History
The story of wild America is the story of the national parks. The story begins in 1872, just a few years after the destructive American Civil War, when Congress created Yellowstone National Park in the wilderness of the Wyoming Territory. Other natural areas, historical areas, and monuments followed, each maintained by different bureaucracies. By 1916, there were 35 national parks, and oversight was getting difficult, so Congress created the National Park Service, which remains in existence today to maintain and protect the entire national park system. Today, over 400 wild natural areas, monuments, and historically significant sites are under the watchful care of the National Park Service, covering 84 million acres in all 50 states.