PBS Ken Burns The West 9of9 One Sky Above Us 1995 DVD 720p Egilman

The West— is a documentary film about the American Old West. It was directed by Stephen Ives, the executive producer was Ken Burns and the narrator was Peter Coyote. The film originally aired on PBS in September 1996.

Stephen Ives and Ken Burns had worked together on several films, including The Civil War (1990) and Baseball (1994). In 1988, Ives created his own production company, Insignia Films, and began working on The West as director, with Burns signed on to the project as executive producer. In order to create The West, the film crew traveled over 100,000 miles (160,000 km) via airplane, conducted 72 interviews, visited 74 archives and collections, and filmed more than 250 hours of footage. The film's production was funded by General Motors.

Episode 9: One Sky Above Us (1893–1914)

Aired, September 22nd 1996; Narrator Peter Coyote

The ninth volume of Ken Burns and Stephen Ives' The West covers the years from 1893 to 1914. At the dawn of a new century, after having seen earthshaking changes and terrible strife, the American West was more or less settled -- only five generations had passed since the Louisiana Purchase, and already the lands beyond the Mississippi were dotted with industrialized towns, prosperous farms, and vast herds of cattle. The West still had many surprises up its sleeve, but its fate was now inextricably tied to that of the Eastern states -- the United States had finally become one nation. Specific topics include: the Columbian Exposition of 1893; the courtship and marriage of homesteaders John G. Love and Ethel Waxham; William Mulholland's aqueduct and the Los Angeles water supply; Mariano Vallejo and his fight to preserve the Mexican legacy in California; Charles Goodnight and the problem of how to record the West's history on film; and the labored process of adaptation and forgiveness among native peoples.

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