| Library of Congress/ Corbis Historical via Getty Images |  | August 25, 1916 | On this day in 1916, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson signed the Organic Act into law, establishing a new federal bureau known as the National Park Service. Falling within the Department of the Interior, the NPS became immediately responsible for the conservation of 35 national parks and monuments, including California's Yellowstone, which had been established as America's first national park in 1872. This shift in administration put an end to private interests exploiting the parks for resources, and instead prioritized preservation and education above all. Under inaugural NPS Director Stephen Mather, the agency unveiled concession stands where tourists could purchase food and also promoted creating a highway system to make parks more accessible, which resulted in annual visitors increasing from just 350,000 in 1916 to over a million by 1920. In 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt transferred all remaining federal parklands under the NPS umbrella, forming a unified national management system for the first time. From historic battlefields to scenic seashores, the National Park Service now oversees 423 protected sites spanning over 85 million acres, none larger than Alaska's Wrangell-St. Elias, which contains a single glacier bigger than the entire state of Rhode Island. | |
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