National Parks

National parks such as the Grand Canyon or Yosemite are the quintessential image of American wilderness. In the early days of white settlers in America, the land seemed impossibly vast. Men such as Meriwether Louis and William Clark ventured far west just to see how big the continent was. Most of the land was unaltered by civilizations, since the Native Americans did not generally build permanent settlements or extensive infrastructure.

However, as European American settlers moved across the land, they tended to do things to alter the landscape -- building permanent towns and cities, converting forests to farms, and using fields for raising animals. These changes made the land more hospitable, and allowed for a more developed society, one in which each family was no longer required to produce its own food. This reduced emphasis on personal agriculture allowed American society to develop technologically and as a result, invent and discover many things.

However, there were some who saw wilderness land as a valuable resource -- one that was a resource only as long as it existed unaltered and unharvested. Although modern society grants man conveniences unheard of in the days of the first colonists, the wilderness can provide an escape with a value that cannot be measured in terms of output or innovation. Modern, fast paced American life needs a place to go to unwind, and national parks, forests and other wilderness areas were established.

Yellowstone, near the Grand Tetons, was established in 1872 as the world's first National Park. Earlier, in 1832, Andrew Jackson had designated a protected area for a geothermal site in Arkansas, but the land was still under the jurisdiction of the state.

Yellowstone set a precedent for national custody of wilderness. Now, national parks and forests abound throughout America and around the world, and provide a taste of the solitude widely available in the early days of America.