Yosemite, Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks (Fodor's) - Fodor's [61]
1906 Congress selects Mesa Verde as a national park. It is the first cultural park in the system.
1916 President Woodrow Wilson signs the Organic Act, creating the National Park Service.
1919 The Grand Canyon goes from a national monument to a national park.
1933 Franklin Delano Roosevelt develops the Civilian Conservation Corps, which works in national parks and forests, planting three billion trees in nine years.
1951 After much debate, the National Park Service adopts its official emblem: the outline of an arrowhead surrounding a mountain, a sequoia tree, a river, and a bison. The arrowhead represents historical and archaeological values, the tree and bison represent vegetation and wildlife, and the mountains and water represent scenic and recreational values.
1967 Congress establishes the National Park Foundation as a separate, fund-raising arm for the parks.
1984 The fossils of one of the oldest dinosaurs ever unearthed are found in Petrified Forest National Park.
1987 Annual recreational visitors to the parks hits an all time high: 287,244,998.
1988 Devastating fires rage through Yellowstone, spreading to 793,000 of the park’s 2.2 million acres. One of the fires, which consumed over 410,000 acres, was caused by a discarded cigarette.
1994 Death Valley and Joshua Tree national monuments each become national parks.
2001 The George W. Bush administration establishes the National Parks Legacy Project to provide funds to restore and improve park facilities and landscapes, increase park trails, and uphold existing initiatives to protect parkland from fires as well as mining and drilling operatives.
2004 Great Sand Dunes in Colorado gains national park designation; it is the newest national park.
2007 Congress is presented with a record $2.4-billion budget for the parks, plus a $100-million donation match program as part of the Centennial Initiative.
2009 President Barack Obama signs the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which allocates $3 billion to the Interior Department, including $750 million to restore and protect America’s National Parks.
THE NPS TODAY
The National Park Service now manages nearly 400 natural, cultural, and recreational sites on some 84 million acres. These sites include national parks as well as monuments, memorials, historic parks, and national preserves. The NPS defines these lands as follows:
National Park: A natural place, generally large in size, that possesses an array of attributes, including an outstanding example of a particular type of resource and great opportunities for public use and enjoyment (or for scientific study). It may also be historically significant. National parks are protected from hunting, mining, logging, and other consumptive activities.
National Historic Park: A historic site that extends beyond single properties.
National Historic Site: Usually containing a single historical feature directly associated with its subject. Derived from the Historic Sites Act of 1935, a number of historic sites were established by secretaries of the Interior, but most have been authorized by acts of Congress. They appear on the National Register of Historic Places.
National Monument: A landmark, structure, or other object of historic or scientific interest situated on lands owned or controlled by the government.
National Memorial: Commemorative of a historic person or episode.
National Preserve: An area having characteristics associated with national parks, but in which oil and gas exploration and extraction, hunting, and trapping are allowed. Many existing national preserves, without sport hunting, would qualify for national park designation.
National Recreation Area: Places with this designation include reservoirs used for water-based activities and urban parks that combine outdoor recreation with the preservation of significant historic resources and important natural areas.
WHAT’S NEW AT THE PARKS
New Trails and Parks Connections. In March 2009, the National Park Service announced it would be making $333,000 worth of improvements