Many take our national parks for granted, assuming they have always been there, 1 they provide refuge and relaxation for visitors from across the nation and world. But our nation was almost one hundred years old before we had our first national park. This wasYellowstone National Park, which was also the first national park in the entire world. Today, the park has areas in Montana and Idaho, 2 although the majority of it is in Wyoming.
3 Wyoming was not a state at the time. The federal government had less difficulty turning Yellowstone into a national park than it would have had otherwise had the park already been a part of a state. 4 Nonetheless, had it not been for the efforts of Ferdinand V. Hayden, an American geologist noted for his pioneering surveying expeditions of the Rocky 5 Mountains Yellowstone may not have become the majestic expanse of wilderness we know today. The reality was Hayden was worried that Yellowstone could easily become like Niagara Falls, which was overridden with 6 tourism; he felt that only the national government could help preserve the land so that it was 7 consecutive with his vision.
In 1871, after successfully appealing to the Senate and the House of Representatives, Hayden was able to turn Yellowstone into a National Park. Initially, the park met with great opposition 8 from locals. They wanted to profit from the land and its bountiful resources. They feared that the park would stifle any economic activity in the area, since all of the park’s abundant resources would be closed to any form of exploitation. Local entrepreneurs 9 seeking to have the size of the park limited so they could conduct mining and logging activities. 10 Some Montana representatives even tried to have bills introduced into Congress that, if passed, would either limit the boundaries of or totally abolish the land that was to become Yellowstone National Park.
Fortunately for those who hoped to preserve 11 nature’s wonders none of this opposition was fruitful. Within a year, there was continued opposition, though this had died down considerably since the park’s inception.
