Tell me more:
Always check with a parent or other adult before going online.
- Don't miss out on the party. Find out what's going on near you at nps.gov/subjects/centennial/index.htm.
- Download the Centennial Junior Ranger Activity Book at nps.gov/kids/features/2016/JrRangerCentennialBooklet.cfm.
- Attention, all fourth-graders: Become a parks ambassador. Learn how at nps.gov/kids/features/2015/everyKid.cfm. Current third-graders can sign up starting September 1.
Ready to blow out some candles? The National Park Service is celebrating its 100th birthday this summer!
Special events are planned from coast to coast and overseas. There’s sure to be something near you. That’s because the park system oversees more than 400 sites, including battlefields, monuments, historical parks, lakeshores and seashores, scenic rivers — even the White House!
Fifty-nine of those sites are actual national parks, including the granddaddy of them all: Yellowstone. People have been coming to this natural wonder of gushing geysers and wild animals for more than 11,000 years, and it’s where the story of the National Park Service begins.
Yellowstone, located mostly in Wyoming, became our first national park — and some say the world’s first — in 1872. The idea was to protect such natural treasures from development so future generations — that means you! — could enjoy them, too.
Other parks, most notably California’s Yosemite (pronounced yo-SEM-it-ee), were added over the years.
President Theodore Roosevelt was one of the park system’s biggest boosters. During his time in the White House (1901-1909), he added five parks, 18 national monuments, 51 bird sanctuaries, four game refuges and more than a million acres of national forest to the list of federally protected places.
With growth came a problem, though: A variety of government offices managed those sites.
Some people thought it would be better if one agency oversaw all of them. And so, on August 25, 1916, the National Park Service was created and made responsible for protecting the national parks and monuments that existed as well as all future ones.
Today there are Park Service sites in every state, the District of Columbia and five U.S. territories, including Puerto Rico. The total area under protection, 84.4 million acres, is almost three times the size of Pennsylvania.
The popularity of these sites is clear. Last year, they set a record with more than 307 million visitors. That represents about 95 percent of the entire U.S. population!
You can count yourself among them if you visited the National Mall in the District of Columbia, Prince William Forest Park in Virginia or the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Monument on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Kenilworth Park & Aquatic Gardens in Washington and Assateague Island National Seashore in Virginia and Maryland are featured on a sheet of 16 stamps the U.S. Postal Service is issuing in June to celebrate the Park Service.
If you love spectacular nature, fascinating history or fun outdoor recreation, our national park system has something for you. Waterfalls and caves, bears and bison, native cliff dwellings and presidential homes are just some of the attractions waiting to welcome you this summer. Check it all out in the Tell Me More box below.
KidsPost will be back in June and July with more about our national parks, including a fun-facts page and a quiz in which you could win a National Geographic guidebook to the parks.
Happy birthday, National Park Service. Now, where’s the cake?
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