On March 1, 2022, Yellowstone National Park celebrates its 150th anniversary. This day also marks the creation of the world’s first national park, encouraging a movement that would soon after become global.
Starting on March 1, the National Park Service will host and participate in a variety of events and activities, which will continue throughout 2022.
Read more about the significance of this day, as well as the activities and projects you can expect in and around Yellowstone National Park this year, below.
March 1, 2022 Marks the 150th Anniversary of Yellowstone National Park
In a press release, the National Park Service outlines the importance of the establishment of Yellowstone as a national park, the first of its kind on Earth.
Signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872, America’s first national park was set aside to preserve and protect the scenery, cultural heritage, wildlife, geologic and ecological systems and processes in their natural condition for the benefit and enjoyment of present and future generations.
Unique Hydrothermal Areas
Yellowstone serves as the core of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, one of the largest nearly intact natural ecosystems remaining on the planet.
The national park encompasses the most active, diverse and intact collections of combined geothermal features with over 10,000 hydrothermal sites. Those include no less than half of the world’s active geysers.
Additionally, Yellowstone National Park is rich in cultural and historical resources with 25 sites, landmarks and districts on the National Register of Historic Places.
Wildlife
Besides its extraordinary geysers, mud pots, fumaroles and hot springs, Yellowstone National Park is also home to an incredible amount of wildlife.
In fact, this is the only place in the United States where American bison have lived continuously since prehistoric times. The park contributed greatly to the very survival and rebound of this iconic animal.
Bison aren’t the only large herbivores in the park, though. Visitors can also see elk, pronghorn, bighorn sheep and moose.
As far as predators go, Yellowstone National Park is an absolute paradise for wildlife watchers. The park’s especially famous for its wolf packs—it’s arguably the best place in the world to see wolves in the wild.
Both black bears and grizzly bears roam the park’s slopes and valleys, frequently seen by hikers and motorists.
Native American Heritage
Based on the park’s location at the convergence of the Great Plains, Great Basin and Columbia Plateau, many Native American Tribes have traditional connections to the land and its resources.
For over 10,000 years before Yellowstone became a national park, it was a place where Native Americans hunted, fished, gathered plants, quarried obsidian and used thermal waters for religious and medicinal purposes.
“Yellowstone’s 150th anniversary is an important moment in time for the world,” said Yellowstone National Park Superintendent Cam Sholly.
He recognized that “it’s an opportunity for us to reflect on the lessons of the past while focusing our efforts to strengthen Yellowstone and our many partnerships for the future.”
Superintendent Sholly applauds and shares the vision of Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and National Park Service Director Chuck Sams, both of whom are Native Americans.
He said that it is “our responsibility to more fully engage with Tribal Nations to honor and learn from their ancestral and modern connections to Yellowstone.”
Yellowstone’s 150th Anniversary Comes With Activities and Projects
Beginning on March 1, the park will host and participate in a wide range of activitiesto commemorate the 150th.
Yellowstone National Park has conducted substantial outreach to Native American Tribes, inviting them to participate directly in this anniversary. Multiple Tribal Nations will be present throughout the summer at Old Faithful as part of the Yellowstone Tribal Heritage Center project.
Tribes are also coordinating with Yellowstone to install a large teepee village in the park near the Roosevelt Arch in August, where tribal members will interact directly with visitors about their cultures and heritage.
During this anniversary year, Yellowstone will open 40 new employee housing units throughout the park along with groundbreakings on projects totaling more than $125 million funded through the Great American Outdoors Act.
These projects include two of the largest historic preservation projects in the country and a range of transportation projects that will address aging infrastructure.
Additionally, this year will also mark the reopening of Tower Fall to Chittenden Road (near Dunraven Pass), a $28 million road improvement project completed over the past two years.
The park will participate in the 15th Biennial Scientific Conference on the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem hosted by Montana State University, the Wyoming Governor’s Hospitality and Tourism Conference and the University of Wyoming’s Yellowstone National Park 150 Anniversary Symposium.
Yellowstone National Park is also grateful to Wind River (Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho) and other Tribal Nations for planning a multi-tribal gathering on the Wind River Reservation later in the year.
COVID-19
Due to COVID-19, the park does not currently have large events planned. However, this may change as the year progresses.
Visit go.nps.gov/Yellowstone150 and follow #Yellowstone150 frequently in 2022 to stay current on commemoration information.