This Day in History

On this day in 1872, President Ulysses S. Grant signed a law declaring that Yellowstone, located in the northwest section of Wyoming, should become a national park. Of the many parks that I have visited, it is by far my favorite one (though not my most visited one - that would be the Great Smoky Mountains). Spouting geysers, stinking mud pits, gorgeous mountains, beautiful lakes, graceful elk, noble bison, even its own "grand canyon" - Yellowstone has it all.

For anyone who may care, I've been to the following parks, thanks to all the vacations I spent with my parents:

• Acadia - Bar Harbor, ME
• Appalachian (I've only been on parts of it)
• Appomattox Court House - Appomattox, VA
• Arches - Moab, UT
• Arlington House - Arlington, VA
• Badlands - southwestern South Dakota
• Blue Ridge Parkway - North Carolina and Virginia
• Boston - Boston, MA
• Cape Cod - Wellfleet, MA
• Chickamauga and Chattanooga - Fort Oglethorpe, GA
• Colonial - Jamestown and Yorktown, VA
• Dayton Aviation Heritage - Dayton, OH
• Devils Tower - Devils Tower, WY
• Eisenhower - Gettysburg, PA
• Ford's Theatre - Washington, D.C.
• Gettysburg - Gettysburg, PA
• Gila Cliff Dwellings - Silver City, NM
• Glacier - northwest Montana
• Grand Canyon - Arizona
• Grand Teton - Moose, WY
• Great Smoky Mountains - North Carolina and Tennessee
• Harry S. Truman - Independence, MO
• Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt - Hyde Park, NY
• Independence - Philadelphia, PA
• Jefferson - St. Louis, MO
• Little Bighorn Battlefield - Crow Agency, MT
• Mesa Verde - Cortze and Mancos, CO
• Minute Man - Concord, MA
• Mount Rushmore - Keystone, SD
• National Mall - Washington, D.C.
• Petrified Forest - Arizona
• President's Park - Washington, D.C.
• Rocky Mountain - Estes Park, CO
• Statue of Liberty - New York, NY
• Theodore Roosevelt - Medora, ND
• Valley Forge - Valley Forge, PA
• Vanderbilt Mansion - Hyde Park, NY