First National Park Established East Of The Mississippi: NOT 'Acadia' But 'Mackinac' In Michigan.

 

Click images to ENLARGE.

Link to 'mackinacparks.com' website.

[Left]: Google (& YOU do it). [Right]: Link to 'mackinacisland.org'.

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That 'Acadia' in Maine (in 1919) was the first National Park to be established East of the Mississippi is a widespread belief & claim.

Please Google it: 'first national park east of the mississippi' (or your own wording).

Yes, when Acadia, actually 'Lafayette National Park' (in 1919) was established there were NO other national parks in the east. That is true. But that does NOT make Lafayette/Acadia the first. Just does NOT.

'Mackinac National Park' had been legitimately established, by the U.S. Congress, on March 8, 1875 -- nearly 44 years earlier.

It was actually the 2nd NP to be established in the U.S.

It was established per all the correct U.S. laws -- by Congress (and approved by the President).

That it became a State Park 20-years later does NOT negate its establishment.

It was the FIRST NP established East of the Mississippi.

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Let me give you three scenarios to help you get this straight.

1/ A small town in Maine has never had a diner. Then in 1910 an enterprising local sets up a diner. There is much excitement. The town's 1st diner. Then in the 1930s we get the dreaded depression. Money is tight. The owner of the diner is forced to close it down. The town is again without a diner. In 1946, with things looking up, a veteran returning from France, opens a new diner. That does NOT make that the first diner to have existed in that town -- or the first to have been established. Got that?

2/ Barack Obama ceased to be President in 2017. We currently don't have a black president. Let's say that 40 years from now we get another black president. That would not make him/her the 1st black president. That would always be Obama. Got that?

3/ 'George Bucknam Dorr', the 'Father of Acadia', had an elder brother. He tragically died of typhus. That did not make George the first born.  Got that?

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Here are some claims that are valid:

>> Lafayette(/Acadia) was the only NP east of the Mississippi when it was established in 1919.

>> Lafayette(/Acadia) was the first NP east of the Mississippi to be established in the 20th century.

>> Lafayette(/Acadia) was the first NP to be established east of the Great Lakes.

>> Lafayette(/Acadia) was the first NP to be established within the original United States (-- a statement made by NPS Director Stephen Mather in his 1920 annual report).

>> Lafayette(/Acadia) was the first coastal NP to be established in the Continental U.S.

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Calling Acadia, the first permanent NP established east of Miss. (as ‘USA Today’ did on April 22, 2023, trying to be tactful) is disingenuous, if not ludicrous. The U.S. Congress does not (and will not) create NPs on a temporary basis (i.e., NPs are never established with expiration dates).

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Now YOU KNOW.

I am glad to have sorted this out for YOU.

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