September 25

Yosemite National Park Preserved Forever

On this day in 1890, Yosemite National Park was established to preserve what Theodore Roosevelt once called "The most beautiful place on Earth."

Yosemite is in the Nevada Mountains of central California, about 320 kilometers east of San Francisco. It covers 3,030 square kilometers (1,170 square miles) of land and shelters 80 species of mammals, 247 species of birds, 40 species of reptiles, and hundreds of species of trees and wildflowers. It was the first territory set aside by Congress as a national park.