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In 1916 America was on fire with optimism. We could do anything: build planes, bridges, skyscrapers, and great ships. We were becoming a global superpower, and we knew it. We could feel it. Europe was killing her youth in a conflict that was supposed to last four months, but would last four years instead, and in the process, the world was introduced to the horrors of poisonous gases, trench warfare, and submarine attacks. Margaret Sanger opened the first birth-control clinic in the U.S, cars exceeded 100 miles per hour at the Indianapolis Speedway, the Professional Golf Association was created, and in August of that eventful year the U.S. National Park Service was born. Forty-four years after the creation of America's—and the world's—first national park (Yellowstone in 1872), an agency was born to preserve and protect the national parks. Since then, many new national parks have been established (58 total), and great strides have been achieved in sharing and safeguarding them. 
