National Park Service

National Park Service (NPS), agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages and maintains several hundred national parks, monuments, historical sites, and other designated properties of the federal government. It was established in 1916 by an act of the U.S. Congress that was signed into law by U.S. Pres. Woodrow Wilson. The law stipulated that the new service was to “conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein and…leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.”

Origins of the U.S. national park system

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As the United States expanded its territories westward in the early and mid-19th century, Americans ventured out to explore those vast uncharted lands that stretched to the Pacific Ocean. The Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804–06 and subsequent forays by organized groups and by individuals brought back stories of remarkable wonders that had been seen in the West—places that were later designated as Yellowstone (in Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana), Yosemite (in California’s Sierra Nevada), the Grand Canyon (in Arizona), and many others. A growing number of people, notably the naturalist and conservationist John Muir, began calling on the federal government to protect those scenic places from exploitation.

In 1871 an expedition to the Yellowstone region led by Ferdinand V. Hayden and sponsored by the U.S. Geological Survey included the photographer William Henry Jackson and the painter Thomas Moran. Upon the expedition’s return to the East, Jackson’s images of Yellowstone and, especially, a series of spectacular large paintings of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and other wonders there executed by Moran enthralled the American public. The following year Congress authorized the creation of Yellowstone as the country’s—and what is generally regarded as the world’s—first national park. (Some naturalists and others have argued that there is evidence that indicates that the creation of Yellowstone was predated by the creation of Bogd Khan Mountain National Park in Mongolia, which may date from as early as 1778.)

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Congress established more than a dozen new national parks over the next several decades, including Yosemite (1890), Crater Lake (1902), and Glacier (1910). Nonetheless, John Muir and others continued to express concerns that those locations and other sites of scenic beauty were not being adequately preserved. Muir had the opportunity to state his case directly to U.S. Pres. Theodore Roosevelt—who himself was an avid naturalist and outdoor enthusiast—when the two of them camped together in Yosemite in the summer of 1903. Three years later Congress passed the Antiquities Act of 1906, which gave the president the authority to preserve federal lands by designating them as national monuments. Roosevelt soon proclaimed the first monument, Devils Tower, and over the next 10 years more than 30 other such entities were proclaimed, some half of that total by Roosevelt.

Establishment of the NPS

By the early 20th century it was clear that a system of national parks was being created in the country. All national parks and most national monuments were under the purview of the Interior Department, but at that time each was administered separately and by different authorities. Yellowstone, for example, was supervised by the U.S. Army. None, however, was being run effectively, in part because few resources were allocated for the parks’ operation and maintenance. In addition, in many cases private interests were exploiting resources within the parks by felling timber, grazing livestock, or hunting wildlife.

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In 1914 Stephen Mather, a wealthy businessman, wrote the secretary of the interior about the poor condition of parks he had visited that summer in the Sierra Nevada. The secretary suggested that Mather work to improve the system by joining the department in Washington, D.C. Two years later, through the efforts of Mather and his assistant, Horace Albright, Congress passed what was dubbed the “Organic Act,” which authorized the formation of the NPS. Mather was named its first director.

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Mather and Albright (who succeeded Mather as director in 1929) set out to unify all of the NPS properties under the service’s central guidance. They created a corps of NPS superintendents and rangers who brought stability, order, and professionalism to the management of the national parks and monuments. The two men also tirelessly promoted the parks and their wonders, both to encourage more people to visit them and to persuade government authorities to create more parks. More than a dozen new national parks were established between 1916 and 1933 (when Albright stepped down), including Grand Canyon (1919) and (all in May 1926) Great Smoky Mountains, Shenandoah, and Mammoth Cave. Dozens of new national monuments were also named, many of which—including Carlsbad Cave (now Carlsbad Caverns), Glacier Bay, and Death Valley—would later become national parks.

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