On Aug. 25, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed the Organic Act, officially creating a new government entity which, read the text of the Act, “shall promote and regulate the use of the Federal areas known as national parks, monuments, and reservations … to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.” That entity became known as the National Park Service (NPS), and it celebrates 110 years of carrying out its mission this week.
The concept of national parks long predates the creation of the NPS. Yellowstone was designated “a public park or pleasuring-ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people” under the auspices of the Secretary of the Interior on March 1, 1872, creating a global movement of national parks. These spaces were controlled variably by the Department of the Interior, Forest Service, and others for decades, until it became a clear a single unifying body would be necessary. Sites were gradually handed over to the NPS in the years that followed, including the transfer of 56 parks in 1933 which kicked off the modern national park system.
The NPS now oversees more than 400 areas encompassing over 84 million acres, not only in the 50 U.S. states but well beyond the borders of North America with areas in Guam, Saipan, and Samoa, among others. Since the creation of Yellowstone presented a model for such parks around the world, more than 100 countries worldwide have designated some 1,200 national parks within their borders. U.S. national parks welcomed more than 320 million people in 2025, with 26 parks reporting all-time record numbers.
For more about National Park Week and the history of the NPS, visit nps.gov.
Main Image Credit: Adobe/ehrlif
