On August 25, 2016, the National Park Service will celebrate its 100th birthday. The act of the U.S. Congress was signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson, specifying that the new service was to “conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wildlife therein and leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.” The National Park Service also includes a fascinating diversity of historical sites, scenic trails, monuments, waterways and even roads.

A Brief History

In the early and mid-19th Century, the U.S. expanded its territories to explore the vast lands that stretched westward to the Pacific Ocean. The Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804, brought back descriptions of the remarkable wonders they had seen, places such as Yellowstone in Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana, Yosemite in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains, and the magnificent Grand Canyon in Arizona.

A growing number of people, notably the naturalist and conservationist John Muir, began calling on the federal government to protect these beautiful scenic places from exploitation. In 1872 Congress authorized the creation of Yellowstone as the country’s first national park.
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