10 fascinating facts about the National Park Service
Today marks the anniversary of the 1916 Organic Act that created the National Park Service. So how much has the Park Service grown since then and what properties are part of the service?
President Woodrow Wilson probably couldn’t have envisioned the Park Service’s scope on August 25, 1916, when he signed an act of Congress “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.”
Here is a quick look at some fun facts about one of the most popular parts of our federal government!
1. There were 35 national monuments and parks in the service when it was created in 1916. Stephen Mather, a businessman who created the slogan “20 Mule Team” for a detergent company, was the first Park Service Director and played a big role in its expansion. It is part of the Department of the Interior.
2. Today, the Park Service has 140 national monuments and parks. And that’s not all: There are 128 historical parks or sites, 25 battlefields or military sites, 19 preserves, 18 recreation areas, 10 seashores, four parkways, four lakeshores, and two reserves.
3. The biggest park is Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve in Alaska. It was established in 1980, and it contains 13.2 million acres. It is the same size as Yosemite, Yellowstone and the country of Switzerland combined.
4. The smallest site is the Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Memorial in Philadelphia. It was established in 1972 and sits on 0.02 acres. Kosciuszko was a close friend of Thomas Jefferson’s who played an important role as a military engineer in the Revolutionary War.
5. The Park Service’s annual budget is $2.6 billion. But the service also estimates it supports 240,000 local jobs and generates $27 billion for the U.S. economy.
6. More than 307 million people visited Park Service locations in 2015. Back in 1920, Park Service sites were visited by 1 million people.
7. The Park Service has about 20,000 direct employees. They are helped each year by more than 246,000 volunteers who donate their time.
8. The highest point in the system is Denali (or Mount McKinley) at 20,320 feet. The lowest accessible point is Death Valley National Park, at 282 feet below sea level.
9. The National Park Service just doesn’t run parks. It helps out with dozens of affiliated sites, and it administers the National Register of Historic Places, National Heritage Areas, National Wild and Scenic Rivers, National Historic Landmarks, and National Trails.
10. There was a new National Monument for the big 100th anniversary in 2016. President Obama designated Katahdin Woods and Waters in Maine as a National Monument, to be administered by the National Park Service.