Editing National park (section)

===First national park: Yellowstone===
[[File:Aerial image of Grand Prismatic Spring (view from the south).jpg|thumb|[[Grand Prismatic Spring]] in [[Yellowstone National Park]], Wyoming, United States; Yellowstone was the first national park in the world.]]

In 1872, [[Yellowstone National Park]] was established as the United States' first national park,<ref>Mangan, Elizabeth U. [http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/gmdhtml/yehtml/yeabout.html Yellowstone, the First National Park from Mapping the National Parks] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131019090110/http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/gmdhtml/yehtml/yeabout.html |date=19 October 2013 }}. [[Library of Congress]], Geography and Map Division.</ref> being also the world's first national park. In some European and Asian countries, however, national protection and [[nature reserve]]s already existed - though typically as game reserves and recreational grounds set aside for royalty, such as a part of the [[Forest of Fontainebleau]] (France, 1861).<ref>Kimberly A. Jones, Simon R. Kelly, Sarah Kennel, Helga Kessler-Aurisch, ''In the forest of Fontainebleau: painters and photographers from Corot to Monet'', National Gallery of Art, 2008, p.23</ref>

Yellowstone was part of a [[Territories of the United States|federally governed territory]]. With no state government that could assume stewardship of the land, the federal government took on direct responsibility for the park, the official first national park of the United States. The combined effort and interest of conservationists, politicians and the [[Northern Pacific Railroad]] ensured the passage of enabling legislation by the United States Congress to create Yellowstone National Park. [[Theodore Roosevelt]] and his group of conservationists, the [[Boone and Crockett Club]], were active campaigners and were highly influential in convincing fellow Republicans and big business to back the bill. Yellowstone National Park soon played a pivotal role in the conservation of these national treasures, as it was suffering at the hands of poachers and others who stood at the ready to pillage what they could from the area. Theodore Roosevelt and his newly formed Boone and Crockett Club successfully took the lead in protecting Yellowstone National Park from this plight, resulting in laws designed to conserve the natural resources in Yellowstone and other parks under the Government's purview.{{cn|date=March 2023}}

American [[Pulitzer Prize]]-winning author [[Wallace Stegner]] wrote: "National parks are the best idea we ever had. Absolutely American, absolutely democratic, they reflect us at our best rather than our worst."<ref>{{cite web|date=16 January 2003|title=Famous Quotes Concerning the National Parks: Wallace Stegner, 1983|url=http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/hisnps/NPSThinking/famousquotes.htm|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110508031121/http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/hisnps/NPSThinking/famousquotes.htm|archive-date=8 May 2011|access-date=24 October 2011|work=Discover History|publisher=[[National Park Service]]|df=dmy-all}}</ref>