 Through picturesque Northgate, we enter Yellowstone National Park, one of America's most beautiful and phenomenal wilderness areas. Located in Northwestern Wyoming, the Yellowstone region was set aside by an act of Congress in 1872. Since that time, millions of visitors have enjoyed its scenic wonder. In this unique wonderland, there are countless hot springs of all sizes and shapes. All are distinctly beautiful. Since the beginning of time, nature has carried on the never-ending creation of fantastic wonders in Yellowstone National Park. When Yellowstone was established, there were some people opposed to that idea and were telling President Grant that there might be minerals to be found there, there might be oil underneath there, that the trees should be used for lumber, that the rivers might be needed to be dammed, but he signed the bill anyway and it became Yellowstone National Park and the Mother Park for all the world. And I think it's nice that there is one sort of a focal beginning that Yellowstone can stand as a beginning. Not that we should claim it as a strictly United States of America idea, but it was an idea whose time had come. Early settlers of the New World had little thought for parks and preservation. To many, America's wilderness was a fearful place full of wild beasts and wild men. The pioneer drew courage and conviction from Genesis. Be fruitful and multiply, replenish the earth and subdue it. The first task was survival, struggling against the wilderness, clearing the land, changing the course of rivers, cutting trails and building towns. From the security of eastern cities, a few men spoke in defense of nature. Poets and painters realized that America's scenic treasures were not infinite or inexhaustible. They asked Americans to seek a new relationship with nature. Amerson, Bryant, Thoreau all saw beauty and virtue in the natural world. Artists such as Catlin and Cole portrayed its dignity and spirit. Their idealized, sometimes exaggerated vision of the natural world inspired many. But the warnings of these romantics went unheeded. Progress was now accelerated by the machine. The Industrial Revolution fueled further exploitation of America's resources. By the 1860s, wagon trails and railroads linked east to west and the unlimited wilderness was vast disappeared. And yet, there were still places, virtually untouched, filled with natural wonders. Yellowstone, remote and inhospitable, had survived. It was known only to the Indians and the handful of trappers, prospectors and mountain men. John Coulter, Jim Bridger, Joe Meeks, Osburn Russell, they told of an incredible place full of unheard of things. Bridger called it a place where hell bubbled up. No one believed. Tales of gold in the wild west attracted journalists from the east. A few stories of Coulter's hell did filter back, but were branded as fiction. This disbelief continued until the Washburn-Langford Doughne expedition penetrated Yellowstone's mysteries in 1870. Instead of civilizing Yellowstone, these explorers suggested preserving this incredible landscape of geysers and canyons. Excited the American public and prompted Congress to send the chief geologist, Ferdinand V. Hayden, to document Yellowstone's wonders. Hayden took along Thomas Moran, a landscape painter, to capture the sights of Yellowstone for all to see. Their images spoke eloquently for preserving this unique land. Various interests organized to make Yellowstone a national park. Hayden led the scientific community's call for preserving Yellowstone. He saw it as an unspoiled living laboratory for long-term study. The Northern Pacific Railroad saw Yellowstone as a potential tourist mecca. Preservationists, long dismayed by the commercial ruin of Niagara Falls, strongly supported the Yellowstone built. Congress established the world's first national park, setting aside 2.2 million acres as a public park and pleasuring ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people. Yellowstone was more than a tract of land set aside. It was a challenge. Could we both preserve and enjoy a place without destroying it? Initially, the answer was no. Hunters slaughtered the wildlife, souvenir seekers smashed thermal features, squatters in their cabins scarred the landscape. Thus, the United States Cavalry was called to the rescue. For 32 years, in one of their most unusual assignments, they managed the park. They controlled poaching and vandalism, they built roads and kept the peace. Yellowstone was protected, and some of the park was developed for public access. Joan Muir, naturalist and preservationist, rejoiced for those finding refuge from city life. Over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home. Yellowstone and the scenic parks that followed are the cornerstones of a conservation preservation ethic, a land philosophy originating with the first inhabitants of America's wilderness, whose advice we are only now coming to appreciate. All things are connected, whatever defaults the earth, defaults the sons of the earth. Even the white man cannot be exempt from the common destiny. We may be brothers after all, we shall see. This, we know, the earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. By the 1900s, Yellowstone was a grand tourist success. In 1916, Congress created a national park service with a mandate to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and wildlife therein, and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations. Unimpaired for future generations. A new challenge. A step towards a democratic park idea. Preserve our finest natural areas and cultural sites in the name of generations yet unborn. America now has over 300 areas in its national park system, each with a special quality that sustains the legacy of Yellowstone. They continue to reveal the beauty of Thoreau. Provide the adventure of Colton. And as you were promised, they have become sanctuaries for urbanized America. I spend too many hours cooped up in an office. I'd like to get away from the people pressure. When you're out here and