List of areas in the United States National Park System is a featured list, which means it has been identified as one of the best lists produced by the Wikipedia community. If you can update or improve it, please do so. | |||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
Current status: Featured list |
This article is rated FL-class on Wikipedia's
content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
List of areas in the United States National Park System is part of the National Park Service series, a former featured topic candidate. Please view its sub-page to see why the nomination failed. Once the objections have been addressed you may resubmit the topic for featured topic status. |
Have to find correct approach to ampersands in the links. User:ClaudeMuncey
No, it was just the boilerplate phrase I was using to identify that connection. In reality, the NPS helps maintain all sorts of preserved areas, historical, natural etc. A big chunk of downtown Washington DC is administered by the NPS (which I am planning to break out in this list, because it includes things that would be city parks and such in any other city). ClaudeMuncey, Monday, April 1, 2002
This list is currently set up as a list of parks administered by the National Park Service. Therefore Allegheny State Park is just wrong. And so are Valles Caldera and Grand Island -which are part of the National Forest System under the Dept of Ag, not the National Parks under the Interior Dept. Do we want to change the purpose of this list? I don't know if other non-NPS parks are listed. We should check the National Preserves and National Recreation Areas which designations both NPS and National Forest use. Rmhermen 17:47, Mar 10, 2004 (UTC)
I agree. In fact, I think it might make more sense to have separate articles for each of the sub-lists on this page. The title is List of U.S. national parks not List of properties managed by the U.S. National Park Service. Then again, looking at the mess of how these things are classified on the NPS site, I'm not so sure about separate lists for all of the types. Perhaps these should be an alphabetical (uncategorized) list of all NPS managed properties. Then have separate lists for select categories, like:
There may be some overlap in the lists -- an individual entity could be listed on more than on category. For example, the Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve could appear on both the Monuments and Memorials list and the Parks and Preserves list. Not sure exactly what to do with the "Other" category on this page -- what the NPS lists as "Affiliated Areas" and "Other Designations". The National Rivers and Recreation Areas category could probably include all the Wild and Scenic Rivers, regardless of which fedeal agency manages them. Maybe we could even come up with some sort of common footer that would appear on all these types. Bkonrad 20:56, 10 Mar 2004 (UTC)
I undid the page move to List of nationally protected areas of the United States. This title is less correct than the current title. This page contains only National Park Service protected areas - not all U.S. nationally protected areas. It doesn't contain BLM, Forest Service, Fish and Wildlife, or Corps of Engineers' park lands. Rmhermen 23:38, Dec 1, 2004 (UTC)
Let's give it a week, and go with the "system" title without objection. Some text at the top will need to be changed to explain what "NP System" means. For my comments on affiliated areas, see below under "General Comments". — Eoghanacht talk 15:46, 22 September 2005 (UTC)
I don't think Hawaii National Park should be listed here. It did not disband; it merely split into two parks. The land it covered still enjoys full National Park status, just under different names (Hawaii Volcanoes and Haleakala).
What about the "General Grant National Park" (or something similar) that later became part of Kings Canyon NP? — Scouter Sig 03:56, 6 June 2007 (UTC)
I noticed that Mackinac Island State Park does not appear with its own entry in the list of National Parks. It is mentioned as the result from the disbanded national park Mackinac National Park. Other resulting areas do exist in the list of National Parks; I think this one was overlooked. If I am right, would someone please correct this? (visitor)
Does anyone here have a clue as to what happened to Misty Fjords and Admiralty Island national monuments? Most modern maps still label them, yet they are not on the National Park Service website. They appear to have been transferred to the Forest Service, but when and why I still don't know.
