The Yellowstone National Park Is Established: March 1, 1872

This text comes from our book, The American Venture.

Theodore Roosevelt was a man of strong passions and commitments—to justice, for instance, and American glory and power. Yet, Roosevelt shared with other progressives of his time another passion—the conservation of regions of great natural beauty and utility. At the turn of the century, ranchers and timber companies were looting federal public lands, particularly in the West, of their rich harvest of wood. Roosevelt believed that woodlands had to be cultivated and preserved for future generations. Then there was the question of beauty. Areas of natural beauty such as the Grand Canyon, Yosemite Valley, and Niagara Falls were national treasures that Roosevelt thought had to be kept pristine for the edification of future generations. It was thus that he worked to increase federal government supervision of the natural resources of the United States.

A Northern Pacific depiction of Yellowstone from 1904

Roosevelt was not, however, the first American or even president to set out on the path of conservation. Already in the mid-1860s, voices were calling on the government to protect the region in the Rocky Mountains in which the Yellowstone River rose in and through Yellowstone Lake—a land of spectacular mountain scenery with towering peaks, wide plateaus, deep canyons, spouting geysers and hot springs. At the time, the eastern capitalist, Jay Cooke, saw the money-making potential of the area; from his Northern Pacific Railway, being built just to the north, he could provide railroad spurs to bring eastern travelers there. Cooke and others urged Congress to set aside the lands, and Congress with the president, Ulysses S. Grant, complied. The Yellowstone National Park was thus established on March 1, 1872. From 1872 to 1882, the government managed the park, undertaking basic measures to conserve the land; but years of tourism eventually took their toll on nature and wildlife. In 1886, the U.S. Army took over the park’s management and began protecting its lands from poaching, vandalism, and wholesale slaughter of bison.

An 1872 picture of Vernal Falls at Yosemite

Another region of great natural beauty was the Yosemite Valley in California’s Sierra Nevada range. Yosemite had long attracted entrepreneurs who established lodging for the intrepid who dared the difficult journey into the mountains to see the valley’s wonders. In 1864, the state of California established Yosemite as a state park. Because of the tireless labors of the conservationist, John Muir, and his Sierra Club, the federal government in 1890 established Yosemite National Park in the mountainous lands encompassing the state park. Muir, however, wanted federal protection to better conserve the valley itself and was able to enlist President Roosevelt in the cause. Three years after Roosevelt visited and traipsed through the valley with Muir, the federal government incorporated the state park into Yosemite National Park.

Roosevelt’s conservation efforts did not stop with Yosemite. At his urging, Congress set aside 150 million acres of unsold federal lands as national forest reserve. Roosevelt fostered federal irrigation projects that by 1915 would add a million and a quarter new acres to the nation’s arable land. Under the Roosevelt presidency, five national parks and two national game reserves were established, preserving such monuments as Niagara Falls, the Grand Canyon, Crater Lake, the New Mexico petrified forest, and the Blue Ridge Mountains. In 1906, the National Monuments Act set up 16 national monuments, including Muir Woods in California and Mount Olympus in Washington state. What Roosevelt had fostered continued after his presidency with the establishment in 1916 of the National Park Service.