Fodors the Complete Guide to the National Parks of the West

A romantic image of the West has gripped the American psyche since the nations birth. As the frontier shifted from the Ohio River Valley to the Great Plains to the Rocky Mountains and finally to the Pacific coast, the land just over the horizon promised freedom, open space, self-sufficiency, and adventure. Manifest Destiny, gold rushes, and the Homestead Act of 1862which offered 160-acre parcels of land to anyone 21 years or older with $18spurred settlers, prospectors, soldiers, and laborers to tame the American West.

During this unprecedented land grab, interest in preserving scenic Western lands and archaeological sites emerged, along with a national sense of responsibility for the wilderness. While exploring the Dakotas in 1832, painter George Catlin noted the potential for loss of wildlife and wilderness. He wrote that they could be preserved by some great protecting policy of government... in a magnificent park.

The tipping point came three decades later. In 1864, in the midst of the Civil War, President Lincoln set aside Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of giant sequoias as a public trust to preserve the land for future generations. This revolutionary federal preservation concept was just the beginning. When a handful of would-be entrepreneurs explored Yellowstone in 1870, dreaming up the possibilities for development of this fantastic land theyd found, a lawyer, Cornelius Hedges, made the bold suggestion that they preserve this geologically astounding land rather than capitalize on it.

Whatever persuasive prose Hedges used is not certain, but persuade them he did. A year later, one of these explorers was in the House of Representatives promoting the idea of preserving Yellowstone as a natural place. Also lobbying for the plan were artist Thomas Moran, photographer William Henry Jackson, and U.S. Geological Survey Director Ferdinand Hayden, whod been appointed by Congress to lead an expedition to Yellowstone to validate the rumors of its otherworldly features. Congress was more than convinced of its merits (and the need to preserve them), and in early 1872, President Ulysses S. Grant signed into law the bill creating Yellowstone National Park.

The 1890s saw the creation of several more national parks, as well as the Forest Reserve Act of 1891, which led to the establishment of our first national forests. In 1906, the Antiquities Act passed, which allowed presidents to name national monuments. That same year, President Theodore Roosevelt established Devils Tower as the first such site, making Wyoming the home of both the first national park and first national monument.

Pioneering conservationists like Robert Underwood Johnson and John Muir advocated for further preservation of Western treasures. Muir, who founded the Sierra Club in 1892 and is often called the father of the National Park System, greatly influenced Theodore Roosevelt, who went on to establish five national parks.

By 1916, the Interior Department was handling 14 national parks. In order to streamline the management of the national parks and monuments, President Woodrow Wilson approved legislation creating the National Park Service, or NPS, within the Department of the Interior. The mission of the new agency was to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wildlife 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.