Which park came FIRST?

1) Yellowstone is generally considered the worlds first "National Park."

2) In 1864, the land in Yosemite Valley was granted to California for management and preservation. Some people, such as John Muir, believed the state was not doing enough to preserve the park, and so the federal government named it a National Park in 1890.

3) Legislation in 1832 created a federal reservation to protect the thermal springs and surrounding mountains in Hot Springs, AR. It was named Hot Springs Reservation in 1880, and got promoted to Hot Springs National Park in 1921.

4) Mackinac Island was named Mackinac National Park in 1875. The federal government had a military base on the island, and they adminstered the park. When the base closed in the 1890s, the island reverted to the control of Michigan, and it became the first state park in the country.

the Statistics

1) Wrangell-St. Elias, in Alaska.

2) Death Valley, at more than 3.3 million acres. That is about a million more than Yellowstone, the previous largest.

3) Gateway Arch NP in St. Louis.

4) National Park of American Samoa, which is also the only park south of the equator.

5) Great Smoky Mountains NP, with 12.5 million visitors in 2019.

6) California has nine National Parks, while Alaska has eight.

Some history

1) Gerald Ford warked as a seasonal park ranger at Yellowstone NP in 1936.

2) Buch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. You get half-credit if you said Paul Newman and Robert Redford.

3) Not a bear! It was an agressive mountain goat.

4) Death Valley.

Grab Bag

1) Great Sand Dunes NP in Colorado. Sixty UFOs have been spotted there since 2000.

2) Glacier National Park.

3) Theodore Roosevelt National Park, in North Dakota.

4) Hope you didn't guess an Alaska park! If you can get to them, they're open. However, Isle Royale NP closes every winter.

5) In the early years, congressmen would nominate areas in their districts as National Parks, thus attracting federal money. We already mentioned Mackinac NP. In 1902, Platt National Park was established in Oklahoma to protect mineral water springs. In 1904, theodore Roosevelt named Sullys Hill National Park in North Dakota.

Never heard of those two? In 1931, Sully's Hill was transferred out of the NPS, and became Sully's Hill National Game Preserve. Platt was merged with other lands and became Chickasaw National Recreation Area in the 1970's.

So we have three states that lost National Parks. However, Michigan gained Isle Royale NP, and North Dakota honors our environmental president with Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Thus, Oklahoma is the one state that no longer has a National Park.