Gone and Mostly Forgotten: 26 Abolished National Parks

As of this writing, there are 397 national parks -- or as some might prefer to say, 397 National Park System units. The National Park System would be even larger had it not been for a bit of pruning here and there over the decades. Let's first make it clear what pruning is not. At least ten sites initially authorized for national park status were subsequently removed from consideration without ever having been assigned to the National Park Service for administration, These sites were not pruned national parks in the strictest sense, since the sites were never part of the system. Thirty-four additional sites or areas, including a National Park-designated one (Platt National Park ), once had independent identities but subsequently became administrative components of national parks bearing other names. Since all of these sites have remained within the National Park System, we cannot fairly say that they have been pruned either. Here is what we mean by pruning. During the period 1895-2004, 26 sites or areas with independent national park-authorized identities ended up being abolished and either transferred outside the National Park System for administration or simply delisted. Whether you call them abolished, decommissioned, or delisted, these 26 sites or areas have been removed from the National Park System. They are the pruned national parks...more