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Copyright © 2001 Darren Smith and licensors. All rights reserved |
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MARCH 3 |
| 1875 Through the efforts of United State Senator Thomas W. Ferry, Congress establishes a second national park (after Yellowstone) to be located on Mackinac Island. In 1895 the Governor of Michigan successfully petitions Congress to turn over the 1,041-acre park to the State of Michigan. Since this date the Mackinac State Historic Parks have been overseen by a commission appointed by the governor. |
| 1891 Congress passes the Forest Reserve Act, which authorizes setting aside public forests in any state or territory to preserve a timber supply for the future. This marked a gradual shift of federal priorities in the West from selling public land to land conservation. President Harrison would go on to establish 15 forest reserves (later renamed national forests) during his administration. |
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1925 The US Army establishes Fort McHenry as a national park in Maryland. In 1933 it would be transferred to the National Park Service and in 1939 redesignated as a national monument and historic shrine. Today it is the nation's only historic shrine. Successful defense of this fort in the War of 1812 inspired Francis Scott Key to write The Star Spangled Banner. South Dakota's Mount Rushmore National Memorial is authorized. Between 1927 and 1941, Gutzon Borglum and 400 workers would sculpt the 60-foot busts of Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln to commemorate the first 150 years of American history. |
| 1927 Stones River in central Tennessee is established as a national military park. A fierce battle took place here between December 31, 1862 and January 2, 1863. General Bragg's Confederates withdrew after the battle, allowing General Rosecrans and the Union army to control middle Tennessee. |
| 1931 Kings Mountain National Military Park is established near Blacksburg, South Carolina. Park commemorates the victory on October 7, 1780, by American Patriots over American Loyalists during the Southern Campaign of the Revolutionary War, halting the British advance into North Carolina. |
| 1992 The best preserved of ten camps at which Japanese American citizens and Japanese aliens were interned during World War II, the Manazanar War Relocation Center in the Owens Valley, California, is established as a national historic site. |
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