Since the establishment of Yellowstone National Park in 1872, the United States National Park System has grown to include 431 natural, historical, recreational, and cultural areas throughout the United States, its territories, and island possessions. These areas include 63 National Parks as well as National Monuments, National Memorials, National Military Parks, National Historic Sites, National Parkways, National Recreation Areas, National Seashores, National Scenic Riverways, and National Scenic Trails.
Beginnings
National Parks, 1832–1891
The national park idea has been credited to the artist George Catlin. In 1832 he traveled the northern Great Plains of the United States, where he became concerned about the destruction of the Indian civilization, wildlife, and wilderness as eastern settlements spread westward. He wrote, "by some great protecting policy of government... in a magnificent park... a nation's park, containing man and beast, in all the wild[ness] and freshness of their nature's beauty!"The National Parks: Shaping the System; Harpers Ferry Center; U.S. Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C., 2004
Catlin's vision had no immediate effect. In the east, romantic portrayals of nature by James Fenimore Cooper and Henry David Thoreau and painters Thomas Cole and Frederick Edwin Church began to compete with prevailing view of wilderness as a challenge to overcome. Slowly as unspoiled nature and spectacular natural areas of the West became better known, the idea of saving such places became of interest. According to National Park Service histories, Catlin’s proposal was considered impractical and had no immediate effect. Formal preservation policies developed decades later, including the protection of Yosemite in 1864 and the establishment of Yellowstone in 1872.
In California, several state leaders sought to protect Yosemite Valley. In 1864, Sen. John Conness of California sponsored an act to transfer the valley and nearby Mariposa Big Tree Grove to the state so they might "be used and preserved for the benefit of mankind". President Abraham Lincoln signed this act of Congress on June 30, 1864. California was granted the valley and the grove on condition that they would "be held for public use, resort, and recreation...inalienable for all time."
The Yellowstone region was first systematically explored by the private Cook–Folsom–Peterson Expedition in 1869. It was followed by the semiofficial Washburn–Langford–Doane Expedition in 1870 and the federally funded Hayden Geological Survey in 1871. A myth evolved that near the end of the Washburn expedition, discussion around the campfire led several of the members to suggest that the area be set aside for public use and not allow it to be sold to private individuals. This myth was successfully exploited by National Park advocates but eventually was debunked by historians. An early ally in promoting a public reservation was the Northern Pacific Railroad Company. They were seeking major destinations for their route through Montana. In an effort to reduce poaching and other misuse of the park, on August 17, 1886, after the Department of the Interior requested assistance from the War Department, Company M of the 1st U.S. Cavalry arrived from Fort Custer to assume responsibility for protecting the park.
Mackinac National Park was established on March 3, 1875, when President Ulysses S. Grant signed an act setting aside more than half of Mackinac Island in Lake Huron, Michigan, as a national park. As at Yellowstone, the army garrison at Fort Mackinac were in charge of supervising and improving the park. The fort and the national park were turned over to state control in 1895.
U.S. cavalry units took up a position in California-controlled Yosemite Park in 1891 and took over some management duties. In 1906 the park was completely taken into federal control. As the federal troops came from cavalry units, they wore campaign hats as can be seen in a photo of Buffalo Soldiers at Mariposa Grove in 1905. The photo shows many troopers have re-creased their hats into the Montana Peak, probably because of their service in Cuba or Philippines during the 1898 Spanish–American War.
Through the service the troops provided to protect the nascent parks from poachers and illegal mining, the campaign hat became a symbol of authority which would be adopted by rangers from the National Park Service, as well as many states' fish and game wardens and state police agencies. Rangers of many local parks departments also wear the campaign hat, such as the New York City Urban Park Rangers. The emblem of the National Park Foundation was a stylized campaign hat until December 2013.
National Monuments, 1906–1916 While early emphasis had been on the creation of National Parks, there was another movement seeking to preserve the cliff dwellings, pueblo ruins, and early missions throughout the west and southwest. Often local ranchers would try to protect these ruins from plunder, but pot-hunters vandalized many sites. The effort began in Boston and spread to Washington, New York, Denver, and Santa Fe, during the 1880s and 1890s. Rep. John Fletcher Lacey of Iowa and Senator Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts, created the Antiquities Act of 1906.
The Antiquities Act of 1906 was designed to protect antiquities and objects of scientific interest on the public domain. It authorized the President, "to declare by public proclamation historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic or scientific interest" that existed on public lands in the United States. The Act declared these sites to be National Monuments. It prohibited the excavation or removal of objects on Federal land unless a permit had been issued by the appropriate department. Between 1906 and 1933 three Federal agencies, the Departments of Interior, Agriculture and War, initiated and administered separate groups of National Monuments.
