Where Is the Grand Canyon? The Grand Canyon in Arizona is one of the United States' fifty-nine national parks. All are special wilderness areas that are protected by the US government. President Franklin Roosevelt said, "There is nothing so American as our national parks." Why? Because the parks belong to all the people of our country. They are not private property. Back when the United States was a young country with limitless open space, not many people saw a need to set aside land for parks. Even if there had been big parks, few people could have visited them. The majority of Americans worked six days a week. Not many had the time or money to travel more than a few miles from their home. The first public park in the United States was the Boston Common, in Massachusetts, which was established in 1634. It was both a park and a common grazing area for cows. In the 1830s, Americans began building cemeteries that were more than places to bury the dead. They had winding roads, ponds, landscaped hills, beautiful statues, and fancy mausoleums. (Mausoleums are like little houses with the dead buried inside them.) People went to these beautiful cemeteries to have picnics and stroll around the grounds admiring the views. Cemeteries became popular as a kind of public park. Excerpted from Where Is the Grand Canyon? by Jim O'Connor All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
