The History of Small National Parks in the United States and its Meaings

Abstract

In 1904 two small national parks, named Platt and Sullys Hill respectively, were established in the United States. These parks have been often ignored in the national park history because they are considered to be of inferior quality and because later abolished. However, by shedding new light on these parks, their roles in the development of the national park system became clear. First of all, the fact that such insignificant areas were designated as national parks shows how little people knew about meanings of national parks although Yellowstone had been established more than 30 years ago. As the result, creation of a managing agency was urged in the government and the park standard began to take shape. Once the National Park Service was established, it became obvisous that strong demands of urban people for recreation cannot be fulfilled by traditional national parks in the remote areas. Thus importance of more easily accessible parks was gradually recognized. This led to expansion of the national park system to national recreation areas.
At the same time, the establishment of the state park system was urged to correspond to local needs. Finally, the effort of declassifying these small parks itself explained the national park criteria implicitly.