DID YOU KNOW?

The United States National Park Service was established in 1916 by then-President Woodrow Wilson.

Though the Park Service was established, the first National Park actually preceded the Park Service by almost 50 years, as President Ulysses S. Grant named Yellowstone Park the first national park in 1872.

Since then, the park system has come a long way, as today it comprises 391 areas covering more than 84 million acres. That includes parks in the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The largest park in the system is Alaska’s Wrangell-St. Elias National Park & Preserve, which includes nine of the 16 highest peaks in the U.S.

While Wrangell-St. Elias National Park & Preseve spans 13.2 million acres, Pennsylvania’s Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Memorial spans less than half a million acres, making it the smallest national park in the country.

Regardless of their individual sizes, the country’s national parks continue to be tourist attractions, as recreation visitors to the nation’s national parks for a typical year number more than 270 million.