National Parks
created by Theodore Roosevelt

1. Crater Lake National Park, Oregon (1902).
2. Wind Cave National Park, South Dakota (1903).
3. Sullys Hill, North Dakota (1904):
. . . became National Game Preserve in 1914.
4. Platt National Park, Oklahoma (1906):
. . . now a part of Chickasaw National
. . . Recreation Area.
5. Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado (1906).

As President Roosevelt fought unsuccessfully to make the Grand Canyon a National Park. He did, however, protect the Grand Canyon by declaring it a National Monument in 1908, and that same year he established a National Game Preserve at the Grand Canyon. The Grand Canyon finally became a National Park in 1919.

"Defenders of the short-sighted men who in their greed and selfishness will, if permitted, rob our country of half its charm by their reckless extermination of all useful and beautiful wild things sometimes seek to champion them by saying that 'the game belongs to the people.' So it does; and not merely to the people now alive, but to the unborn people. The 'greatest good for the greatest number' applies to the number within the womb of time, compared to which those now alive form but an insignificant fraction. Our duty to the whole, including the unborn generations, bids us restrain an unprincipled present-day minority from wasting the heritage of these unborn generations. The movement for the conservation of wild life and the larger movement for the conservation of all our natural resources are essentially democratic in spirit, purpose, and method."

A Book-Lover's Holidays in the Open (1916).

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How Theodore Roosevelt Added to the
National Park System

When TR became President, the United States had 5 National Parks: Yellowstone, Yosemite, Sequoia, General Grant, and Mount Rainier. Roosevelt doubled the number of National Parks to 10. He also added land to Yosemite. In 1902, at TR's urging, Congress approprited $15,000 for the purchase, feeding, and fencing of buffalo in Yellowstone.

The Crater Lake in Oregon is a six-mile wide lake located in the crater of an extinct volcano. Wind Cave in South Dakota is famous for its underground passages and lime- stone caverns. Sullys Hill, which later became a National Game Preserve, is a wooded area by Devil's Lake in North Dakota. Platt in Oklahoma, now part of Chickasaw National Recreation Area, is the site of mineral springs, and at one time was the smallest National Park. Colorado's Mesa Verde is the site of noted Indian cave dwellings.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park, near Medora, North Dakota, was established in 1947 as a memorial to the great "Conservationist President." Located in the Badlands of western North Dakota, where TR was a cattle rancher in the 1880's, Theodore Roosevelt National Park consists of three units with a total of about 110 square miles.

In dedicating the gateway to Yellowstone in 1903, President Roosevelt said that the "essential feature" of the National Parks was their "essential democracy" in that the parks preserved wilderness and scenery " for the people as a whole."

We continuously add links to conservation lands. If you know about a website we should consider for linking, please contact the webmaster at trinfo@cs.com

Note: The status, borders, names, and other details about the projects and areas mentioned in these lists have changed over the years. For instance, some National monuments are now parts of National Parks, while the borders and names of National Forests have been changed in some cases.

Compiled and edited from research done by the National Geographic Society and The Theodore Roosevelt Association staff.
Copyright November 2005 all rights reserved Theodore Roosevelt Association.

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