Which site became the United States’ first national park, a landmark included in America’s national heritage story?

Yellowstone National Park became the United States’ first national park.

President Ulysses S. Grant signed the Yellowstone National Park Protection Act on March 1, 1872. The law set aside more than two million acres in the territories of Montana and Wyoming, with a small portion extending into Idaho, for public benefit and enjoyment.

Yellowstone’s creation established a new conservation model: a large landscape would be protected from private settlement and commercial exploitation so that its natural features could be preserved for future generations. That idea later influenced national park systems around the world.

Yellowstone is famous for geothermal features including Old Faithful and the Grand Prismatic Spring, as well as wildlife such as bison and grizzly bears. Yosemite became a national park in 1890, while the Grand Canyon received national park status in 1919, so neither was first.