The day breaks over US National Parks

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In 1903, President Roosevelt accompanied John Muir, a Scottish-born American naturalist, on a visit to Yosemite. While traveling to the park, Muir told the president about state mismanagement of the valley and rampant exploitation of the valley's resources. Even before they entered the park, he was able to convince Roosevelt that the best way to protect the valley was through federal control and management. After seeing the magnificent splendor of the valley, the president asked Muir to show him the real Yosemite. They set off largely by themselves and camped in the back country. It was a night Roosevelt never forgot. Because of the spiritual quality and enthusiasm toward nature expressed in his writings, John Muir was able to inspire readers, including presidents and congressmen, to take action to help preserve large nature areas. He is today referred to as the "Father of the National Parks."

TEXT FROM WIKIPEDIA, cba SOME RIGHTS RESERVED.

Published: 2012-06-23 17:11:07 UTC

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Yosemite National Park

The National Park Service was formed in 1916, and Yosemite was transferred to that agency's jurisdiction. Tuolumne Meadows Lodge, Tioga Pass Road, and campgrounds at Tenaya and Merced lakes were also completed in 1916.

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Sequoia National Park

The first European settler to homestead in the area was Hale Tharp, who famously built a home out of a hollowed-out fallen giant sequoia log in the Giant Forest next to Log Meadow. Tharp's attempts to conserve the giant sequoias were at first met with only limited success. The National Park Service incorporated the Giant Forest into Sequoia National Park in 1890, the year of its founding, promptly ceasing all logging operations in the Giant Forest.

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Saguaro National Park

Saguaro National Monument was created on March 1, 1933 by President Herbert Hoover. On October 14, 1994, Congress elevated Saguaro to National Park status.

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Zion National Park

In 1909, U.S. President William Howard Taft named the area a National Monument to protect the canyon, under the name of Mukuntuweap National Monument. In 1918, however, the acting director of the newly created National Park Service changed the park's name to Zion. The United States Congress established the monument as a National Park on November 19, 1919.

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Badlands National Park

Authorized as Badlands National Monument on March 4, 1929, it was not established until January 25, 1939. It was redesignated a national park on November 10, 1978.

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Great Smoky Mountains National Park

The U.S. National Park Service wanted a park in the eastern United States, but did not have much money to establish one. Though Congress had authorized the park in 1926, there was no nucleus of federally-owned land around which to build a park. John D. Rockefeller, Jr. contributed $5 million, the U.S. government added $2 million, and private citizens from Tennessee and North Carolina pitched in to assemble the land for the park, piece by piece. Slowly, mountain homesteaders, miners, and loggers were evicted from the land. The park was officially established on June 15, 1934.

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Voyageurs National Park

The park was first proposed in April 1891 by the Minnesota Legislature in a resolution requesting that the president create a national park in the state. It wasn't until nearly eighty years later that federal legislation authorizing the creation of the park was signed into law by President Richard Nixon on January 8, 1971.

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Rocky Mountain National Park

Enos Mills explored the mountains of the area and wrote many books and articles describing the region. He later supported the creation of Rocky Mountain National Park. Mills' original proposal for park boundaries went from Wyoming all the way down to the Mount Evans area, including areas such as the Indian Peaks Wilderness. Much of the land was favored for mining, logging, and other operations, so the proposed park was reduced to an area approximating the current park borders. The bill passed Congress and was signed by President Woodrow Wilson on January 26, 1915.

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Glacier Bay National Park

Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve constitutes two official park units jointly managed by the National Park Service in the Alaska panhandle west of Juneau. President Calvin Coolidge first proclaimed the area around Glacier Bay a national monument under the Antiquities Act on February 25, 1925.

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Lassen Volcanic National Park

Lassen Volcanic National Park started as two separate national monuments designated by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1907: Cinder Cone National Monument and Lassen Peak National Monument.

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Virgin Islands National Park

Virgin Islands National Park is spread out on 59 km2 of land. It became the 29th U.S. national park in 1956, when Laurence Rockefeller visited the area and thought the land was incredibly beautiful. The park covers almost 60% of St. John Island, and a small portion of Hassel Island as well.