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A National Park Service timeline

July 22, 2016 at 1:55PM

Visitors can witness the strength of the Yellowstone River from an observation deck above Lower Falls in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. Just a small sample of the beauty of Yellowstone National Park where geysers, bison and bear are only a few of the features. (TNS/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

1872: Yellowstone becomes the nation's first national park.

1890: Yosemite joins in at No. 2.

1906: Antiquities Act allows presidents to reserve historic landmarks and "other objects of historic or scientific interest" on federal lands as national monuments.

1916: Organic Act creates the National Park Service to operate the 14 national parks and 21 national monuments already in existence.

1933: President Franklin Roosevelt transfers national parks and monuments of the War Department and Forest Service to the Park Service, creating a single system of parklands.

1937: Pipestone National Monument created in Pipestone, Minn.

1958: Grand Portage National Monument established on the North Shore.

1965: Voyageurs National Park Association forms to promote creation of the park; founders include writer Sigurd Olson and Gov. Elmer L. Andersen.

1968: St. Croix designated a national scenic riverway.

1972: Lower St. Croix added.

1975: Voyageurs, in the far North Woods, becomes the country's 36th and Minnesota's only national park.

1980: Congress authorizes the North Country National Scenic Trail.

2013: Pinnacles National Park in California becomes the newest national park.