Primary sourceDocument1 March 1872

Yellowstone National Park Protection Act

1 March 1872

The 1872 law Grant signed creating Yellowstone, the world's first national park.

Grant signed this act, creating the world's first national park as a lasting legacy of his presidency.

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Scanned page of the 1872 act of Congress establishing Yellowstone National Park. Handwritten heading reads Forty-second Congress of the United States of America, At the Second Session, and the title An Act, followed by dense legal text. — Act creating Yellowstone National Park, signed by President Ulysses S. Grant, 1 March 1872. U.S. National Archives.

About this source

What it is

This act of Congress, signed by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872, set aside land near the headwaters of the Yellowstone River as a public park, protected from settlement. It is held by the U.S. National Archives.

Why it matters

Yellowstone became the first federally protected national park in the world, inspired partly by surveys from explorers like Ferdinand Hayden and growing public fascination with the American West shown through photographs and writing. The act reflects a new idea: that some wild land should be preserved rather than settled or exploited, a lasting legacy of Grant's presidency.

Why might the government have decided to protect this land instead of opening it for settlement?
What does the detailed legal description of boundaries tell you about how seriously Congress treated this decision?
Who might have been affected by this land being set aside, and are they mentioned in the act?

This document is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Ulysses S Grant on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.