I’ve always been a fan of the Muppets and the creativity of the late Jim Henson. Arguably the world’s best  puppeteer, Henson helped create and operate some of the most famous fictional characters in history: from Kermit the Frog and Big Bird on Sesame Street to Jedi Master Yoda of the Star Wars films. Jim Henson passed away in 1990, but his children carry on his creative spirit at The Jim Henson Company.

This morning we received a surprising email from the folks at The Jim Henson Company. Their new web series, “Wilson & Ditch Digging America,” featured Rapid City, the Black Hills and Badlands in this week’s online episode for PBS Kids.

It’s a children’s online series hosted by two digital puppet gophers – brothers Wilson and Ditch. They travel across the country learning about the nation’s most famous cities, national parks and attractions. The voice of one of the gophers is actually that of Brian Henson, Co-CEO of the company and son of Muppets creator Jim Henson.

The five-minute video shows the funny gophers as they marvel at the faces of Mount Rushmore and learn about prairie dogs and bison in the Badlands. The characters also feature the Black Hills area in Ditch’s comic strip and Wilson’s blog as part of the series.

Click on the photo above to view the full video. If you have little ones, be sure to visit the actual PBS Kids website for more of the fun new series.