National Parks

Hi Puzzlers,

With spring finally here many are turning their attention to summer and the family vacation. For many, that vacation includes a trip to one of our National Parks. I for one am grateful that our Nations leaders had the foresight to protect and preserve these areas for future generations. Can you image the planet without the great Sequoia trees? How sad it would have been to only have heard the tales of the enormous trees and not seen them.

The National Park concept derived from a quote from artist George Catlin. Catlin was a self-taught artist, whom had a keen interest in Native American life. He wanted to preserve its heritage before it was lost with the westward expansion. Catlin wrote, “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 and freshness of their nature's beauty!”

By 1864 Catlin’s idea had gained enough approval and Congress donated Yosemite Valley to California for preservation as a state park. In 1872 an act of Congress authorized the establishment of Yellowstone National Park; it was the first time our nation had set aside land "for the benefit and enjoyment of the people." Ah! But wait! That little piece of history has been rewritten.

Our National Park Service was established on August 25, 1916 when President Woodrow Wilson signed the Organic Act which created the National Park Service. The NPS was in charge of protecting the 40 national parks and monuments already in existence.

The first recorded piece of land set aside by our government for the peoples use, was the Hot Springs Arkansas Reservation. It was established on April 20, 1832 and renamed Hot Springs National Park in 1921. Congressional documents from 1872 list Yellowstone as our Nations second national park, not our first. So why the re-write? Many speculate that someone in the park service in 1930 changed the listing to Yellowstone because it was a “better” personification of what a “park” should be.

Well it doesn’t matter to me if it was the first or last National Park. They are all amazing in their own unique way and I will remain forever grateful for their preservation.

Happy Puzzling!