A History of American National Parks

Today we generally take national parks for granted, a natural part of the vast landscape of America. However, our National Park System is the result of decades of change and development, under a process that continues to this day.

The idea of national parks comes from the 19^th century. The first person to speak of setting aside lands for conservation was artist George Caitlin. While traveling through the Dakotas, painting and sketching portraits, landscapes and scenes from daily Indian life, he worried about the preservation of all of this beauty that surrounded him, as well as the culture of the Native Americans.

His idea was to create special lands, set aside from normal development, where the natural grandeur as well as the lands of the Native American could be preserved, as he said in his own words, "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!"

Although in the 1830's no move was taken by the federal government in this sort of direction, the idea of creating grand parks to preserve the natural beauty of the land slowly began to gain acceptance. In 1864, the first steps towards creating a national park were set in motion by Congress and President Abraham Lincoln.

Yosemite Valley, seen as an important national treasure, was set aside by the federal government and ceded to the state of California. In giving this land to California, it was agreed that the state would preserve these lands for public use, resort and recreation. No corporate development would be allowed in the protected lands.

This, while setting a precedent, was not actually a national park, as it had been specifically given to the state of California (although today these lands are a national park, Yosemite National Park). It would be eight more years before the first national park would be created.