- E. Brown Squawk Box 7 July 2005
Not listed are the Palo Alto Battlefield National Historical Park and associated Resaca de la Palma Battlefield (which is part of the authorized boundary of the Palo Alto Battlefield National Historic Park, though still remains under the ownership of the Brownsville Community Foundation. In 2008, Congress authorized the expansion of Palo Alto to include the Resaca de la Palma Battlefield as a discontinuous unit - http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h110-4828). Both parks are located in Brownsville, TX. ( http://www.nps.gov/paal/index.htm). —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mikemazza77 ( talk • contribs) 22:50, 15 November 2010 (UTC)
After someone gave me a copy of a little red book called The National Parks: Index 2001-2003. I have been adding stub articles to some red links on this list. Here are some changes to the format of this list that I am thinking of effecting eventually (assuming I get around to it before I become bored with my project). If anyone has any comments, let me know.
1) Leave all links to the exact name of the park/site even in cases where it is a redirect. For example: [[Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine]] rather than [[Fort McHenry|Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine]]. My reasoning is that, although I generally prefer the later approach in articles I work on, it occurred to me that (although unlikely) someone could put together a valid article about the Nat'l Monument separate from the general article about the fort. Should this happen, the link here should be toward the article specific to the protected area. If no one ever does create such an article, the redirect will do its job.
2) Somehow distinguish "affiliated areas" or related areas from those owned and/or managed by the NPS (see National Park Service article. I am thinking of using italics. For example:
The list of affiliated areas (according to my red book) consists of: AIDS Memorial Grove NMem, Aleutian World War II NHArea, American Memorial Park, Benjamin Franklin NMem, Chicago Portage NHS, Chimney Rock NHS, Father Marquette NMem, Gloria Dei (Old Swedes') Church NHS, Green Springs National Landmark District, Historic Camden Revolutionary War Site, Ice Age National Scientific Reserve, International Peace Garden, Inupiat Heritage Center, Jamestown NHS, Lower East Side Tenement NHS, McLoughlin House NHS, New Jersey Coastal Heritage Trail Route, NJ Pinelands NReserve, Port Chicago Naval Magazine NMem, Red Hill Patrick Henry NMem, Roosevelt Campobello International Park, Sewall-Belmont House NHS, Thomas Cole NHS, Touro Synagogue NHS. (The book also lists as somehow related to the NPS: National Heritage Areas, the Wild and Scenic Rivers System, and the National Trails System.)
3) For depenent park areas, either remove from the list entirely, or show them indented under the parent park. An extreme examle:
Or perhaps, leave the ones with a normal designation (like Nat'l Cemetery, or Parkway) under those categories, but (re)move the ones that do not fit under a normal header.
— Eoghanacht talk 15:46, 22 September 2005 (UTC)
* [[Rock Creek Park]] ** [[Rock Creek Park|Battleground National Cemetery]] ** [[Rock Creek Park|Meridian Hill Park]] ** [[Rock Creek Park|The Old Stone House]] ** [[Rock Creek Park|Peirce Mill]] ** [[Rock Creek Park|Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway]] with appropriate redirects created where necessary. I would note be opposed to listing items twice, once in a tree of dependent areas and once in the appropriate category if any. But it would be odd to not have Battleground National Cemetery listed under National Cemeteries.
Is the decision to include some, but not all, of the National Cemeteries arbitrary? Nationalparks 15:55, 28 September 2005 (UTC)
Found the last two: Andersonville and Andrew Johnson National Cemeteries. — Eoghanacht talk 17:28, 29 September 2005 (UTC)
The unit count is now 390: 389th unit 390th unit Nationalparks 17:54, 28 February 2006 (UTC)
I have nominated this list for WP:FL. Please feel free to vote or comment at Wikipedia:Featured list candidates/List of areas in the National Park System of the United States. Nationalparks 19:10, 19 June 2006 (UTC)
All 390 official units now have stubs or more with the addition of Piscataway Park! Nationalparks 19:57, 23 June 2006 (UTC)
I doubt it will be considered a formal "unit" of the NP System, but with Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail the NPS now has at least a minimal presence in Delaware (also doubt they will own any property in DE related to the water trail). Last year Senator Carper introduced S.1627 (also Rep. Castle H.R.3866) to fund a study toward the creation of a possible "Delaware National Park." — Eoghanacht talk 14:30, 5 January 2007 (UTC)
A handful of US national park system units comprise whole or parts of international parks. The titles are both honorific and functional, as the designation reflects a formal agreement to administer them jointly or co-operatively. In the case of St. Croix Island IHS, it is currently listed under National Historic Sites, although it is not one, and enjoys a unique designation within the US park system.
