By the Act of March 1, 1872, Congress established Yellowstone National Park in the Territories of Montana and Wyoming "as a public park or pleasuring-ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people" and placed it "under exclusive control of the Secretary of the Interior." The founding of Yellowstone National Park began a worldwide national park movement. Today more than 100 nations contain some 1,200 national parks or equivalent preserves.
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.
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. This "Organic Act" states that "the Service thus established shall promote and regulate the use of the Federal areas known as national parks, monuments and reservations…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."
An Executive Order in 1933 transferred 56 national monuments and military sites from the Forest Service and the War Department to the National Park Service. This action was a major step in the development of today's truly national system of parks—a system that includes areas of historical as well as scenic and scientific importance. Congress declared in the General Authorities Act of 1970 "that the National Park System, which began with the establishment of Yellowstone National Park in 1872, has since grown to include superlative natural, historic, and recreation areas in every region…and that it is the purpose of this Act to include all such areas in the System…."
The National Park System of the United States now comprises more than 400 areas covering more than 84 million acres in 50 states, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, Saipan, and the Virgin Islands. These areas are of such national significance as to justify special recognition and protection in accordance with various acts of Congress.
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. The Secretary of the Interior is usually asked by Congress for recommendations on proposed additions to the System. The Secretary is counseled by the National Park System Advisory Board, composed of private citizens, which advises on possible additions to the System and policies for its management.
The National Park Service still strives to meet its original goals, while filling many other roles as well: guardian of our diverse cultural and recreational resources; environmental advocate; partner in community revitalization, world leader in the parks and preservation community; and pioneer in the drive to protect America's open space.
Today more than 20,000 National Park Service employees care for America's 400+ national parks and work with communities across the nation to help preserve local history and create close-to-home recreational opportunities.
A Partnership Program to Preserve and Reuse Federal Historic Properties
Federally-owned historic buildings that are no longer needed by the Federal government are declared surplus by the General Services Administration. The Department of Defense also uses the Historic Surplus Property Program to dispose of historic military bases that have been closed.
States, counties, municipalities, and other governmental entities are eligible to acquire a surplus property at no cost if the property is listed in, or eligible for listing in, the National Register of Historic Places. Custom houses, office buildings, and military buildings have all been transferred under this program.
Transferred properties may be used for a wide variety of public facilities or revenue-producing activities. Private and not-for-profit organizations cannot acquire property under this program, but they may enter into long-term leases with recipients of historic surplus properties. Private developers with a long-term lease may be eligible to take advantage of Federal Historic Preservation Tax Incentives.
The National Park Service works with applicants who are acquiring historic properties, provides guidance to ensure that any work on the property meets the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation, and approves applicants’ leases to other organizations.
Questions about historic properties in specific states can be directed to the National Park Service regional coordinators.
Under 40 U.S.C. 550(b) and (e), the National Park Service's Federal Lands to Parks Program conveys surplus federal land to communities, usually at no cost, for public park and recreation purposes. Over 1,575 properties, approximately 178,000 acres, have been transferred to state and local governments for parks and recreation areas since the program's inception in 1949. The Program also helps assure continued public access and stewardship of resources.
The Federal Lands to Parks Program assist communities in getting land from the federal government, from finding out and applying, through getting ownership. The program advocates on behalf of the communities for acquisition of the appropriate land and helps ensure permanent public recreational use and stewardship of the land conveyed for park use.
By participating in the Federal Lands to Parks Program, communities throughout the nation have
The National Park Service also houses the Historic Surplus Property Program, a related program specifically for historic properties, and the Maritime Heritage Program which will provide information on historic light stations.
In the 1960s, the country awoke to the fact that our rivers were being dammed, dredged, diked, diverted and degraded at an alarming rate. To lend balance to our history of use and abuse of our waterways, Congress created the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System in 1968. With this act it became the policy of the United States that certain selected rivers of the Nation, and their immediate environments, that possess outstandingly remarkable scenic, recreational, geologic, fish and wildlife, historic, cultural or other similar values, should be preserved in free-flowing condition. Rivers in this national system are protected for the benefit and enjoyment of present and future generations.
As a subset of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System, Partnership Wild and Scenic Rivers are preserved and managed through a partnership of adjacent communities, state governments and the National Park Service. Communities protect their own outstanding rivers and river-related resources.
Twelve Wild and Scenic Rivers are currently managed though this collaborative approach. The Farmington (Connecticut), Great Egg Harbor (New Jersey), Lamprey (New Hampshire), Lower Delaware (New Jersey/Pennsylvania), Maurice and tributaries (New Jersey), Muscontcong (New Jersey), Sudbury, Assabet, and Concord Rivers (Massachusetts), Wekiva (Florida), Westfield (Massachusetts), and White Clay Creek (Delaware/Pennsylvania) and the recently designated Eightmile (Connecticut) and Taunton River (Massachusetts).
Congress proposes additions to the National Wild and Scenic River System and now in two cases the National Park Service is providing staff support and overall coordination to study these rivers. Community leadership and involvement in the study process is critical for proposed partnership rivers. The studies provide an important opportunity for towns to work together at a watershed-scale.
