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Yellowstone National Park
Nowhere in the world are there geographic features gathered in one place as Yellowstone National Park, the flagship of the National Park Service. Since the first explorers began documenting their discoveries to modern day, the features of Yellowstone National Park have virtually remained the same.
Established on March 1, 1872, Yellowstone National Park is the first and oldest national park in the world.
Preserved within Yellowstone are Old Faithful Geyser and some 10,000 hot springs and geysers, the majority of the planet's total. These geothermal wonders are evidence of one of the world's largest active volcanoes; its last eruption created a crater or caldera that spans almost half of the park.
An outstanding mountain wildland with clean water and air, Yellowstone is home of the grizzly bear and wolf, and free-ranging herds of bison and elk. It is the core of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, one of the largest intact temperate zone ecosystems remaining on the planet.
The human history of the park dates back 12,000 years. The events of the last 130 years of park history are reflected in the historic structures and sites associated with various periods of park administration and visitor facilities development.
"There is something in the wild scenery of this valley which I cannot describe: but the impressions made upon my mind while gazing from a high eminence on the surrounding landscape one evening as the sun was gently gliding behind the western mountain and casting its gigantic shadows across the vale were such as time can never efface. For my own part I almost wished I could spend the remainder of my days in a place like this where happiness and contentment seemed to reign in wild romantic splendor" - Lamar Valley, Osborne Russell 1835
DESIGNATIONS
National Park - March 1, 1872
International Biosphere Reserve - October 26, 1976
World Heritage Site - September 8, 1978
Information and photo courtesy of the National Park Service (NPS) www.nps.gov
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