The other four parks would be double-listed, since they are partially comprised of a US unit or affiliated area. Listing them together, however, provides a useful snapshot of these elite areas, thereby highlighting their significance, and allowing the researcher to avoid sifting through the hundreds of other sites to find them. The argument could well be made that, since these sites are super-national, they could well lead off the entire list. Conversely, one could suggest that, since four of the five are listed elsewhere, this grouping has value as a list below National Parks, perhaps. It depends on whether you're an internationalist, I suppose.
And, depending on whether it carries any administrative meaning, one might consider including this bi-national World Heritage Site: Kluane (Yukon)/Wrangell-St. Elias (Alaska)/Glacier Bay (Alaska)/Tatshenshini-Alsek (British Columbia). The only other NPS international World Heritage Site is Waterton-Glacier, which is already on the list.
At a mimimum, I propose the following insertion:
Yoho2001 09:56, 27 February 2007 (UTC)
When I see "List of Areas...," I presume at minimum that the article will give the land area of each park or other unit. For instance, List of Areas of Islands does just that, and has them in order largest to smallest.
This is just a list of names and founding dates. The term the National Park Sevice uses is 'units,' because nomenclature is at the whim of Congress. I propose that "List of Units in the National Park System of the United States" or "List of Founding Dates for Units in the National Park System of the United States" is less misleading for this article. Or, alternatively, add the areas to make it correct as is. Lamabillybob 03:57, 22 June 2007 (UTC)
Grand Staircase Escalante? 24.8.249.241 ( talk) 04:18, 10 January 2008 (UTC)
It'd be great to see a list of fees up here. NPS doesn't provide one. So now I have to go to each parks website to find out what the fees are. Makes the decision to buy a park pass or not quite difficult! watson ( talk) 22:14, 13 June 2009 (UTC)
On the National Park Service discussion, there was a question to the number of NPS monuments. I've changed this article to reflect the number published by the NPS. It also happens to be the number of sites listed in the main article. That's 74, not 75 as originally noted. Chris Light ( talk) 21:14, 11 December 2009 (UTC)
The "Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument" is not on your list of national monuments, but you have a page that tells all about it. Wiki needs to add it to the list. Thanks — Preceding unsigned comment added by Stannephi ( talk • contribs) 16:57, 2 November 2012 (UTC)
How to edit this section? National Capital Parks is an official unit of the National Park System. National Capital Parks-East and National Mall and Memorial Parks are not. They are simply administrative units of the National Park Service that each manage some of the properties of the official unit, as well as other official units. To make the issue even more confusing, Rock Creek Park is both an official unit of the National Park System and an administrative unit of the National Park Service that manages Rock Creek Park and properties of the National Capital Parks. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Wwengr ( talk • contribs) 22:10, 11 August 2014 (UTC)
Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad NM was created in 2013 as an NPS unit. In 2014, parts of it were redesignated a NHP, but not all. The limited NPS lands which had been acquired were transferred to the new NHP, with additional lands authorized to accrue to the NHP. So where does this leave the National Monument? The 2014 legislation did not abolish it, and boundaries are still authorized. So does it revert to an 'authorized but not established' monument, and therefore not in the count? This list shows it under "Decommissioned" monuments, but I have seen no source for that, and NPS officials say the monument still legally exists. Elsewhere, on the List of National Monuments of the United States, this monument is listed under the Fish and Wildlife Service, not NPS. I have not seen sources which indicate a transfer from NPS to FWS. Yoho2001 ( talk) 11:34, 21 February 2015 (UTC)
David Berger National Memorial in Ohio has been listed as an affiliated unit of the park system, but is not on this list. One source says it had been erroneously listed by sources in the past ( http://www.parkasaurus.com/?p=606#respond), yet a current NPS web page says it still is affiliated: http://www.nps.gov/dabe/learn/historyculture/david-berger-sculpture.htm It would be good to clarify this, and add it to the list if it's still in the NPS orbit. Yoho2001 ( talk) 07:05, 28 October 2015 (UTC)
If it's not listed in the documents in the NPS research desk ( Site Designations & Recent Changes) then I don't think it can be classified as an affiliated unit. Those are the most authoritative and comprehensive lists published by the NPS for what constitutes a unit, and they don't contain the Berger Memorial. Ethelred unraed ( talk) 13:28, 28 October 2015 (UTC)
I moved this unit from National Memorials to National Historic Sites to reflect its official designation. Despite having "Memorial" in its name, it's a NHS, based on the original legislation, and on subsequent NPS reference elsewhere; and also here. There has been no redesignation that I have found.