The National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act of 2000 (NHLPA) (54 USC 305101-305106) (formerly at 16 USC 470w-7), an amendment to the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, provides a mechanism for the disposal of Federally-owned historic light stations that have been declared excess to the needs of the responsible agency.
The NHLPA recognizes the cultural, recreational, and educational value associated with historic light station properties by allowing them to be transferred at no cost to Federal agencies, State and local governments, nonprofit corporations, educational agencies, and community development organizations. These entities must agree to comply with conditions set forth in the NHLPA and be financially able to maintain the historic light station. The eligible entity to which the historic light station is conveyed must make the station available for education, park, recreation, cultural, or historic preservation purposes for the general public at reasonable times and under reasonable conditions.
Only those light stations that are listed, or determined eligible for listing, in the National Register of Historic Places can be conveyed under this program. The nomination for listing, or determination of eligibility, is prepared by the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) following guidelines set forth in 36 CFR 60.9(c) and 36 CFR 63, respectively, as part of their responsibilities prior to the property being transferred to the GSA inventory for disposal. Light stations that are not eligible for listing will be disposed of through other processes.
Prior to the NHLPA, historic lighthouses could be transferred to state or local agencies through the National Park Service?s Historic Surplus Property Program or the Federal Lands to Parks Program.
From 1963 to 1993, while happy families, couples, and adventurers drove I-90 through South Dakota on their way to Mount Rushmore or Yellowstone, missileers sat underground. They sat ready for an emergency war order to launch the most destructive nuclear weapons produced by the United States. One thousand of these weapons, or Minuteman missiles, were installed in the northern Great Plains, each with warheads sixty times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. South Dakota was home to 150 of these missiles, with each group of 10 missiles controlled by two Air Force officers in a remote, underground control center. Launch Control Facility Delta-01 and Launch Facility (missile silo) Delta-09 are all that remain of that incredible force once deployed under South Dakota’s soil. These sites are now open to visitors to explore and learn more about the Cold War and the role that the Minuteman II Intercontinental Ballistic Missile System played within it.
Minuteman Missile National Historic Site began with the signing of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) in 1991 by George HW Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev. Written into the language of the treaty was the ability for both the U.S. and Soviet sides to retain missile sites for historic preservation purposes. After being transferred to the National Park Service from the United States Air Force in 2002, Delta-01 and Delta-09 were opened to the visiting public with limited tours and were an immediate hit. The site is now open year-round offering daily ranger-led tours of Delta-01, allowing a glimpse into the frontline of the Cold War.
A visit to Minuteman Missile National Historic Site begins at its new visitor center. In late 2015, new exhibits will be installed that encourage visitors to re-think the Cold War. How many nuclear weapons actually existed during that time period? How did the Minuteman Program defend our country if it was never used? Was it top secret? What was a day in the life of a Cold War soldier? To learn the answers to these and other questions, visitors can acquire tickets to tour the Delta-01 Launch Control Facility and its underground Control Center from a ranger at the information desk, or ask how to visit the Delta Nine missile silo, where visitors can see a Minuteman II missile preserved in its historic state. A visit in the summer of 2016 will allow visitors to experience a feature film currently in production.
Nearly 25years after the START Treaty retired 450 Minuteman II missiles, hundreds of Minuteman III missiles remain on alert, as a critical component of America’s defense. Nuclear weapons are more relevant than ever in the current changing global political climate. Minuteman Missile National Historic Site provides visitors insight into the U.S. policy of nuclear deterrence— not only how it worked during the Cold War, but how it may prevent global nuclear war among new enemies in the future.
“Scenery is a hollow enjoyment to the tourist who sets out in the morning after an indigestible breakfast and a fitful night's sleep on an impossible bed."
Stephen T. Mather, first Director of the National Park Service
As evidenced by the quote above, Director Mather believed that only a well-rested and well-fed visitor would be fully capable of appreciating the wonders of our national parks. Private companies have promoted the parks and served visitors since Yellowstone National Park was designated in 1872. The present-day Commercial Services Program is mindful of this legacy, ensuring that visitors have access to high-quality visitor services in order to fully appreciate our natural and cultural treasures.
Concessioners fill a vital role in helping the National Park Service (NPS) carry out its mission. Private companies are drawn to working with NPS in order to offer services to park visitors, which are not provided directly by the government. Concessioners specialize in these operations and are thus able to provide quality services at reasonable prices. By welcoming the private sector as a partner in park operations, the National Park Service broadens the economic base of the region and communities surrounding the parks.
In concert with other NPS divisions, the Commercial Services Program administers more than 500 concession contracts that, in total, gross over $1 billion annually. NPS concessioners employ more than 25,000 people in a variety of fields during peak seasons, providing services ranging from food service and lodging, to whitewater rafting adventures and motor coach tours. As stated in the Concessions Management Improvement Act of 1998, concession operations "are consistent to the highest practicable degree with the preservation and conservation of resources and values of the park unit."
(Link: https://www.nps.gov/aboutus/history.htm)