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The National Park Service turns 100

NATIONALTREASURESnTOTAL RECREATIONAL VISITS AT ALL SITES IN 2015: 307.2 million

nNUMBER OF NPS UNITS: 412

nOLDEST NATIONAL PARK: Yellowstone (Idaho, Montana and Wyoming), 1872.

nNEWEST NATIONAL PARK: Pinnacles (California), 2013.

nMOST VISITED NATIONAL PARK IN 2015: Great Smoky Mountains (10.7 million recreational visitors)

nMOST VISITED PLACE IN THE NPS IN 2015: Blue Ridge Parkway (15.1 million recreational visitors)

nLARGEST NATIONAL PARK: Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska (13.2 million acres)

nSMALLEST NATIONAL PARK: Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Memorial, Penn. (0.02 acres)

nPARKS SOUTH OF THE EQUATOR: One (National Park of American Samoa, 2,600 miles southwest of Hawaii)

nINTERNATIONAL HISTORIC NPS SITES: One (Saint Croix Island in Maine is also of historic significance to Canada.)

nFOUR NPS-RELATED AREAS IN NORTH CAROLINA: Blue Ridge National Heritage Area (N.C. mountains); Gullah Geechee Heritage Corridor (Wilmington to Jacksonville, Fla.); Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail (through western North Carolina to Kings Mountain State Park in South Carolina); Trail of Tears National Historic Trail (near Cherokee to Oklahoma)

Congress established the world’s first national park, Yellowstone, on March 1, 1872. It wasn’t

until Aug. 25, 1916, that President Woodrow Wilson signed the act creating the National Park

Service in the Department of the Interior; at the time, there were 35 national parks and

monuments. New national parks must be added by an act of Congress, but the presi-

dent may create national monuments that are already on federal land. North

Carolina contains 10 official NPS units, though there are many other

state sites managed by or affiliated with the NPS.

The NPS also administers the National Register

of Historic Places, which includes more than

90,000 sites in the U.S. and 2,900 in North

Carolina. Of the 38 National Historic

Landmarks in the state, five are in Forsyth

County: Bethabara, Salem Tavern, the

Single Brothers’ House, and the Betha-

nia and Old Salem historic districts.

Winston-Salem is also one of the NPS’s

Certified Local Governments committed

to historic preservation.

Sources: National Park Service; Appalachian Trail Conservancy; OuterBanks.com; Recreation.gov; N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources; VisitNC.com; Great Smoky Mountains Association JOURNAL FILE PHOTOS UNLESS OTHERWISE INDICATED / GRAPHIC BY CASSANDRA SHERRILL

*All visitor figures are recreational visitors in 2015. Visitor figures aren’t available for the Appalachian Trail because of the number of access points.

Appalachian TrailSize: 2,190 miles from Georgia to Maine (95.7 N.C. miles; 224.7 miles on N.C./Tennessee bor-der)/106,352 acres.

This hiking trail, known to many simply as the A.T., goes through 14 states as it follows the wooded, scenic Ap-palachian Mountains. The trail — built by volunteers — began in 1921 as a proposal by forester Benton MacKaye and was completed in 1937. In 1948, a WWII veteran became the first person to hike the entire trail in a single trip, which officials had considered impossible. The A.T. joined the NPS in 1968 as the first national scenic trail.

Blue Ridge ParkwaySize: 469 miles in North Carolina and Virginia (252 N.C. miles)/82,439 acres. Visitors*: 15.1 million.

“America’s Favorite Drive” was approved as a public-works project during the Great Depression to connect the Shenandoah and Great Smoky Mountains national parks. Construction began in 1935 but wasn’t com-pleted until the Linn Cove Viaduct around Grandfather Mountain opened in 1987 after years of negotiating. The Parkway averages about 3,000 feet in elevation.

Cape Hatteras National SeashoreSize: 70 miles/24,470 acres. Visitors: 2.3 million.

The nation’s first national seashore was authorized in 1937 as a response to residents who were concerned about increasing development in the Outer Banks around Nags Head and Kitty Hawk. Locals donated large parcels of ocean-front land (which wasn’t worth much at the time). A large government public-works project in the 1930s constructed miles of dunes, still seen on the ocean side of N.C. 12, to protect the shore and roads from the encroaching ocean. The park wasn’t officially dedicated until 1958.

