Essay On National Parks

2300 Words5 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Importance of national parks

James Eddy
Romero 4th
March 26, 2014
National Parks Research Paper
National Parks are some of the most precious things in the world. The people of America have destroyed millions upon millions of acres of land for industrialization and overpopulation. The nation’s national parks are all the people have left of natural land and wildlife and it is one of the most beautiful things in the world. These National Parks were created to conserve the natural existence of a designated area and prevent harm to the environment within the park. Even though the parks were created to have protection from the people, visitor is most definitely allowed to visit and enjoy the natural beauty of the parks as long as a few rules are followed. There are hundreds of parks across the U.S. where people can come and visit these rather large pieces of paradise.
Yellowstone National Park was the first national park in the U.S., located mostly in Wyoming but also stretching into Montana and Idaho. It was established by congress and signed by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1 of 1872. It is known for the very large quantity of geysers, bear, and wild buffalo. Yellowstone is 2,219,789 acres, 80 percent of which is forests containing a wide variety of wildlife. The park was named after the Yellowstone River whose name was given by French trappers.
The Continental Divide runs through the southwestern part of the park, separating the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean’s water drainages. Yellowstone sits on a Plateau at an elevation of about 8,000 feet. The Rocky Mountains surround the plateau on almost all sides, which can be as high as 11,358 feet at the top of Eagle Peak. The Park also has one of the world’s largest petrified forests, which are fossilized remains ...

... middle of paper ...

... bill to make The Grand Canyon a national park was made in 1882 and if it had passed the Grand Canyon would have been the 2nd national park in the U.S., never the less, Harrison established the Grand Canyon Forest Reserve and Roosevelt established the Grand Canyon Game Preserve. Woodrow Wilson eventually signed the Grand Canyon National Park act in 1919. The Canyon is most known for its massive size and numerous layers of colorful rock reaching the Colorado River below. This river is what carved the canyon over thousands of years and is accessible by hiking into it. The South Rim of the Grand Canyon is where most visitors come and over look and hike into the canyon by foot or mule. Visitors can also hike down and camp by the river and even white water raft in the Colorado River. The North Rim, however, is much smaller and remote and can only be accessed by Route 67.

Show More
Related

  • Katmai National Park Research Essay

    1140 Words  | 3 Pages

    Katmai National Park is located in the southern part of Alaska. It was established on September 24th, 1918 to protect the recently devastated region. President Woodrow Wilson signed the bill, entering it as a national park.

    Read More

  • Theodore Roosevelt Administration: Fighting Corruption and Big Businesses

    1230 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...c structures and other objects of historic or scientific interest in federal ownership as national monuments. National parks were established together with National Forest Service throughout U.S. for conservation and recreation purposes. These actions faced opposition from Western settlers and Congress members who had plans of using the land that was set aside but also the Indians who were forced to stop hunting and fishing. However, settlers were happy with 1902 Reclamation Act that put aside funds to irrigate unlivable chunks of land and previously dry.

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of Yosemite National Park

    1795 Words  | 4 Pages

    Robbins, Jim. Last Refuge: The Environmental Showdown in Yellowstone and the American West. New York: Morrow, 1993. Print.

    Read More

  • Essay On Theodore Roosevelt National Park

    588 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Little Missouri River eroding the mountain range is the reason that the park is as it looks today. The park is believed to be <60 million years old. Over 60 million years ago volcanos all over the west were erupting and spitting out amounts of ash. The rivers near the volcanos were gathering. The rivers began to dry out, leveeing the ash behind. The ash was being dried in layers and turned into sandstone, siltstone and mudstone while the ash layers became bentonite clay. This Bentonite clay is dangerous because it gets people stuck, like quick sand it is located throughout the park. It can pull the car tires un...

    Read More

  • Essay On Petrified Forest National Park

    3161 Words  | 7 Pages

    Petrified Forest National Park is located in the Painted Desert in northeastern Arizona taking up 93,532.57 acres of its land. Before the national park was established, it was founded as a National Monument on December 8, 1906 when President Theodore Roosevelt signed the proclamation. Years later, the Congress passed a bill and established it as a national park on December 9, 1962. Centuries before Petrified Forest National Park was preserved as a national park, the land was preoccupied by the Paleo people. At the onset of the end of the last Ice Age, hunter-gatherers, people who lived by hunting game and only gathering edible plants, roamed the Southwest from 13,500 to 8000 B.C. Although these people enjoy meals consisting of meat and vegetables, they don’t raise livestock and grow crops. During these years of hunting and gathering, the region was cooler with a grassland environment, and people gathered wild plants for food and hunted bison and other large herd of animals. The types of bison these people hunted are now extinct. Nomads used a device called an atlatl to throw their weapons, such as spears and darts, to hunt. By 4000 B.C., during the archaic culture, the climate had changed and became similar to the one of the present. This period of hunting, gathering, and farming had lasted from 8000 to 500 B.C. In contrast to the time of the Paleo people, the climate was warmer, people extended their access to different types of food, and people began to farm and grow their crops. Due to the extinction of animals of the past, people had to expand their source of food, and they had to include many different species of plants and animals into their meals. Two hundred twenty-five million years ago, trees fell and were washe...

    Read More

  • Montana Essay

    944 Words  | 2 Pages

    Yellowstone National Park lies mostly in Wyoming, but three of the park’s entrances are located in southern Montana. People go to Yellowstone National park to see the view and the glaciers, some people go there to just go on a vacation to see the wildlife (Av2 books).

