On this historic day, March 1, 1872, majestic Yellowstone becomes America’s first national park.

Yellowstone National ParkAn almost mystical 2.2 million acre wonderland with dynamic hydrothermal activity, breathtaking scenery and spectacular wildlife was founded on this day in history, March 1, 1872.

It was the first national park in United States and, for most people around the world, the first known on the planet.

It quickly inspired the international environmental movement after the industrial revolution.

“The headwaters of the Yellowstone River…are hereby reserved and removed from settlement, settlement or sale…and dedicated and set aside as a public park or pleasure site for the benefit and enjoyment of the people,” the Yellowstone National Park Conservancy said in a statement. A law signed by President Ulysses S. Grant.

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The park is located mainly in the northwest corner Wyomingthe least populated state in the Union, but also crosses Montana and Idaho.

Its 3,472 square miles makes it larger than Rhode Island and Delaware combined.

“While Yellowstone has been carefully hunted down by tribes and trappers, from the point of view of the nation as a whole, it was indeed ‘discovered’ by a series of official expeditions” between 1869 and 1871, according to the National Park Service.

David E. Folsom, Charles W. Cook and William Peterson explored the park in 1869 and reported its impressive physical features to the media in the east.

Tower Fall, the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, and the geysers of the Firehole River were among the wonders they described for the first time.

A new 1870 expedition led by surveyor Henry D. Washburn recorded the size and scope of Yellowstone’s greatest landmarks.

Finally, in 1871, Ferdinand W. Hayden, head of the USGS, led a large scientific expedition that reported on the incredible scale and magical scenery of Yellowstone.

“Iceland’s geysers … are minuscule compared to the hot springs of the Yellowstone Basin and the Fire Hole Basin,” Hayden said.

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Photographer William Henry Jackson and artists Henry W. Elliot and Thomas Moran joined him on the trip. The enthusiastic stories and images of the expedition attracted widespread attention from the American public—and from political leaders in Washington.

“The main achievement of the returning expeditions was to help save Yellowstone from private development,” writes the National Park Service.

“The wonders of Yellowstone, shown in photographs by Jackson, paintings by Moran and sketches by Elliot, have captured the imagination of Congress. Thanks to their reports, the United States Congress established Yellowstone National Park just six months after Hayden’s expedition.”

Yellowstone today hosts one of the largest collections of large mammals on the planet, including grizzly bears, bison, wolves, elk and elk, as well as many other species.

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It also has, most importantly, more than half of the world’s famous hydrothermal attractions: geysers, hot springs, mud pots and steam vents.

Its most famous geyser, Old Faithful, erupts about 17 times a day.

However, geysers and hot springs give off a seething cauldron of volcanic and seismic activity beneath Yellowstone’s surface. One of the world’s largest supervolcanoes could erupt with catastrophic consequences for life on Earth, with about 3,000 mostly minor earthquakes each year.

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“Past volcanic eruptions in Yellowstone National Park have been global disasters,” according to National Geographic.

“Today, scientists are trying to predict how this time bomb will explode or fizzle out.”

Yellowstone geologist Dr. Jacob Lowenstern told NatGeo: “There is no current activity to indicate that something is happening.

Yellowstone is widely recognized as the world’s first national park.

But one global wildlife preserve makes a much earlier claim.

Bogd-Khan-Uul National Park, a small 260-square-mile reservation in a remote part of Mongolia, was established in 1783. At that time he remained unknown to most of the world and remains so even today.

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The creation of Yellowstone National Park 151 years ago by the rising international power known as the United States generated worldwide headlines and conservation interest.

National parks were quickly established in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and elsewhere in the world.

By the end of the 19th century, the United States added Sequoia, Yosemite, and Mount Rainier to its list of national parks.

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The National Park Service today operates 424 “divisions” in all 50 states, protecting 85 million acres of American wilderness.

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