(gentle music) (crickets chirping) - [Narrator] "The shores are more than three-fourths prairie on both sides, or more properly speaking, bald hills which, instead of running parallel with the river, form a continual succession of high perpendicular cliffs and low valleys; they appear to head on the river and traverse the country in an angular direction.

Those hills and valleys give rise to some of the most sublime and romantic views I ever saw.

But this irregular scenery is sometimes interrupted by a wide and extended plain, which brings to mind the verdant lawn of civilized life, and would almost induce the traveler to imagine himself in the center of a highly cultivated plantation."

(gentle music continues) These days, we are used to things happening fast, and we take what we see for granted and don't always reflect on the journey it took to get here.

We often hear time is of the essence, and well, nature has its own way of interpreting that.

The processes that have shaped the world in front of us are slow and continuous, tediously grinding and remodeling, adjusting, adapting, never finished.

In the heart of a world that moves unceasingly, there lies a sanctuary spared by time's continuous march.

Here, we find our beginning and our return.

We want to invite you on a journey to a place where forces of nature and a lot of time have worked together for millions of years to create one of the hidden natural wonders of our nation: the Driftless Area, where every stone, every river whispers tales of the Earth's ancient past, its caretakers, and of the wildlife that makes this area home.

(gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (crickets chirping) The Driftless, kind of an odd name at first really, and quite frankly, it's almost a wonder in itself that this land exists at all.

These towering bluffs where falcons roost are the first clue in our understanding of why.

Throughout geological history, ice ages have left their marks on Earth's surface, (ice cracking) a mile-thick glacial ice slowly moving over the land and clearing the slate on the ground below, but with one exception.

This area was never hit by the ice sheets that crushed similar structures around it.

Instead, it was left unmarked by glacial debris, or so-called drift.

Yet the ice ages did not leave the region completely untouched.

Meltwater flowed into this unglaciated land and set mighty forces in motion that, over time, would transform into an area rich in life and stories and would eventually set the stage for the scenery witnessed by explorer Zebulon Pike on his journey.

(gentle music) (gentle music continues) Water is one of the simplest molecules on the planet, yet also one of the most powerful.

(water flowing) Someone once called it the element of change.

Water is patient, water is persistent, and given enough time, it can shape and polish almost anything, carving, sculpting, dissecting, and not to forget, serving as the most essential ingredient for life to exist.

(frogs calling) The story of the Driftless is also very much a story of the water.

The cliffs here were not formed as other mountains.

They were carved out from the top down.

It's hard to imagine today, but a long time ago, long before our first known ice age, this was all under water.

An ancient marine sea covered most of what is now the United States, then when the continents eventually formed, it took the persistent work of that simple molecule, H2O, to meticulously dissect its way through the landscape, down layer upon layer of rock, like a knife making incisions through the past, exposing millions of years of archived history and its previous life forms, (gentle music continues) and at the same time, paving the way for a myriad of diversity of new life to establish.

Puddles turning to trickles, trickles turning into streams, and streams turning into rivers.

Water in all its forms is the lifeblood of the Driftless as it meanders through the ancient landscape and sustains life to all that make this area home.

(gentle music continues) (river flowing) (wind rustling) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (crickets chirping) (lure splashing) But not all trickles and streams flow the way we like to think.

The work of the water doesn't stop just because we cannot see it, especially not here.

This is part of the most hidden natural secrets of the Driftless land.

(inquisitive music) (waterfall splashing) (inquisitive music continues) (inquisitive music continues) (inquisitive music continues) (inquisitive music continues) (water trickling) (inquisitive music continues) (birds singing) (water flowing) In this enclave of serene wilderness, diversity flourishes.

A myriad of rare habitats, cradles of life offer asylum to all kinds of species, some found nowhere else.

It is a mosaic of existence in its most natural form.

(birds chirping) (gentle music) The most striking display of natural diversity is undoubtedly seen among the Driftless' avian inhabitants, something that has not gone unnoticed by bird enthusiasts from all over the world.

Aside from their beauty, birds exhibit a magnificent range of form and functions as they occupy all habitat heists and display a variety of behaviors and roles in the ecosystems.

For many, it is a permanent home.

Others come for seasonal visits, whether it be to rest during a long migration or to nest and raise their young.

Everything seems to know when it's time for them.

The land just provides the complexity to allow for this coexistence of life to thrive.

(gentle music continues) (birds singing and calling) (gentle music continues) (wind rustling) (birds calling) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (crickets chirping) (birds calling) The birds and other wildlife's symbolic value is nothing new.

For many Native cultures throughout history, the animals have represented health, protection, strength, and freedom.

(gentle spiritual music) Sacred grounds woven into the fabric of the Driftless speak of a strong bond between land and spirit.

Here, we pay our respect to the ancestors of the land and listen for the wisdom that whispers in the wind.

(gentle spiritual music continues) Dispersed throughout the region, we find representations of its historical and spiritual importance: rock shelters; sacred rock formations; paintings and artifacts; carvings; and impressive effigy mounds.

(gentle spiritual music continues) We are not the first visitors of the Driftless.

(gentle spiritual music continues) (gentle spiritual music continues) (gentle spiritual music continues) (crickets chirping) (gentle spiritual music continues) (birds singing) (gentle spiritual music continues) (trees rustling) (gentle spiritual music continues) (gentle spiritual music continues) We live in new times now, where changes are not always on nature's terms.

Our input matters more than ever.

(tense music) The natural bond that connects our worlds is often challenged in exchange for other more immediate needs, yet that bond has a potential and a healing power few other remedies can ever come close to.

(tense music continues) Our ancestors knew.

We have to be reminded.

Through education comes understanding and awareness, and through awareness grows a will to conserve.

The work of the elements is never done, but just like the elements require time and patience to mold a landscape, it also takes the same dedication by us to preserve it.

We've been lucky to have stewards to carry and pass on the knowledge and prevent it from being forgotten.

Through their passion and dedication, the land lives and can be passed on to new generations, to make certain our bond with the most natural of treasures continues, ambassadors that can see beyond the superficial and see the true worth in protection, and for the future development of the land to remain in the hands of the natural element.

The groundwork has been done.

We must not let the legacy be forgotten.

The torch must now be passed on.

(gentle music) In the words of Theodore Roosevelt, "There is nothing more practical in the end than the preservation of beauty, than the preservation of anything that appeals to the higher emotions in mankind.

I believe we are past the stage of national existence when we could look upon complacently at the individual who scanned the land and was perfectly content for the sake of three years' profit for himself to leave a desert for the children of those who were to inherit the soil."

(gentle spiritual music continues) As our journey through the Driftless comes to an end, we are reminded that in the heart of nature, we find our true selves.

Like the raptor returning to its nest, we come back to where we started, transformed, ready to begin anew.

(gentle music continues) (gentle upbeat music) - [Announcer] We all live on the delta of Noah and care, soil washed away from the mountain stream, blues in the air, garden growing, grown, bounty blessing, sorrow and pain, gifts given and taken by flood and the rain.

Earth, the dirt warming, arms open, waiting for seed, and the rains will soon come regardless of need.

We are here in the garden that came before time.

Plants love.

It will grow, the season's in rhyme.

(gentle upbeat music continues) (gentle upbeat music continues) (George speaking indistinctly) - [Director] You gotta go!

(George grunting and laughing) When you were a kid and were single.

- Yeah, I spent hundreds of days out on the river as a kid, and we could just jump on a boat and come out here, canoe or kayak or get a ride with a friend.

Boy, how lucky was I?

(gentle upbeat music continues) (gentle upbeat music continues)