National Park Service
The parks offer outstanding opportunities for visitor recreation and enlightenment, and for scientific research. They also provide high quality habitat for many wild creatures, some rare and endangered.
A 1916 Act of Congress established the National Park Service to give unified administration to parks and monuments under the jurisdiction of the Department of the Interior. In 1933, by executive order, 63 national monuments and military sites were transferred from the Forest Service and the War Department to the Park Service. That action laid the foundation for today's nationwide system of parks that includes areas of natural, cultural and scientific significance.
The principal responsibility of the Park Service is administration of the National Park System. The system now comprises more than 360 areas of great diversity, including parks, monuments, historic sites, battlefields, seashores and lakeshores, and recreation areas. It attracts more than 270 million recreation visits a year. The Service maintains the area, protects the natural and cultural resources and conducts a range of visitor services, among them law enforcement and interpretation of the geology, history and plant and animal life of the parks.
The National Park Service also directs programs to assist states, other Federal agencies, local governments and individuals in the protection of historical, natural architectural, engineering and archeological resources that lie outside the National Park System.
For these purposes, the Service administers the state portion of the Land and Water Conservation Fund, maintains the National Register of Historic Places and a registry of natural sites; manages the Urban Park and Recreation Recovery Program; provides technical resources; conducts surveys of historic buildings and engineering works, and administers a program of interagency archeological services.
For more information please write or call:
Office of Public Affairs
National Park Service
U.S. Department of the Interior
Washington, D.C. 20240
(202) 208-7394
North Atlantic, Regional Office Rocky Mountain Regional Office (Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, (Montana, North Dakota, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Wyoming, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey) Utah, Colorado) 15 State Street P.O. Box 25287 Boston, MA 02109 Denver, CO 80225 617/223-5199 303/969-2503 Mid-Atlantic Regional Office Southwest Regional Office (Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, (Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, Delaware, Virginia, excluding parks Oklahoma, New Mexico, assigned to National Capital Region) northeast corner of Arizona) 143 South Third Street P.O. Box 728 Philadelphia, PA 19106 Santa Fe, NM 87501 215/597-3679 505/988-6012 National Capital Regional Office Western Regional Office (District of Columbia, some units (California, Nevada, most of in Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia) Arizona, Hawaii) 1100 Ohio Drive, SW 600 Harrison Street Washington, D.C. 20242 Suite 600 202/619-7222 San Francisco, CA 94107 415/744-3929 Southwest Regional Office (Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Pacific Northwest Regional Office South Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, (Idaho, Oregon, Washington) Georgia, Florida, Puerto Rico, 909 First Avenue Virgin Islands) Seattle, WA 98104-1060 Richard B. Russell Federal Bldg. 206/220-4013 & U.S. Courthouse 75 Spring Street, SW Alaska Regional Office Atlanta, GA 30303 (Alaska) 404/331-4996 2525 Gambell Street Anchorage, AK 99503 Midwest Regional Office 907/257-2696 (Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri Nebraska, Kansas) 1709 Jackson Street Omaha, NE 68102 402/221-3448
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