One editor reverted the edit, based on this list of NPS Site Designations. However, we know this source is not infallible. For examples: It lists First State NHP as being only in Delaware when it's also in Pennsylvania. It says Fort Scott NHS is in both Arkansas and Oklahoma, when there are no lands in Oklahoma. (There had been an intent to acquire Oklahoma land opposite the fort, and some maps were even printed to show it, but no land was ever acquired.) And it lists New Jersey Coastal Heritage Trail Route as an affiliated unit, when it's not (legislation authorizing NPS participation expired). It also heads each page with "Units & Related Areas & Related Areas", so we know it is not gospel.
It's quite possible the Site Designations source lists JNEM as a memorial because "memorial" is in its name, and that a memorial was authorized to be constructed at this NHS. Somewhat similarly, Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania County Battlefields Memorial is a National Military Park and not a National Memorial, though "memorial" is in its name. I will look for discussion on this, including thoughts from Ethelred unraed, but believe there is sufficient documentation to put JNEM in the NHS category. Yoho2001 ( talk) 10:27, 2 March 2016 (UTC)
Thanks, Yoho2001. I agree that this one is a bit convoluted. Here is the history as I can see it.
In 1935, President Roosevelt issued the following executive order relying upon the authority of the Historic Sites Act of 1935. The executive order called for, "ALLOCATION OF FUNDS TO THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR FOR THE ACQUISITION AND DEVELOPMENT OF A HISTORIC SITE TO BE KNOWN AS THE JEFFERSON NATIONAL EXPANSION MEMORIAL." Note two things: first, that the Historic Sites Act does not actually give the president the authority to designate a National Historic Site, only to take various efforts to preserve historic sites (and it's commonly understood that the only NPS designation a president can make is the designation of a National Monument under the authority of the Antiquities Act); and second, that the executive order issued by the president does not actually designate Jefferson National Expansion as a "National Historic Site," but only as "a historic site." The piece of legislation you cited is not the "original legislation" for the memorial, but was rather the authorizing legislation for the construction of the Gateway Arch. The legislation names the site as the "Jefferson National Expansion Memorial National Historic Site," but it calls for the construction of a "national memorial." I believe it is on the basis of that authorization that the NPS considers the unit to be a National Memorial. Subsequent legislation which was passed into law did not include "National Historic Site" in the unit's name. Having visited the site, I can also confirm that nowhere onsite is its name given as "Jefferson National Expansion Memorial National Historic Site" so that seems like an error in that piece of legislation.
