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Yellowstone National Park |
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| By an Act of Congress on March 1st, 1872, Yellowstone National Park was "dedicated and set apart as a public park or pleasuring ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people" and "for the preservation, from injury or spoilation, of all timber, mineral deposits, natural curiosities, or wonders... and their retention in their natural condition."
Yelowsone is the first and oldest national park in the world. The commanding features that initially attracted interest, and led to the preservation of Yellowsone as a national park, were geological: the geothermal phenomena (there are more geysers and hot springs here than in the rest of the world combined), the colorful Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River, fossil forests, and the size and elevation of Yellowstone Lake. |
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| Ninety-nine percent of the park's 3,400 square miles (2.2 million acres) remains undeveloped, providing a wide range of habitat types that support one of the continent's largest and most varied large mammal populations. Yellowstone is a true wilderness, one of the few large, natural areas remaining in the lower 48 states of the United States. | |||||||||
| Yellowstone National Park is located in the northwest corner of Wyoming, with portions extending into southwestern Montana and southeastern Idaho. | |||||||||
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