A Book of 33 Postcards America's National Parks, Monuments & Memorials The National park concept is generally credited to the artist George Catlin. On a trip to the Dakotas in 1832, he worried about the impact of America’s westward expansion on Indian civilization, wildlife, and wilderness. They might be preserved, he wrote. “by some great protecting policy of government… in a magnificent park….. A nation’s park, containing man and beast, in all the wild and freshness of their nature’s beauty!” Catlin’s vision was partly realized in 1864, when Congress donated Yosemite Valley to California for preservation as a state park. Eight years later in 18172, Congress reserved the spectacular Yellowstone country in the Wyoming and Montana territories “as a public park or pleasuring-ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people”.