Finally, the Red Book, which is an authoritative list of the NPS's units and holdings (and was considered the agency's "official index," states the following about the unit: "The title national memorial is most often used for areas that are primarily commemorative. They need not be sites or structures historically associated with their subjects. For example, the home of Abraham Lincoln in Springfield, Ill., is a national historic site, but the Lincoln Memorial in the District of Columbia is a national memorial. Several areas whose titles do not include the words “national memorial” are nevertheless classified as memorials. These are Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, Korean War Veterans Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Lyndon Baines Johnson Memorial Grove, Theodore Roosevelt Island, Thomas Jefferson Memorial, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Washington Monument, and World War II Memorial in the District of Columbia; Jefferson National Expansion Memorial in Missouri; Perry’s Victory in Ohio; and Arlington House in Virginia." On that basis, I would consider it a National Memorial, not a National Historic Site. But definitely I would like to hear from other editors as well on their thoughts. Ethelred unraed ( talk) 15:37, 2 March 2016 (UTC)
I forgot to include the History and Definition of the Names of Historical Units within the National Park System produced by the NPS's Office of Cultural Resources, which is a well researched piece that also includes Jefferson National Expansion as a National Memorial and not a National Historic Site. Ethelred unraed ( talk) 15:54, 2 March 2016 (UTC)
The Brown administrative history refers to the site as a National Memorial repeatedly. See here where it states, "[Superintendent Parker] told Colonel I.A. Long, president of the association, that the land involved was part of a national memorial, and that the National Park Service had an obligation..." See here where it states, "[National Park Service Director] Drury pointed out that reducing the memorial's size probably would result in the abandonment of Saarinen's plans. Any revision would probably produce a design resulting in an unsatisfactory national memorial." And see here, where it states, " The stage was thus set for drafting an executive order authorizing the establishment of a national memorial in St. Louis." It also states, "Other than drafting a new executive order, an appeal to Congress seemed the obvious recourse. A bill could approve the area as a site for a national memorial as recommended by the commission." And in fact, that is exactly what the congressional legislation did. Setting aside the name, the legislation states that "There is authorized to be constructed [...] an appropriate national memorial..."
My vote is still for going with the NPS's current classifications. The Red Book and the designations document are in agreement about its status. One can say that it is dubious for the agency to consider the unit a National Memorial, but it is the agency which manages the site, and I think it would be presumptuous for us to assume we know better what it is than they do. Ethelred unraed ( talk) 13:42, 5 March 2016 (UTC)
Why is this not included as a former National Military Park, which it is? 2600:1004:B164:A0E0:1C51:7F69:F7D2:7404 ( talk) 02:18, 29 April 2016 (UTC)
Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified one external link on List of areas in the United States National Park System. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.
This message was posted before February 2018.
After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than
regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors
have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the
RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{
source check}}
(last update: 18 January 2022).
Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot ( Report bug) 10:38, 21 September 2017 (UTC)
On this page and others, the statement is made that "National Park System units are found in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. territories of Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico." From the research I've done, however, the American Memorial Park in the Northern Mariana Islands is an affiliated area, not an official unit of the NPS. That would mean that the statement is factually incorrect, that UNITS are not found in all places on that list, but units and affiliated areas are.
Should the statement read, "National Park System units and affiliated areas are found in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. territories of Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico"? Or should there be some kind of disclaimer added after NMI to show that it does not contain an official unit? Perhaps NMI should be removed altogether.
I thought it prudent to discuss this before making changes as this could affect more than just this page.-- Hearnesj ( talk) 18:47, 7 July 2021 (UTC)
I haven't followed the arguments, but noticed there is a potential edit war going on here and wanted to move it to the talk page. User:Reywas92 and User:Sbb618, would you both be able to explain your position here, and as a third independent party, I can help arbitrate and form a consensus if needed? Thanks. Cstanford.math ( talk) 00:23, 28 September 2021 (UTC)
@ Reywas92:, assuming you are right that Aleutian World War II National Historic Area and Historic Camden Revolutionary War Site are no longer affiliated areas, can we get those pages updated as well, and can we also update National Historic Site (United States), which still lists 85 not 83?
Also, what authoritative source are you using, is there a website published by the NPS? Maybe we should say more about the source for the info in the article. Cstanford.math ( talk) 03:18, 18 October 2021 (UTC)
I don't have a strong opinion either way, but if people want to change "the District of Columbia" here to "Washington, DC," we need to make sure we're consistent throughout all of Wikipedia's NPS articles. The phrase "the District of Columbia" is used on several NPS pages, and the description of the NPS is pretty much word for word the same from page to page. OneEarDrummer ( talk) 21:22, 14 August 2023 (UTC)