By 1916 the United States had 14 national parks and 21 national monuments, managed piecemeal by the Interior Department, the army and others. Conservationists led by the businessman Stephen Mather and his assistant Horace Albright lobbied for a dedicated service. The act charged it to conserve scenery, wildlife and historic objects and to provide for their enjoyment in ways that would leave them unimpaired for future generations. The agency now manages more than 400 sites visited by hundreds of millions of people a year.
Yellowstone became the world's first national park in 1872, but for decades there was no organization to look after it or the parks that followed. At Yellowstone, soldiers of the US Army patrolled against poachers and vandals. Elsewhere, parks were often poorly protected, and businesses sought to exploit their resources. The flooding of Yosemite's Hetch Hetchy Valley for a San Francisco reservoir, approved in 1913, convinced many conservationists that the parks needed a champion.
Stephen Mather, a wealthy borax businessman, complained to the Interior Secretary about conditions in the parks and was invited to come to Washington and fix them. With Albright, a young lawyer, he mounted a publicity campaign, bringing journalists and politicians on trips to the parks. Congress passed the Organic Act in August 1916, and Wilson signed it on August 25.
Mather became the first director and spent much of his own fortune promoting the parks and building roads and lodges so that tourists could reach them. The act's twin mandate, to protect the parks and to open them to the public, has shaped debates over their management ever since.
Key people: Woodrow Wilson, Stephen Mather, Horace Albright