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Grand Geyser, Yellowstone, Circa 1912
Photograph by Stereo-Travel Co., Library of Congress
When Congress created the National Park Service in 1916, there were just 35 parks and monuments to manage and about a hundred million Americans to enjoy them. In this gallery, see photos of the national parks from an era when the country was just beginning to discover what writer Wallace Stegner called “the best idea we ever had.”
Here, visitors to Yellowstone National Park watch the eruption of the Grand Geyser in the park's Upper Geyser Basin. Established on March 1, 1872, in Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana, Yellowstone contains the greatest concentration of the world’s hot springs and geysers.
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Shoshone Canyon, Yellowstone, Circa 1917
Photograph courtesy Library of Congress
Visitors drive through Shoshone Canyon in Yellowstone National Park. America’s—and the world’s—first national park, Yellowstone attracts three million visitors a year today.
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Theodore Roosevelt, Yosemite, Circa 1903
Photograph courtesy Library of Congress
In this stereoscopic photograph, President Theodore Roosevelt stands at Glacier Point in California’s Yosemite National Park. One of the park system’s greatest patrons, Roosevelt established five national parks during his administration.
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Yosemite Panorama, Circa 1899
Photograph courtesy Library of Congress
A photo from the end of the 19th century captures a panorama of California’s Yosemite National Park, established in 1890. Naturalist John Muir led the crusade to establish the park. “No temple made with human hands can compare with Yosemite,” he wrote.
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Glacier Point, Yosemite, Circa 1902
Photograph by Geo. W. Griffith, Library of Congress
A couple braves the edge of Overhanging Rock at Glacier Point in Yosemite National Park. Hanging 3,000 feet (914 meters) above the ground, the rock is a favorite site for photographs and for visitors seeking a spectacular view of the Yosemite Valley.
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Ayer’s Peak, Grand Canyon, Circa 1899
Photograph by H.G. Peabody, Boston, Library of Congress
A photograph shows Ayer's Peak (left) and Cape Split at the Grand Canyon in Arizona. Established as a national park in 1919, the Grand Canyon had previously been designated as both a forest reserve and a national monument. Today nearly five million people visit the canyon each year.
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Grand Canyon, Circa 1925
Photograph by Keystone View Company, Library of Congress
A woman dares a closer look over the edge following a snowfall at the Grand Canyon. The side-by-side photographs give a single, three-dimensional image when viewed through a stereoscope.
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Grand Canyon, Circa 1913
Photograph by Kolb Bros., Library of Congress
An early adventurer scales a wall of rock in Arizona's Grand Canyon. Though popular outlooks are often crowded with visitors, most of the park’s 1,904 square miles (4,931 square kilometers) are maintained as wilderness, and the more adventurous can hike the park’s many backcountry trails.
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Trail Ride, Grand Canyon, Circa 1906
Photograph by H.C. White Co., Library of Congress
Mules provide a surefooted ride along a high trail in the Grand Canyon. Mule rides are still popular today in the park.
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Crater Lake, Circa 1912
Photograph by Kunselman-Gerking, Library of Congress
Visitors to Oregon’s Crater Lake relax in a boat near Wizard Island, a classic cinder cone named for its resemblance to a wizard’s hat. The deepest lake in the United States, Crater Lake is more than 1,900 feet (580 meters) deep. It sits in Mount Mazama, a dormant volcano in the Cascades.
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Black Bear, Yellowstone, Circa 1905
Photograph by Ingersoll View Company, Library of Congress
A black bear rummages through garbage pails on a wagon in Yellowstone National Park in this stereoscopic image. Both black bears and grizzly bears inhabit Yellowstone and can be seen between March and November.
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Sequoia Tree, Yosemite, 1920
Photograph courtesy Library of Congress
A man stands inside the Wawona Tree, a giant sequoia in Yosemite National Park’s Mariposa Grove. Cut in 1881, the tree’s tunnel attracted thousands of tourists wanting to pass beneath it in their vehicles. Weight from fallen snow caused the tree to collapse in 1969.
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Balcony House, Mesa Verde, Circa 1918
Photograph by Haines Photo Co., Library of Congress
A panorama photograph shows Balcony House, one of the highlights of Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado. Overlooking Soda Canyon, the 40-room dwelling was built by a prehistoric people once called the Anasazi (now the ancestral Puebloans), who built their dwellings into cliff recesses around A.D. 1200.
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Mount Rainier National Park, Circa 1911-1920
Photograph by Curtis & Miller, Library of Congress
People navigate a trail on horseback in Van Trump Park, part of Washington’s Mount Rainier National Park. Established in 1899, the national park’s centerpiece is Mount Rainier, one of the world’s most massive volcanoes and the tallest peak in the Cascade Range.
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Stark Peak, Glacier National Park, Circa 1919
Photograph courtesy Library of Congress
Stark Peak, now known as Grinnell Point, rises above a waterfall in Glacier National Park, Montana. Founded in 1910, Glacier National Park and its Canadian neighbor, Waterton Lakes National Park, are administered separately but cooperate in wildlife management and other areas.
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Kings Canyon National Park, Circa 1911
Photograph by Pacific Photo Co., Library of Congress
A panorama shows Lake Bryanthus and Mount Rixford at Kings Canyon National Park in California. Kings Canyon, established in 1940, and neighboring Sequoia National Park, established in 1890, began to be jointly administered in 1943.
