America’s National Parks are a national treasure, visited by millions of people annually. The first national park was established in 1872, when territories in Montana and Wyoming became Yellowstone National Park. Since then, the national park system has grown to 384 areas covering more than 83 million acres.

When people think of the locations of the national parks, they often think of places like Wyoming or northern California or Maine. But these parks are found in 49 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories, in areas that are as wide open as the American West or as densely populated as Washington, D.C. The largest one is Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve in Alaska. At 13.2 million acres it comprises 16.3 percent of the entire system. The smallest area in the system is Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Memorial in Pennsylvania, at 0.02 acre.

Four of the most popular areas are featured in “Mapping the National Parks.”

This presentation documents the history, culture and geological formations of areas that eventually became national parks. The collection consists of approximately 200 maps dating from the 17th century to the present and features Acadia, Grand Canyon, Great Smoky Mountains and Yellowstone national parks.

Go to this American Memory collection and you will be able to see maps of places you may have traveled to or would like to see. Using the special MrSid software, you will be able to “zoom in” on these maps and see details with greater clarity than with the naked eye.