you can sort of reevaluate your problems and say, well, it's more important for me to have a drink of water out of that cold spring right now than just about anything in the world. There's a time in the day about sundown. Things quiet down. The birds come in close. You can usually hear them. And everything just stops. I suspect it's a time to get to know each other better than most any. Unfortunately, popularity presents a growing dilemma. Overuse of these special places can have a negative impact. Our parks can literally be loved to death. Congress has sought to expand our recreation opportunities through the national park system. Urban parks in the hearts of our cities attract millions of people each year. So it's all one thing, really. Wilderness parks, urban parks. It's all a question of the human being needing some greenery. Marty Murie has lived for many years with parks and wilderness in Wyoming and Alaska. I suppose if we watched our national parks year after year, season after season, that might be a fair barometer as to how the rest of the country's life was going on. How people spend their leisure time is indicative of how they feel about life in general. National park idea has been extended beyond the natural wonders of Yellowstone to the landmarks of our history. Historians have warned us when a society or a civilization perishes, one condition may always be found. They forgot where they came from. Independence Hall in Philadelphia is the fountainhead of America's ideals. The building is preserved as a special reminder of men and ideas. Hopefully it is all. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal and independent. That from that equal creation, they derive rights inherent and denailable. Historical parks can be our windows into the past, a chance to look back. Parks can offer a measure of the environment's help, living laboratories where scientists can study natural ecosystems. Throughout the park system, we are deepening our understanding of the dynamics and complexity of nature. We're becoming sensitive to the impact of man and the threat of extinction. The national park idea, like the ecosystems it protects, is an evolving process, constantly renewing the challenge of preservation. At a research center in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, scientists are studying complex geological phenomena. Visitors are reminded that the earth is ever changing. Powerful and dramatic forces shape our planet and our destiny. The responsibility for preservation has been accepted worldwide. There are over 1500 national parks and preserves around the world. Each nation, responding to its particular needs and values, seeks to preserve the special features of its land and culture. Africa has set aside vast wildlife preserves. Increasingly, these national parks are caught in the conflict between the territorial needs of wild animals and the agricultural needs of men. As land disappears, the great herds leave their parks in search of food and habitat, often endangering people and crops. The birds of the world travel thousands of miles with no thought for the political boundaries they cross. Since 1919, Russia's Astrakhan Reserve has provided a protected stopover for birds migrating from Arctic Siberia to South Africa. The effective protection of wildlife requires more than space. It takes global cooperation. Our own Alaska is host to migratory birds from six continents. Even the incredible scale of our new Alaskan parks cannot include an entire ecosystem. Alaska is the story of Yellowstone all over again. It represents a spectacular wilderness until now bypassed by the pressures of civilization. It abounds with beauty, mystery, and of course, valuable commercial resources. I don't feel there's enough wild country left anywhere in the world that we can afford to turn any of it over to commercial exploitation because I think the future demands just about all the wild country we have left right now in order for the future generations to have a healthy life. Wilderness itself, it has been the basis of all our civilization so far. And having been the basis of all our sophisticated society doesn't wilderness itself have a right to live on. And I wonder if we have enough reverence to life to concede to wilderness this right. And if this is to be accomplished, surely the national parks are the first place we would look to see this happening. And what of the future? How is the idea sustained? Children discover the joy and develop the respect necessary for the continuation of the national park idea. The words of Rachel Carson describe this process. A child's world is fresh and new and beautiful, full of wonder and excitement. It is our misfortune that for most of us that clear-eyed vision, that true instinct for what is beautiful and awe-inspiring is dimmed and even lost before we reach adulthood. If I had influence with a good failure who is supposed to preside over the christening of all children, I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of one. It is not half so important to know as to feel. If facts are the seeds that later produce knowledge and wisdom, then the emotions and the impressions of the senses are the fertile soil in which the seeds must grow. The years of early childhood are the time to prepare the soil. And so the idea grows, each new generation recognizing the promise of thorough. In wildness is the preservation of the world. I think the greatest hope for happy life for any young person nowadays is in the existence of national parks and wildlife refugees and wilderness areas. Otherwise I think my great-grandchildren might have a very barren and sterile kind of existence. I can't imagine a very rich life with elemental kind of joys in it, without some natural world in which to experience those joys. And I've watched my very young grandchildren enough to know that it does impinge on a youthful mind very powerfully. And that it does mean a great deal to them. I think they will be proud to be the guardians of these values as they grow older.