Your Guide To The Best National Parks DVDs Starting With The Highest Reviews

National Parks DVDs

National parks are reserves of land, usually owned by national governments, that are protected from most human development and pollution.The idea of a national park was first formulated by painter George Catlin. In his travels though the American West, he became concerned about the future of the Native Americans he met and the natural wonders he saw. In 1832 he wrote that they might be preserved,

"...by some great protecting policy of government... in a magnificent park.... A nation's park, containing man and beast, in all the wild and freshness of their nature's beauty!"

The first effort by any government to set aside such lands was in the United States, when President Abraham Lincoln signed an Act of Congress on June 30, 1864 ceding Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias (the heart of the future Yosemite National Park) to the state of California:

"... the said State shall accept this grant upon the express conditions that the premises shall he held for public use, resort, and recreation; shall be inalienable for all time ..." However, the vision of the National Park was not yet complete in Yosemite, and required the efforts of John Muir to bring it to fruition. Learn More