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What did Teddy Roosevelt do for national parks?

During his very active presidency, Theodore Roosevelt established approximately 230 million acres of public lands between 1901 and 1909, including 150 national forests, the first 55 federal bird reservation and game preserves, 5 national parks, and the first 18 national monuments.



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Roosevelt went on to strengthen the protections of public lands, campaigning on conservation for the Vice Presidency in 1900 and later as President, establishing the National Parks system that currently protects not just Yellowstone, but 85 million total acres of American lands.

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Although Theodore Roosevelt did not establish the National Park Service, his conservation activities as President of the United States created the foundation on which the agency was founded a decade later. The NPS today oversees more than 400 units, including national parks, monuments, and historical sites.

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How Buffalo Bill and Gen. Philip Sheridan saved Yellowstone National Park - The Washington Post.

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Instead, the name was attributed as early as 1805 to Native Americans who were referring to yellow sandstones along the banks of the Yellowstone River in eastern Montana, several hundred miles downstream and northeast of the Park.

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But Roosevelt did not create Yellowstone. More than 30 years before his visit, President Ulysses S. Grant signed the Yellowstone National Park Protection Act, establishing the first national park in the world.

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The national parks had been developed by conservationists and by hunters like Roosevelt in an idealistic impulse to preserve nature, but also by businessmen in the desire to promote tourism. Western railroads favored many of the early parks by building grand hotels, where those who traveled by train could stay.

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