Which law created the National Park Service in 1916?

The National Park Service Organic Act created the National Park Service in 1916.

The law established the agency as a bureau of the U.S. Department of the Interior and assigned it responsibility for national parks, monuments, and reservations under federal control. Its central purpose was to conserve scenery, natural and historic objects, and wildlife while allowing public enjoyment.

The legislation followed decades of concern that important federal landscapes were being managed piecemeal. Yellowstone had existed since 1872, and the Antiquities Act of 1906 had enabled presidents to create national monuments, but neither law created a unified park-management agency.

The Organic Act is also important because it supplied the enduring legal framework for balancing preservation and visitation. Later laws expanded and clarified that mission, but the 1916 act remains the foundational statute of the National Park Service.