Reed Smoot sponsored the Senate companion bill that created the National Park Service.
Smoot, a Republican senator from Utah, carried the Senate version of the legislation in 1916. Representative William Kent of California was the lead House sponsor, making the measure a bipartisan congressional effort across both chambers.
The legislation passed the House on July 1, 1916, and the Senate on August 5. President Woodrow Wilson signed it on August 25, creating the National Park Service within the Department of the Interior.
Smoot is sometimes overlooked because the agency is more commonly associated with Stephen Mather, its first director, or Woodrow Wilson, who signed the law. Mather helped lobby for the agency but was not the Senate sponsor.