January 11, 2022 – Grand Canyon

On this day in 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt designated the Grand Canyon as a National Monument! He had made environmental conservation one of the major platforms of his presidency, and visited the site for the first time in 1903. Unfortunately, an area could only be made a National Park by an act of Congress. So Roosevelt sidestepped the red tape and started a practice of using a presidential proclamation to designate certain areas as national monuments. Though there was a lot of interest in preserving the land for public use, it didn’t become a National Park until 1919. It was our 15th National Park, covering more than 1.2 million acres. It gets around 6 million visitors each year, which is the second highest after Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Learn more here.