Cape Lookout National SeashoreSize: 56 miles/13,916 acres. Visitors: 400,413.

This isolated area three miles offshore between Ocra-coke and Beaufort inlets is one of the few undeveloped barrier island system left in the world. It was established in 1966, can be reached only by boat or ferry, and has no paved roads. Its boundaries include an 1859 lighthouse (open for climbing from mid-May to mid-September), the deserted village of Portsmouth (established in 1753) and the wild horses of Shackleford Banks.

Carl Sandburg HomeSize: 264 acres. Visitors: 72,606. Location: Flat Rock.

Sandburg, a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and folksinger, moved to this farm, called Connemara, in 1945. He produced about a third of his work here before his death in 1967. His widow, Lillian, was determined that his home and legacy be preserved. The park was authorized in 1968 and opened in 1974. It has miles of hiking trails and 50 structures, including a vast museum and preservation center with more than 300,000 items.

Fort RaleighSize: 355 acres. Visitors: 289,885. Location: Manteo.

This historic site, established in 1941, preserves the site of England’s first colony in the New World — the doomed “Lost Colony.” The first settlement attempt in 1584 failed, but a group returned in 1587; shortly after, Virginia Dare became the first English child born in America. The colony’s governor returned to England for supplies, and after a delay returned to find the site deserted. The only clues left were two carvings on trees: “CROATAN” and “CRO.” This story is chronicled in the play “The Lost Colo-ny,” presented each summer in the Waterside Theater.

Great Smoky Mountains National ParkSize: 521,984 acres (North Carolina and Ten-nessee; 276,00 N.C. acres). Visitors: 10.7 million.

The North Carolina-Tennesse border divides this popular park almost in half. Groups in Asheville and Knoxville, Tenn., joined together in the 1920s to push for the park, and it was established in 1926. After years of fundraising and wrangling to acquire land from sometimes-reluctant owners, the park was dedicated in 1940. The Smokies got their name from the blue mist that wafts over them; the Cherokee name for the mountains, shaconage, means “place of the blue smoke.”

Guilford CourthouseSize: 251 acres. Visitors: 222,602. Location: Greensboro.

This park, the first preserving a Revolutionary War battle-field, was created in 1917 and transferred to the NPS in 1933. In the 1781 battle, the Patriot army, led by Maj. Gen. Nathaniel Greene, was forced to retreat after 2½ hours of intense fighting; it was a costly victory for the British, however, as they lost 25 percent of their army.

Moores Creek Battlefield

Size: 85 acres. Visitors: 89,944. Location: Currie.

On Feb. 27, 1776, North Carolin-ians loyal to Britain and those who

wanted independence fought at a bridge over Moores Creek in a battle that lasted only three minutes. It was the first Patriot victory of the Revolutionary War and inspired North Carolina to become the first colony to seek total freedom from Britain. It became a federal site in 1926 and part of the NPS in 1933.

Wright Brothers MemorialSize: 422 acres. Visitors: 437,184. Location: Kill Devil Hills.

Two brothers from Ohio, Orville and Wilbur Wright, chose this spot to test their dream of flight because of its large dunes and consistent wind. On Dec. 17, 1903, Orville flew their glider in what has been officially recognized as the first flight: it lasted 12 seconds and covered 120 feet. Markers show the exact takeoff and landing spots. The park was dedicated in 1932, with Orville in attendance.

“There is nothing so American as our national parks.”— President Franklin D. Roosevelt

“It is the course of wisdom to set aside an ample portion of our natural re-sources as national parks and reserves, thus ensuring that future generations may know the maj-esty of the earth as we know it today.”— President John F. Kennedy

“National parks are the best idea we ever had. Absolutely American, absolutely democratic, they reflect us at our best rather than our worst.” — Wallace Stegner, writer and environmentalist

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NPS PHOTO

Great Smoky Mountains National ParkAppalachian Trail

Guilford Courthouse

Wright Brothers Memorial

Cape Lookout National SeashoreBlue Ridge Parkway NPS PHOTO

America’s