Who Started the National Park System?
The National Park System was not started by any one individual at any one time, but created over many years in many stages. The system can be considered to have been started by those who campaigned for, created and passed the legislation creating individual National Parks and the National Park Service, the federal agency that oversees all of the United States National Parks and National Monuments.
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Theodore Roosevelt
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President Theodore Roosevelt signed a bill passed by Congress that officially created Yellowstone National Park, the first National Park in the United States, in 1890. The federal government took responsibility for Yellowstone because it was not under the jurisdiction of any state government at that time.
George Catlin
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One of the early proponents of the concept of national parks was artist George Catlin who wrote in the 1930s about the need for government protection to preserve the beauty of the natural wilderness.
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Northern Pacific Railroad
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Part of the credit for the creation of Yellowstone National Park goes to the Northern Pacific Railroad, which lobbied for the bill because it would benefit from tourists using its train tracks to visit Yellowstone.
The National Park Service
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The National Park Service is a federal agency created to oversee and administer the collective National Parks, National Monuments and other properties of special interest in the United States. It is charged with overseeing conservation of "the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life" of such areas and to preserve them for future generations.
President Woodrow Wilson
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The National Park Service Organic Act was signed into law by Congress and President Woodrow Wilson in 1916. By this time Yosemite National Park and 37 other National Parks and National Monuments had been created.
Stephen Mather and Robert Sterling Lang
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Stephen Mather and Robert Sterling Lang spearheaded the movement to create the National Park Service. They wrote letters to the Secretary of the Interior and published many articles promoting the benefits and qualities of national parks as part of a wider publicity campaign.
Stephen Mather (1867-1930) was essential in the creation of the National Park Service. He was a wealthy industrialist and conservationist who became the first director of the National Park Service. He worked with Secretary of the Interior Franklin Knight Lane to draft and oversee passage of the National Park Service Organic Act.
Robert Sterling Yard (1861-1945) was a friend of Stephen Mather, a journalist and wilderness enthusiast who lobbied and campaigned for The National Park Service Organic Act. He headed the National Parks Educational Committee, was executive secretary of the National Parks Association in 1919 and was one of the founders of The Wilderness Society in 1935.
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