This month marks the 100th anniversary of our nation’s national parks. According to The National Parks: Shaping the System, published by the National Park Service, the idea of land being preserved for everyone to enjoy was first expressed in 1832 (that’s just 56 years after the birth of United States of America in 1776) and is credited to artist George Catlin. During a trip to the Dakota region in 1832, Catlin, best known for his paintings of Native Americans, pondered the impact the western expansion would have upon these civilizations, the wildlife and the wilderness. He wrote that they might be preserved “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.”

Yosemite was cited as a precedence when Senate Public Lands Committee Chairman Samuel C. Pomeroy of Kansas presented a park legislation bill in December 1871 to protect the Yellowstone region, keeping it in federal custody and unavailable for development. President Ulysses S. Grant signed Pomeroy’s bill into law on March 1, 1872 and Yellowstone National Park, the world’s first national park, was established. Continue reading “Happy 100th Anniversary to the National Park Service!” →