National Parks
America's national park system includes hundreds of areas covering millions of acres in nearly every state and U.S. possession. The national parks include natural wonders, historical and culturallandmarks, and recreational areas as varied as Massachusetts' Cape Cod National Seashore, Hawaii's Volcanoes National Park, New York's Statue of Liberty, and Pennsylvania's Gettysburg National Battlefield. The National Park Service has designed the parks so that they interlock to tell the natural and cultural history of the United States of America and of man's presence there. The National Park Service functions as the parks' primary custodian, guiding their natural and historic preservation as well as the continued growth of tourism and public education. The idea of establishing natural and historical areas as national parks developed in the United States during the nineteenth century evolved to fulfill a perceived cultural need for a strong national identity that could be found in America's monumental scenery. The popular media was essential in the drive to sustain this idea in a country largely dedicated to material progress at any expense. Magazines, newspapers, and paintings promoted the parks as places where any citizen could grow mentally, physically, and spiritually through communion with nature. The parks came to exemplify America's democratic ideal through their ownership by all citizens and they remain national symbols of pride.
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