idea is on parade! Many of its founders may have passed on—or remain in hibernation—but think of all they left us.

Ken Burns (left), 2016 Grand Marshal of the Rose Parade, celebrates with his colleague Dayton Duncan on completing their Emmy Award-winning series, The National Parks: America's Best Idea. The 12-hour series first aired on PBS in 2009/Florentine Films

Ken Burns, Grand Marshal

Reporter bear to base! The parade is about to start! I see Ken Burns, America’s greatest storyteller, this year chosen as Grand Marshal.

No wonder everyone is cheering. Over the previous 126 years of the Rose Parade, Grand Marshal has generally been reserved for movie stars, civic leaders, and national heroes.

A teacher is a first. At least, this reporter cannot recall another. No wonder, in that whimsical crowd of spectators, every bear in the land is cheering, too.

Reporter bear to Rose Parade officials. Here especially, you got it right. A Ken Burns film is the epitome of adventure, crafted to educate and inspire.

The better to understand his contribution, we need only recognize history as our noblest teacher. Our finest educators do more than pick a good story. As critically, they ask that the story move peoples’ hearts.

The moment Ken Burns embraced the national parks, he asked why they moved our hearts. Then he knew what his series should say. Assessing our lives, not just our adventures, think how much is still owed to wilderness for allowing each generation to discover new truths.

In every Ken Burns film, the search begins with a marvelous team, on staff, people like Dayton Duncan, his personal friend and adviser, who in fact suggested and wrote The National Parks: America’s Best Idea, both the PBS series and much of the book.

Reporter bear signing off. Seriously, good people, this is one Rose Parade you will not want to miss. From Ken Burns to the last marching band, it promises two hours of pride and hope, now to assure us—as citizen-owners of the national parks—that wilderness remains our greatest asset.