(Cover photo: Mesa Verde National Park. Credit: NPS)
Celebrate in a National Park near you
On August 25th, 2014 the National Park Service is celebrating its 96th birthday with a huge celebration in all of our National Parks. This is your chance to say thank you to all of those people who protect and preserve the parks, the monuments, the lakeshores and preserves.
Black bear seen at Yellowstone National Park.
Photo credit: NPS
Before the NPS was established there were 14 national parks in existence, the first being Yellowstone National Park (1872), and 21 national monuments all under the care and protection of the Department of Interior. But without a unified group overseeing all of the parks and monuments they became vulnerable to competing interests. With encouragement from future directors Stephen T. Mather and Horace Albright, the National Geographic Society, journalists, railroad interests and others, Congress passed what is often known as the Organic Act, which established the National Park Service and placed all the existing parks under its management. Thus, the foundation, the principles and the values of the NPS was established.
Yosemite National Park
Photo credit: NPS
In 1916, only 35 parks made up the National Park System. Today the number has grown to 397! The last national park to join the fold is Pinnacle National Park in Central California and became part of the national park system in 2013.
Spend a day in the park on August 25th and celebrate along with all your fellow nature/outdoor/camping enthusiast and say “Thank You!” to the many men and women who make all of these parks possible for all of us to enjoy again and again.
Great Smokey Mountain National Park
Photo credit: NPS
For more information or to find out what celebrations are taking place near you, go to the National Park Service event calendar and look up your local national parks .
Mount Rainier National Park
Photo Credit: NPS/Sue Russell
Denver Tent Company has been perfecting camping equipment and accessories in Denver, Colorado for over 100 years. We are proud to be a part of the outdoor business and hope to provide campers with quality canvas wall tents of all shapes and sizes so that generations to come can explore and enjoy all the 397 national parks that this country has to offer. Happy Birthday, NPS! Thank you for your service!
