![]() Disappointed with the results 26 years later in 1890, Congress made Yosemite one of three additional national parks, along with Sequoia and General Grant, now part of Kings Canyon. ![]() Yosemite became a park before Yellowstone, but as a state park. In 1921, an act of Congress established Hot Springs as a national park. Set aside in 1832, forty years before Yellowstone was established in 1872, it was actually the nation’s oldest national reservation, set aside to preserve and distribute a utilitarian resource (hot water), much like our present national forests. Some sources list Hot Springs in Arkansas as the first national park. ![]() The Yellowstone National Park Protection Act says “the headwaters of the Yellowstone River … is hereby reserved and withdrawn from settlement, occupancy, or sale … and dedicated and set apart as a public park or pleasuring-ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people.” In an era of expansion, the federal government had the foresight to set aside land deemed too valuable in natural wonders to develop.ĭid other national parks exist before Yellowstone? The world’s first national park was born. Grant signed the Yellowstone National Park Protection Act into law. Thanks to their reports, the United States Congress established Yellowstone National Park just six months after the Hayden Expedition. But the wonders of Yellowstone-shown through Jackson’s photographs, Moran’s paintings, and Elliot’s sketches-had captured the imagination of Congress. To permanently close to settlement an expanse of the public domain the size of Yellowstone would depart from the established policy of transferring public lands to private ownership. Langford and several of his companions promoted a bill in Washington in late 1871 and early 1872 that drew upon the precedent of the Yosemite Act of 1864, which reserved Yosemite Valley from settlement and entrusted it to the care of the state of California. The crowning achievement of the returning expeditions was helping to save Yellowstone from private development.
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