The Wilds is a park dedicated to the preservation and breeding of endangered species, built on about ten thousand acres of reclaimed strip-mine land in southeastern Ohio. This interactive web-based documentary gives a history of the park, and a history of the land and the people who lived and worked on it before the park came into being. Topics covered include: coal formation in the geologic past; the burial practices of the Adena and Hopewell and the history of more recent tribes; first settlement of the land by white Europeans; a history of the mixed-race Lett Settlement and their civil-rights struggles; the farmers who worked the land and their loss of livelihoods to the coal mines; what it was like to work for the Central Ohio Coal Company, including operating "Big Muskie", the largest single-bucket digging machine ever built; the community leaders who created effective strip-mine-reclamation laws and supported the creation of The Wilds; whether grass or trees are better for reclamation; taking care of the animals in The Wilds; studying and managing the ecosystem to provide the greatest species diversity; and connecting youth with nature at WildeCamp.
—yortsnave