When you look at a map of the National Parks in the United States, you can quickly see that the majority of them lie in the western part of the country. There are 63 National Parks and only 13 of them are east of the Mississippi River (with one of those in the US Virgin Islands). The state of California alone has 9, quick to follow is Alaska with 8. The first National Park created was Yellowstone (though others were created as State Parks before Yellowstone was created then later changed to National Parks). In fact, Alex and I found out while we were there that this is actually the 150th year of Yellowstone as a National Park. What a cool milestone we lucked into!
When I think of the founding of National Parks, I connect them with Teddy Roosevelt but Yellowstone was in fact preserved by President Grant in 1872. All this time out west and visiting 6 parks (Theodore Roosevelt, Wind Cave, Glacier, Yellowstone, Grand Tetons and Arches) in just the three months I have been adventuring has really gotten me thinking: does the west really have more beautiful and unique landscapes, or was the east just already settled?
Is it possible there would be more parks in the eastern states if US National Parks were claimed earlier than 1872? The eastern states were well formed by 1872. My college in northwest NY was founded in 1850, Alex's in central PA was 1832. In 1872, the population of New York City was almost 1.5 million people. This all makes me think that perhaps there were more unique landscapes existing east of the Mississippi River but it was already developed or settled by the time National Parks became a reality. What did the untouched earth look like on the eastern side of the Mississippi and what National Parks could be there today?
One of the interesting things I learned from the Ken Burns documentary "The National Parks," was that some of the early western conservationists saw what commercialism did to Niagara Falls back east. Even as early as the early 1800's, Niagara Falls was already a tourist trap with "entrepreneurs" laying claim priceless parcels of land, and charging people an arm and a leg to see the Falls. These forward-thinking conservationists didn't want that to happen to Yosemite Valley, Yellowstone, and the Grand Canyon (which was almost commercialized), believing that they belong to the people. Now of course that also meant taking the land form the indigenous peoples, but that's another story...
-Corey Langley