Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone National Park is one of the largest and oldest national parks in American history. Yellowstone was the first park to be protected by private investment on March 1, 1872, and the first to be put under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service in 1918, no doubt due to its unique and inspiring landscape and geothermal features. In fact, Yellowstone National Park is home to half of the world’s total hydrothermal features. These awesome attractions draw an incredible amount of visitors, an average of two to three million each year, to Yellowstone’s immense landscape. The park has a total size of 28,125 square miles, is found in three distinct states, and is considered to be one of the largest intact temperate zone ecosystems in the world today (Yellowstone National Park Official Homepage).
Following thousands of years of Native American occupation, the area now known as Yellowstone National Park was officially "discovered" by western-traveling fur traders and settlers, whose stories of bubbling mud and gushing geysers seemed at first to be delusional tall tales. Traffic increased to the area, however, and more and more Americans grew in awe of the area's hydrothermal features, wild animal and plant life, petrified trees, and impressive Yellowstone River and Lake. The area's intense and moving landscape soon moved president Ulysses S. Grant to sign the Yellowstone National Park Act on March 1, 1872, which protected the area from private development and placed it under the protection of the United States Army, who managed Yellowstone from 1886 to 1916. Yellowstone National Park sparked the creation of the National Park Service, and soon became the first national park in American his...
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...as the first American national park to be founded for good reason – this dynamic and stirring area deserves to be conserved and enjoyed for decades to come.
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National Parks Service. "NATIONAL REGISTER CRITERIA FOR EVALUATION." National Register Publications. http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/publications/bulletins/nrb15/nrb15_2.htm (accessed February 14, 2014).
The fertile Great Plains region would provide America with thousands of acres of fruitful farmland that would benefit the new nation’s economic well-being. After the Lewis and Clark expedition, the newly found wildlife species and scenic landscapes resulted in a greater level of appreciation and fascination in nature and instilled a sense of patriotism in many. It would be a few decades till preservation policies came about but without Jefferson’s will to explore westward, our preservation efforts today might not be what they
National Park Services, U.S. Department of Interior. Nps.gov, 27 Dec. 2004. Web. The Web. The Web.
Within the state of Colorado lies a well know national park, which is known for its breathtaking geologic features and history of ancient civilizations. This site of interest is known as Mesa Verde National Park. In the Spanish language, Mesa Verde means green table. This park serves a medium for the protection of the thousands of well-known archeological sites that lie within it. Many of these preserved sites served as a home for its inhabitants, the Ancestral Pueblo people, over a thousand years ago. It is estimated that this was most likely around AD 600 to about 1300.
Robbins, Jim. Last Refuge: The Environmental Showdown in Yellowstone and the American West. New York: Morrow, 1993. Print.
United States. National Park Service. "Theodore Roosevelt and Conservation." National Parks Service. U.S. Department of the Interior, 06 Mar. 2014. Web. 04 Apr. 2014. .
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and the importance of their history. It is the first monument to be added to the National Park
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