Outdoor Retailer - Summer 2016 - 49H

The National Parks: A Timeline
1832
Artist George Catlin first dreams up the idea of a national park, writing: "by some great protecting policy of
government... in a magnificent park... a nation's park, containing man and beast, in all the wild[ness]
and freshness of their nature's beauty!"
MAY 17, 1864
California Speaker Conness introduces a bill setting aside park land in the Yosemite Valley,
which after passing the House and Senate, gets approved by President Lincoln on June 30.
1869
John Wesley Powell leads an expedition down the Colorado River.
MARCH 1, 1872
President Ulysses S. Grant signs bill creating the first national park, Yellowstone.
1879
John Muir visits Glacier Bay in Alaska Territory.
OCTOBER 1, 1890
President Benjamin Harrison signs a bill creating Yosemite National Park.
.
SEPTEMBER 1906
Teddy Roosevelt makes Devils Tower the first national monument via The Antiquities Act of 1906.
AUGUST 25, 1916
President Woodrow Wilson signs a bill creating the National Park Service to manage the parks.
1919
Grand Canyon National Monument becomes Grand Canyon National Park.
1920
The number of park visitors first exceeds 1 million per year.
1926
Last remaining gray wolves die in Yellowstone.
.
1950
Post-war National Park visitation swells to almost 32 million per year.
1955
National Park Service director Conrad Wirth proposes Mission 66, a 10-year plan to invest $787
million to improve the parks' ability to handle the growing numbers of visitors.
1955
Park visitors number 62 million per year.
1966
The National Historic Preservation Act is passed to protect historic and prehistoric
resources on federal lands.
1971
Bill Briggs becomes the first person to ski the Grand Teton.

1978
The "Redwood Amendment" makes all components of the National Park System equally protected,
no matter the designation (park, monument, seashore, etc.).
1980
President Jimmy Carter signs the largest single land protection bill ever. The Alaska National Interest
Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) adds 43,585,000 acres of National Park lands to the system.
MARCH 1996
The Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail is established, commemorating the 1965 civil rights
marches led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. that led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act .
2013
Pinnacles National Monument (est. 1908) becomes the newest National Park.
2015
A record 307 million visitors flock to the National Parks.
FEBRUARY 2016
President Barack Obama creates the Castle Mountains National Monument in California.

49H OUTDOOR RETAILER

/ Summer 2016

Source: http://www.pbs.org/nationalparks/history/timeline/

Photos: (clockwise from upper right) Public domain, rvwithtito.com, Pamela
Eisenberg, simpleinsomnia, leakytr8, riptheskull, Daniel Schwen, simpleinsomnia,
public domain, Meredith Collins

1972
Park visitors number 165 million per year.

http://www.rvwithtito.com http://www.pbs.org/nationalparks/history/timeline/

Outdoor Retailer - Summer 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Outdoor Retailer - Summer 2016