    Read More

  • Nationalism In Thomas Moran's 'Grand Canyon Of The Yellowstone'

    1427 Words  | 3 Pages

    The canyon is a part of what is now the Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, an area of land first acquired through the Louisiana Purchase. In this painting, the observer may notice many features which stand out. In the background, the image depicts a large, rocky ravine, occupied by a river and rows of trees. The river leads to a large orb of light, presumably stemming from a fire. In the foreground, two men are seen standing on a cliff above the ravine, presumably in awe at the wondrous land they have just discovered in the distance. Behind the men is an untraveled area of

    Read More

  • The National Park Service (NPS)

    1534 Words  | 4 Pages

    The more than four hundred locations that are currently recognized as national parks have been set aside because they are considered special places of beauty, character, or uniqueness. Whether visitors come from the natural state or the concrete jungle, the magnificent aesthetics of these sites can cause anyone to be astonished. As they ponder on the wonderful landscapes and the closeness to the wilderness, their souls are nourished. Some people acknowledge the planet or the creator, but all appreciate the splendor of biodiversity and gain a new understanding of it. According to Frye and Nuest, “watching other species and interacting with them helps [people] better understand and appreciate [their] place among them and [their] obligations to other living creatures and the same planetary environment that sustain both [their and the lives of other species]” (54). Furthermore, since these sites have been carefully preserved, they have undergone very little physical or geological change in centuries. The NPS claimed through its website that “by preserving biodiversity, [they] also ensure that future citizens, artists, and explorers of science experience [America’s] lands as the founders of the parks did long ago.” National parks allow visitors to relive scenes from the past and appreciate the nation’s history as expressed in these iconic sites. However,

    Read More

  • Denali National Park

    1239 Words  | 3 Pages

    National Parks have awed tourists and even locals for years. They provide an escape from the ordinary and relief from the everyday stress of society. National Parks provide insight into a simpler time where our ancestors were surrounded by the beauty of nature instead of the concrete jungles of modern day metropolitan areas. Few of these wonderful parks provide the same seclusion as Denali National Park in Alaska. It’s sights and sounds have fascinated many and will continue to provide a great escape from everyday life.

    Read More

  • The Great Impact of the Great Smoky Mountains

    1212 Words  | 3 Pages

    Every year, over nine million hikers and adventure seekers travel to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park making it the most visited national park in the United States. There are abundant reasons for this, but many popular reasons include over 150 hiking trails extending over 850 miles, a large portion of the Appalachian Trail, sightseeing, fishing, horseback riding, and bicycling. The park houses roughly ten thousand species of plants and animals with an estimated 90,000 undocumented species likely possible to be present. It is clear why there was a pressing interest in making all this land into a national park. My research was started by asking the question; how did the transformation of tourism due to the establishment of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park affect surrounding cities such as Gatlinburg and Sevier County, and in return, its effect on the popularity of the park?

    Read More

  • Orting, Washington

    709 Words  | 2 Pages

    National Park Services, U.S. Department of Interior. Nps.gov, 27 Dec. 2004. Web. The Web. The Web.

    Read More

  • Essay On Muir

    1148 Words  | 3 Pages

    By placing this emphasis on beauty in the wilderness the American people expected to see a beautiful wilderness, although in reality these two are not mutually exclusive. Muir supported a form of natural improvement in which alterations to the natural world are made, but not with any economic value in mind. Interestingly, Muir suggests that our wildness is a commodity to which, we are glad to see how much of even the most destructible kind is still unspoiled”. (Muir) By the time the National Park Service was founded in 1916 the American people wanted to be entertained by, and in, nature

    Read More

  • Structural Research of Canyonlands National Park, Utah

    1388 Words  | 3 Pages

    Canyonlands National Park, immense amounts of wilderness and rock, is located at the heart of the Colorado Plateau (Canyonlands National Park-Geology). Millions of years have formed specific features to the rock and surrounding wilderness that make it so special. Throughout the park, you will find that the sedimentary rock has formed many features such as hundreds of colorful canyons, mesas, buttes, fins, arches, and spires. The Green and Colorado rivers have played a major role in the formation of many of these features. These rivers cut through the park forming two massive canyons. This further splits the park into three distinct zones. “Island in the Sky” sits to the north while “The Maze” sits off to the west and “The Needles” to the east (Canyonlands National Park Information Guide). “Island in the Sky” serves as Canyonlands’ observation tower; it allows tourists to see overwhelming vistas of the rest of the land. “The Maze,” as hinted at by the name has been described as a “30 square mile puzzle in sandstone” (NPS: Nature & Science» Geology Resources Division). This section of the park often ranks as one of the most remote and inaccessible areas of the United States. Lastly, “The Needles” is known for its diversity in rock features. Throughout this land, features such as sculptured rock spires, arches, canyons, grabens, and potholes can be seen. The varying names hint at the diversity of the land as a whole. As said by The National Park Service’s Geology Resources Division, “Traces of the Anasazi can be found in almost every canyon in the Needles. Many of their stone and mud dwellings and storehouses are remarkably well-preserved. Tower Ruins, built high on a cliff ledge in a side canyon of Horse Canyon, is an outstanding ex...

    Read More

  • Yellowstone Park Research Paper

    1513 Words  | 4 Pages

    Yellowstone park was the first national park in the United States. The park dates back as far as 11,000 years ago, when the Native Americans were the first to stumble upon the

    Read More

  • Should the Wolves Stay in Yellowstone National Park?

    1822 Words  | 4 Pages

    National Parks are the cornerstone of every country because it preserves the rich cultural and natural resources of a nation, such as Yellowstone in the United States of America. Yellowstone National Park is the World’s First National Park which brings millions of attraction each year, it is larger than Rhode Island and Delaware combine and have over a thousand species of plants and animal (Yellowstone Media). However, a very important type of species has been missing in Yellowstone National Park for a very long time. Wolves, which got reintroduce back into Yellowstone National Park, should stay there because without them the ecosystem would be out of balance.

    Read More

More about Essay On National Parks

Open Document