"The Service thus established shall promote and regulate the use of the Federal areas known as national parks, monuments and reservations . . . which purpose is to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner.."
-Organic Act of 1916
-Organic Act of 1916
Organic Act of 1916
"In the years following the establishment of Yellowstone, the United States authorized additional national parks and monuments, many of them carved from the federal lands of the West. These, also, were administered by the Department of the Interior, while other monuments and natural and historical areas were administered by the War Department and the Forest Service of the Department of Agriculture. No single agency provided unified management of the varied federal parklands."
-National Park Service -Dr. Robert Sutton, Chief Historian of the National Park Service, in a personal interview)
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On August 25th, 1916, Woodrow Wilson signed the National Park Service into law. The NPS was to preside over the national parks and monuments.
While the formation of the National Park Service was an improvement, there were still flaws. The National Park Service did not preside over national memorials, national capital or military parks, and other historical treasures. In 1933, 17 years after the Organic Act, there were only 67 total areas under federal protection.
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