Today, there are 62 National Parks spanning 29 states and 2 territories, along with an
additional 128 National Monuments protecting everything from fossil beds in Nebraska to
the Statue of Liberty.
The National Park Service, administering over 81,000 square miles of land and receiving
some 318 million visitors annually, is integral to preserving the natural beauty of our country—however,
the NPS is still a fairly new addition to the nation.
The first National Park, Yellowstone, would be created by Congress and approved by President
Ulysses S. Grant on March 1st, 1872, placing the region directly under the control of the
Secretary of State.
Created to protect the geysers, waterfalls, canyons, and bison of the area, not only was
Yellowstone the first National Park in the U.S., but it was also the first in the world,
spurring the growth of park systems in America and abroad.
The establishment of Yellowstone National Park would inspire conservationists like John
Muir to push for parks to be established across the country.
Because of efforts by Muir and others, the next to join Yellowstone as National Parks
were two Californian parks—first, Sequoia on September 25th 1890, and second Yosemite
6 days later.
From 1890 to 1906, 3 more national parks would be established, including Mount Rainier outside
of Seattle, protecting the 14,411-foot-tall Mount Rainier, Crater Lake in Oregon, containing
a lake created by a collapsed volcano, and Wind Cave in South Dakota, home to a vast
network of caves along with prairies and pine forests aboveground.
On June 8th, 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt would sign the Antiquities Act into law, thereby
giving the President the ability to create federal land and national monuments—an act
that has been used over a hundred times since being signed into law.
3 months later, Roosevelt would designate Devils Tower in Wyoming the first National
Monument in the country.
Following the passage of the Antiquities Act, Mesa Verde National Park was formed in Colorado,
created to protect the cave dwellings made by Pueblo Native Americans, Glacier along
the Canadian border in Montana, Rocky Mountain along the continental divide in Colorado,
Hawai’i Volcanoes, the first outside of the continental U.S. in what was, at the time,
a U.S. territory, and finally Lassen Volcanic, containing the largest lava dome in the world
in Northern California.
At this point, the nation’s 11 national parks and 24 national monuments were under
the Department of the Interior and administered independently, meaning standards and practices
at one park could be vastly different from another.
In the case of Yellowstone, Congress would stop providing funding entirely in light of
ineffective management—as a result, the U.S. Army would have to be called in and took
control of Yellowstone on August 20th, 1886 and were able to effectively stop poaching
and other disallowed activities.
This situation, however, was not ideal for both Americans visiting the park and the Army,
causing the federal government to begin seeking a better solution to poor management of it’s
parks.
16 days following the creation of Lassen Volcanic National Park on August 25th, 1916, President
Woodrow Wilson would sign the National Park Service Organic Act, creating the National
Park Service to ‘leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations’.
An additional 8 National Parks would be established under the new National Park Service over the
next 17 years, including the first in Alaska, Denali National Park, home to the tallest
peak in the U.S., Acadia in Maine, the eastern most park in the continental U.S., Grand Canyon,
previously a national monument and today one of the top ten most visited parks in the country,
Zion, the first in Utah, Hot Springs in Arkansas, an area that has been federal land since 1832,
making it the oldest area managed by the NPS, Bryce Canyon in Utah, Grand Teton just South
of Yellowstone in Wyoming, and Carlsbad Caverns, a system of 117 caves in New Mexico.
There would be 19 National Parks across the country and several more National Monuments
by 1933 and, on June 10th, an additional 56 national monuments and military sites would
be transferred from the U.S. Forest Service and War Department to the National Park Service—a
major step for the NPS.
Since 1933, an additional 42 parks have been created across the country, some of the most
notable of which include: Everglades National Park, established in May
1934, contains nearly 8,000 square miles of Southern Florida wetlands,
Great Smoky Mountains, June 1934, hosts 816 square miles of Appalachian mountains and
is the most visited park in the country with nearly 11 and a half million visitors each
year, 25 Isle Royale, April 1940, off the coast
of Michigan’s Upper peninsula in Lake Superior, Mammoth Cave, July 1941, home to the world’s
longest cave system at over 400 miles, Virgin Islands, August 1956, preserving some
23 square miles of Caribbean coastline and one of two national parks outside of the 50
states today, Redwood, also October 1968, protecting nearly
half of California’s remaining Redwood trees and the world’s tallest tree, Hyperion,
at 379 feet tall.
Arches, November 1971, containing over 2,000 of Utah’s sandstone arches created over
millions of years, Badlands, November 1978, nearly 400 square
miles of layered rock formations and prairies home to prairie dogs, bison, and bighorn sheep,
Theodore Roosevelt, November 1978, home to much of the land that Teddy Roosevelt hunted
bison on and fell in love with as a young man, coming to inspire much of his conservationist
platform as President, Channel Islands, March 1980, five islands
off the coast of Southern California with half of the park’s area being underwater,
Gates of the Arctic, Glacier Bay, Katmai, Kenai Fjords, Kobuk Valley, Lake Clark and
Wrangell-St. Elias, all created by the Alaskan National Interest Lands Conservation Act on
December 2nd, 1980 in Alaska, American Samoa, October 1988, the second National
Park outside of the 50 states today along with Virgin Islands National Park,
Dry Tortugas, October 1992, containing 7 islands in the Gulf of Mexico off the Florida coast
and the Southernmost National Park in the lower 48,
Death Valley, October 31st, 1994, with both the lowest elevation in the U.S. at 279 feet
below sea level and a record high of 134 degrees, Gateway Arch, February 2018, containing the
iconic Gateway Arch in downtown St. Louis, Indiana Dunes, February 2019, preserving 23
square miles of Lake Michigan lakeshore and sand dunes,
and finally, the newest park in the country, White Sands National Park, established as
a national monument in 1933 and a national park on December 20th, 2019, home to Southern
New Mexico’s rare white sand dunes.
Starting from humble beginnings with Yellowstone, the National Park Service is an iconic American
institution.
Today, it administers land in all 50 states and all five American territories on top of
D.C., clocking in at over 132,000 square miles.
Over 318 million Americans and foreigners visit National Park Service sites yearly.
This is 435American.
Thanks for watching.