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Which president is responsible for national parks?

On August 25, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed the act creating the National Park Service, a new federal bureau in the Department of the Interior responsible for protecting the 35 national parks and monuments then managed by the department and those yet to be established.



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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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Delaware is the only state in the country that does not have anational park, national monument, national historic site or anyother unit of the National Park Service.

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Theodore Roosevelt called President Grant the “father of the national parks” for signing into existence the first National Park in the U.S. In 1871 Congress allocated $40,000 (then a huge sum) to finance an expedition to an area called Yellowstone, a location that then was mainly known from traveler's stories.

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Additions to the National Park System are now generally made through acts of Congress, and national parks can be created only through such acts. But the President has authority, under the Antiquities Act of 1906, to proclaim national monuments on lands already under federal jurisdiction.

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While the National Park System comprises 423 national park sites, only 63 of them have the National Park designation in their names. The other sites fall into different National Park System categories like National Historic Sites, National Monuments, National Seashores, National Recreation Areas, and others.

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Located in the southwest corner of the Florida Keys reef system, Dry Tortugas National Park is a remote park that is more than 99% water. Its crystal clear ocean waters abound with incredible marine life.

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The largest national park is Wrangell–St. Elias in Alaska: at over 8 million acres (32,375 km2), it is larger than each of the nine smallest states. The next three largest parks are also in Alaska.

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That state with the most national parks is California, with nine of the nation's 61 national parks within its borders. The total acreage of these nine national parks in California is more than 6.3 million acres.

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American Samoa National Park – South Pacific While not located in the United States, the US territories of American Samoa National Park are arguably the most remote.

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The smallest park is Gateway Arch National Park, Missouri, at 192.83 acres (0.7804 km2). The total area protected by national parks is approximately 52.4 million acres (212,000 km2), for an average of 833 thousand acres (3,370 km2) but a median of only 220 thousand acres (890 km2).

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Yellowstone National Park - 1872 On March 1, 1872, President Ulysses S. Grant designated Yellowstone as the first national park in the United States and the world. Today, the park is home to the world's largest collection of geysers, including the iconic Old Faithful.

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