At 152 years old, Yellowstone National Park is the oldest US national park. It was established in 1872 under a set of unique circumstances, but it has since set the precedent for the creation of dozens of other national parks in the US.
Some people say that Hot Springs in Arkansas was the first national park, but that’s not strictly true. However, it is the nation’s oldest national reservation, set aside for preservation in 1832. It then became a national park in 1921.
Likewise, Yosemite is occasionally cited as the oldest national park. While it did receive protection in 1864, this was only as a state park. It was eventually established as a national park in 1890.
The history of Yellowstone
encompasses around 890,000 hectares (2.2 million acres) of land in the northwest corner of Wyoming and parts of Montana and Idaho.
Famed for its biodiversity, the region is home to 300 species of birds, 16 species of fish, five species of amphibians, six species of reptiles, and 67 species of mammals, including black bears, grizzly bears, bobcats, lynx, , coyotes, , red foxes, wolverines, bison, and seven native ungulate species.
Yellowstone was not “discovered” in recent history. Archaeological discoveries and oral histories that Native Americans have lived in the Yellowstone region for up to 11,000 years, utilizing its abundance of wildlife and to build a rich variety of cultures. At least 27 current tribes have deep historic and cultural ties to the region.
European-American colonizers began exploring the land in the 19th century. Daring visitors would return from their expeditions with scientific reports, journal entries, paintings, and photography, all of which built up a mystique around Yellowstone. It became clear this was a beautiful and fascinating pocket of North America that needed to be preserved.
How national parks came to be
One of the most significant expeditions to Yellowstone was the Washburn-Langford-Doane Expedition in 1870. Upon their return, and his co-explorers headed to Washington in late 1871 and early 1872 to promote a bill that ensured the Yellowstone region acquired a special status.
Their motives were not purely idealistic and altruistic, however. Langford has as “a man with clear political aspirations” who utilized the Yellowstone region to enhance his image (and perhaps his bank account). He had personal and financial ties to Jay Cooke, the CEO of Northern Pacific Railroad, who saw the allure of Yellowstone as a possible way to bolster support for his planned rail extensions through Montana.
To convince lawmakers, Langford and his crew drew upon the precedent of the Yosemite Act of 1864, which reserved the Yosemite Valley under the care of California. The Yellowstone legislation was slightly different though. Instead of giving public lands to a state, the land would be managed by the Department of the Interior, an arm of the federal government.
Yellowstone was formally recognized as the first national park in the US by an act of Congress and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872.
The reads as follows: “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.”
Langford was given the honor of becoming the park’s first superintendent, although he was kicked out of the position in 1877 after being accused of neglecting his duty to protect and promote the park.
The darker side of Yellowstone National Park
The establishment of Yellowstone National Park was an unpleasant event for the Native American tribes who had lived here for thousands of years. After 1872, Native Americans were deterred from using the land and many were relocated from their home to reservations outside the park’s boundaries.
“Before the park was created, people hunted for food. After the park was created, that became an illegal act called poaching. And that changed the whole tenor of life in neighboring communities,” Patricia Limerick, director of the University of Colorado at Boulder’s Applied History Initiative, told .
“Yellowstone National Park is surrounded by Indian reservations. And their creation was directly related to the creation of the Yellowstone National Park boundary,” added Mark Fiege, professor of History at Montana State University.
Since the creation of Yellowstone National Park, Congress has assigned dozens of national parks, bringing the total number to 63. The also operates 434 so-called “units”, including National Battlefields and National Historic Sites.
One of the most recent additions is the in Colorado, the site of a sprawling concentration camp used to detain Japanese Americans during World War II following the attack of Pearl Harbour.