President Theodore Roosevelt signed the Antiquities Act on June 8, 1906. As early as 1889 Congress authorized the President to reserve the land on which the well known Casa Grande Ruin was located. In 1904, Dr. Edgar Lee Hewett made a review of all the Indian ruins on Federal lands in Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah. He recommended many sites for protection. Based on Hewett's report and many individual request and reports from throughout the west, between 1906 and 1916 the Interior Department recommended and Presidents Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and Woodrow Wilson proclaimed twenty National Monuments.
On September 24, 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed Devils Tower as the first National Monument. Devils Tower is a Wyoming landmark, a high tower of rock, visible for nearly . It has been a guidepost and a religious site. In December of that year, three more National Monuments were created. El Morro, New Mexico, is a wayside in the rugged desert lands used by Indians settlers and travelers for centuries as a watering hole and a place to leave their marks. The site includes prehistoric petroglyphs and hundreds of inscriptions from 17th century Spanish explorers and 19th century American emigrants and settlers. Montezuma Castle, Arizona, is one of the best preserved cliff dwellings. Petrified Forest, Arizona, is world-renowned for its petrified wood, Indian ruins and petroglyphs. Three of these original National Monuments later became the core of National Parks. Mukuntuweap became Zion, Sieur de Monts grew into Acadia, and Petrified Forest which was expanded by Congress to become a National Park of the same name. Three of the smaller areas were later abolished, those being Lewis and Clark Caverns, Shoshone Cavern, and Papago Saguaro.
Mineral springs, 1832–1916 Mineral springs have been used for their medicinal properties since ancient times. By 1800, places like Saratoga Springs, New York, Berkeley Springs and White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, and French Lick, Indiana, were becoming popular American resorts. In 1832 Hot Springs, Arkansas, was set aside as a Federal reservation to protect 47 hot springs. In 1870 the area was protected by Congress as the Hot Springs Reservation and in 1921 it was made a National Park. Hot Springs National Park is a health resort and spa rather than a scenic area.
In 1902 the Federal Government purchased 32 mineral springs near Sulphur, Oklahoma, from the Choctaw and Chickasaw Indians. The Sulphur Springs Reservation was placed under the jurisdiction of the Secretary of the Interior who shortly acquired some additional land. In 1906 Congress created Platt National Park which included the Sulphur Springs Reservation.
Formal establishment, 1916 Forty-four years after the establishment of Yellowstone, President Woodrow Wilson created the National Park Service on August 25, 1916. The National Park Service Organic Act states that the agency is to manage national parks, monuments, and reservations in a way that conserves their scenery, natural and historic features, and wildlife, while allowing for public enjoyment. It also requires that these resources be protected so they remain unimpaired for future generations.
For years J. Horace McFarland, President of the American Civic Association; Secretaries of the Interior Walter Fisher and Franklin K. Lane; Presidents William Howard Taft and Woodrow Wilson; Frederick Law Olmsted Jr.; Representatives William Kent and John E. Raker of California; Senator Reed Smoot of Utah; Stephen T. Mather and Horace M. Albright had been seeking the creation of separate agency to manage the National Parks and Monuments.
National Capital Parks, 1790–1933 National Capital Parks is the oldest unit of the National Park System. Its origins date to the establishment of the District of Columbia in 1790, making it older than Yellowstone National Park. The president appointed three federal commissioners to design a district square on the Potomac River for the permanent seat of the U.S. federal government. The current National Capital Parks office is a direct lineal descendant of the original office established by the first commissioners of the District of Columbia in 1791.Cornelius W. Heine, A History of National Capital Parks (Washington: National Park Service, 1953)
President George Washington engaged Major Pierre Charles L'Enfant to design the new capital city. Pierre Charles L’Enfant designed the capital to be a grand and impressive city. The plan was designed around a series of boulevards, parks and The Mall. Additionally, L'Enfant envisaged a Congress Garden and a President's Park; embellished with statues, columns, or obelisks; grand fountains; an equestrian statue of Washington; a Naval Column; and a zero milestone.
Rock Creek Park was authorized on September 27, 1890, two days after Sequoia and three days before Yosemite. Congress carried over some of the language of the Yellowstone Act into all three acts. Like Yellowstone, Rock Creek Park was "dedicated and set apart as a public park or pleasure ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people of the United States," where all timber, animals, and curiosities were to be retained "in their natural condition, as nearly as possible." Though not a 'National Park', Rock Creek Park is a major urban park of the nation.
National Memorials, 1776–1933 The first memorial was authorized by the Continental Congress on January 25, 1776, to honor General Richard Montgomery, killed during an assault on the heights of Quebec in the midst of a snowstorm on the night of December 31, 1775. Montgomery commanded New York troops sent a few months before on an expedition designed to win Canada to the Revolutionary cause. It failed before Quebec, and Montgomery, became one of the first Revolutionary generals to lose his life on the field of battle. The Montgomery Memorial is not a part of the National Park System. But the chapel where it is located, St. Paul's Chapel, is a National Historic Landmark.