National Parks centennial cause for celebration

By ERIC FREEDMAN
Capital News Service
LANSING — One draws more than a million visitors each year, others only a fraction of that number. Some boast internationally recognizable names, others fall outside the public spotlight. They’re Michigan units of the National Park Service (NPS), which celebrates its centennial this year. Popular or not, widely familiar or not, they’re publicly owned treasures of environmental and natural resources, historic and cultural wealth, recreation and national identity. While the system has its origins in an 1872 law creating Yellowstone National Park, Congress waited until 1916 and Woodrow Wilson’s presidency to establish the NPS.