On March 1, 1872, President Ulysses S. Grant signed a bill that protected a huge chunk of land in the Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho territories, creating Yellowstone, the very first national park anywhere on Earth. The new park covered more than 2 million acres of forests, mountains, rivers, and the steaming, hissing geyser fields that had wowed every explorer who'd ever seen them. There were no roads, no rangers yet, and almost no buildings.
Native nations like the Crow, Shoshone, and Blackfeet had known this land for thousands of years. When American explorers finally rode in during the 1860s, they came back with tall tales of mountains belching steam, mud that bubbled like soup, and a giant fountain of boiling water that erupted on schedule. Most folks back east thought they were making it up. So in 1871 the U.S. government sent the Hayden Expedition, which included photographer William Henry Jackson and painter Thomas Moran. Their photos and paintings of Old Faithful, the Grand Prismatic Spring, and the Yellowstone Falls finally convinced Congress that this place was real and worth saving.
Today Yellowstone gets millions of visitors a year. They watch Old Faithful blast a column of hot water 100 feet into the air every 90 minutes or so. They spot grizzly bears, gray wolves, and giant herds of bison thundering across the meadows. The whole park sits on top of an enormous sleeping volcano, which is why the ground steams. Yellowstone's idea, that some wild places belong to everyone forever, has spread across the planet, with national parks now protecting wild spots in more than 100 countries.
