LEXINGTON, Ky. — This month marks the 106th birthday of the National Park Service, and it’s inviting park visitors across the country to join in the celebration by submitting their favorite photos, videos and other creations capturing America’s wonderful wilderness.
Established Aug. 25, 1916, the NPS is the result of the country’s early conservation movement.
Its charge, codified by the “Organic Act” and signed by then-President Woodrow Wilson, is to conserve the scenery, wildlife and historical treasures of America’s wilderness, leaving them “unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.”
Today, the Park Service manages more than 400 sites across all 50 states and American territories, amounting to more than 84 million acres in all.
National parks to explore in Kentucky
Mammoth Cave National Park
Spanning more than 400 miles, Mammoth Cave is the world’s longest known cave system, but it has a lot to offer above ground, too.
You can spend a day kayaking down the Green River and stop for a picnic on a sand bar. There are hiking trails that wind through lush, green hills covered in forests and take hikers past sinkholes or the mouth of Dixon Cave, which acts like a natural air conditioner on a hot day.
The park, which spans more than 52,000 acres, was first established July 1, 1941, according to the U.S. Department of Interior. More than 2 million people visit the park each year.
Abraham Lincoln birthplace
Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky all make some claim to America’s 16th president, but only the Bluegrass State is home to the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln, nestled in the state’s Knobs region.
This historic site is home to the nation’s first memorial to Lincoln.
This National Park Service site on the KY border drew nearly 840K visitors in 2021
Lincoln spent his early boyhood years at his father’s Sinking Spring Farm before moving to Indiana with his family when he was 7 years old. Visitors can peer into the Sinking Spring, a window in the cave system that the family drew its water from, or take in the one-room log cabin he was born in.
Cumberland Gap
The first great gateway to the American West, here you can walk in the footsteps of bison herds, Indigenous peoples, longhunters and pioneers. Three hundred thousand people crossed here as early Americans advanced westward. You can stand in three states at once, tour the historic Hensley Settlement established in 1901 or descend into Gap Cave.
Trail of Tears sites
The Trail of Tears crosses into western Kentucky, with sites in Paducah and Hopkinsville.
Visitors are invited to remember the Cherokee people and many other Native Americans, who were forcefully removed from their homes in North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee to live in modern-day Oklahoma during the 19th century.
The election of President Andrew Jackson in 1828 marked a shift in U.S. policy toward Native Americans. As part of his plans for the U.S., Jackson was determined to evict the remaining tribes from the east and relocate them in the west, according to a history lesson plan by the NPS.
Between the 1830 Indian Removal Act and 1850, the U.S. government used forced treaties or U.S. Army action to move about 100,000 Indigenous people living east of the Mississippi River, west to what is now Oklahoma.
The Cherokee people were among the last. They traveled by foot, horse, wagon or steamboat between 1838 and 1839. There are estimates that some 100,000 people were swept up and forced off their lands.
How to wish NPS a happy birthday
This year, the NPS is asking visitors to share awe-inspiring moments – what it calls “wow” moments – while visiting its parks.
To share a photo or video capturing one of those magical moments, the NPS is promoting the #NPSBirthday, #FindYourPark and #EncuentraTuParque hashtags. You can also send them in to the NPS via email with the subject line “WOw 106.”
The park service is asking visitors to make sure that video entries are no more than a minute long and shot horizontally. All submissions must be your original work, and the NPS notes submitting an entry means you give consent to use your material.
“Once sent, we’ll compile your amazing digital experiences into a moment worthy of, well WOW!” the National Park Service said on its website.
