A History of American National Parks
Today we generally take national parks for granted, a natural part of the vast landscape of America. However, our National Park System is the result of decades of change and development, under a process that continues to this day.
The idea of national parks comes from the 19th century. The first person to speak of setting aside lands for conservation was artist George Caitlin. While traveling through the Dakotas, painting and sketching portraits, landscapes and scenes from daily Indian life, he worried about the preservation of all of this beauty that surrounded him, as well as the culture of the Native Americans.
His idea was to create special lands, set aside from normal development, where the natural grandeur as well as the lands of the Native American could be preserved, as he said in his own words, “by some great protecting policy of government…in a magnificent park…A nation’s park, containing man and beast, in all the wild and freshness of their nature’s beauty!”
Although in the 1830’s no move was taken by the federal government in this sort of direction, the idea of creating grand parks to preserve the natural beauty of the land slowly began to gain acceptance. In 1864, the first steps towards creating a national park were set in motion by Congress and President Abraham Lincoln.
Yosemite Valley, seen as an important national treasure, was set aside by the federal government and ceded to the state of California. In giving this land to California, it was agreed that the state would preserve these lands for public use, resort and recreation. No corporate development would be allowed in the protected lands.
This, while setting a precedent, was not actually a national park, as it had been specifically given to the state of California (although today these lands are a national park, Yosemite National Park). It would be eight more years before the first national park would be created.
The first truly national park was Yellowstone National Park. Unlike Yosemite Valley, when the natural wonders of Yellowstone were first made publicly known there was no state that could take control of a new park, as it was located in a territory. Still wanting to conserve the lands in a similar fashion to Yosemite, Yellowstone was made a national park by act of Congress in 1872, signed by President Ulysses S. Grant. This was the year of George Caitlin’s death, having lived to see the first steps towards his dream of natural national parks preserving the beauty of the land.
Reserved lands began to take on other forms besides national parks. In 1891 President William Henry Harrison created Yellowstone Timberland Preserve, the first national forest preserve. In 1903 President Theodore Roosevelt set aside Pelican Island in Florida as the United States’s first wildlife refuge.
With these first national parks, national forests and national wildlife refuges being created, the need for a special unit within the federal government to oversee these national conservation areas was needed. President Woodrow Wilson in 1916 created the National Park System (NPS) just for this reason, under the umbrella of the Department of the Interior.
Not all of the national parks, forests and wildlife refuges were put under their control originally, however. While most of the national parks and monuments in the west were put under their jurisdiction, many of the preserves in the east were under the control of either the Forest Service or the Department of War. Realizing the inefficiency of this set-up, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1933 signed an executive order putting them all under the jurisdiction of the NPS.
Today national parks have a unique classification system, separating them into different types and placed in different levels of the hiearchy within the NPS. There are over 50 actual national parks today, as well as a number of national forests and wildlife refuges. These areas stand as reserved landmarks of America’s natural beauty as well as cultural history, and are a vital part of our country. The NPS continues to grow and develop, but the lands that have been conserved remain as they have always been, special lands that are allowed to stay in their natural state, relatively unaffected by man.
