Raúl Grijalva: “House Resolution 138, introduced by my colleague, the gentleman from Arkansas, Representative Mike Ross, would express a…”

“House Resolution 138, introduced by my colleague, the gentleman from Arkansas, Representative Mike Ross, would express a recognition by the House of Representatives of the importance of the Hot Springs National Park on its 175th anniversary. Most people know that Yellowstone is our first national park, but more than 40 years before Yellowstone was established as a park, Congress set aside 2,529 acres in the Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas to preserve 47 hot springs located there. The law was enacted at the request of the General Assembly of the Territory of Arkansas and signed by President Andrew Jackson on April 20, 1832. That made the Hot Springs Reservation the first nationally protected parkland. The reservation was turned over to the Department of the Interior when that Department was established in 1849. However, it took another quarter of a century, a ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court, and the protection of Federal troops to settle the bogus land claims and chase off overeager entrepreneurs seeking to make profit from the springs. Notably, the 1916 Organic Act which established the National Park Service mentioned only the Hot Springs Reservation by name, even though by that time several other national parks and monuments had been designated by Congress.”