Which site became the world’s first national park in 1872, part of the American story celebrated by America250?

Yellowstone National Park became the world’s first national park in 1872.

President Ulysses S. Grant signed the Yellowstone National Park Protection Act on March 1, 1872. The law reserved the area around Yellowstone’s geothermal features, lakes, and landscapes “for the benefit and enjoyment of the people.” It established a federal model for protecting an extensive natural area from private development.

Yellowstone lies primarily in northwestern Wyoming, with smaller sections in Montana and Idaho. It is famous for geysers, hot springs, mud pots, and other evidence of its active volcanic system. Old Faithful is the park’s best-known geyser, although it is not the largest or most predictable geyser in the park.

Yellowstone’s creation helped inspire the national-park movement internationally. Yosemite had received federal protection before Yellowstone, but it became a national park later, in 1890. The National Park Service itself was not created until 1916, more than four decades after Yellowstone’s designation.