Parks And Reserves, Yellowstone National Park

In 1872, President Ulysses S. Grant signed the bill creating Yellowstone Park, one of the world's first national parks, but “Despite the fact that the new national park comprised more than 2 million acres of remote, mountainous terrain, Congress did not see fit to put any money aside for its management or protection.... Everything was under the exclusive control of the Yellowstone Park Improvement Company, which had been granted a remarkable monopoly within the park. The Company, which had close ties to the Northern Pacific, was allowed to cut as much timber as it needed; kill game for food; farm the land; and even rechannel some of the hot springs.” In 1894, when a poacher was captured after killing several of the park's few reamining bison, public outcry was great enough to pass the Act To Protect the Birds and Animals in Yellowstone National Park to protect the park, its geysers and wildlife.