National Park Service Employees

The National Park System was initiated by the United States Congress in 1872, during the administration of President Ulysses S. Grant, when Yellowstone National Park was created. This landmark act established Yellowstone as "a public park or pleasuring ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people."

On August 25, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed the National Park Service Organic Act, which created the National Park Service as a federal bureau within the Department of the Interior. According to the act:

The service thus established shall promote and regulate the use of the Federal areas known as national parks, monuments, and reservations hereinafter specified by such means and measures as conform to the fundamental purpose of the said 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 and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.

In 1916, the park system contained less than 1 million acres. Today the country's national parks cover more than 85 million acres of mountains, plains, deserts, swamps, historic sites, lakeshores, forests, rivers, battlefields, memorials, archaeological properties, and recreation areas. The NPS continues its mission to preserve, protect, and manage the national, cultural, historical, and recreational areas of the National Park System.