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Contact: Barb Maynes, 360-565-3005 Contact: Rainey McKenna, 360-565-2985
June 29 of this year marks the seventy-fifth anniversary of the signing of the law that established Olympic National Park.With a new logo, and new online features and events planned throughout 2013, Olympic is commemorating its 75th year as a national park. "This anniversary gives us a chance to reflect on the outstanding natural and cultural heritage protected within the park," said Sarah Creachbaum, Superintendent of Olympic National Park."Our local and regional neighbors are familiar with this heritage, but like all national parks, Olympic is a treasured part of our nation's heritage." A special seventy-fifth anniversary logo was developed by park staff members Greg Marsh and Judy Lively and includes elements of Olympic's three best-known features - glacier-capped mountains, large tracts of primeval forest and the rugged Pacific Coast.Featured are the words "Your Park, Your Heritage," celebrating the park's place in the national heritage of all Americans. Limited edition pins featuring the logo are available through Discover Your Northwest bookstores around the park, including the Olympic National Park Visitor Center and the Hoh Rainforest Visitor Center. Small anniversary events are planned during 2013.Detailed information will be released as plans are finalized. Olympic National Park protects 922,651 acres of three distinctly different ecosystems - rugged glacier-capped mountains, more than 70 miles of wild Pacific coast, and magnificent stands of old-growth and temperate rain forest. The land now protected within Olympic National Park first received federal protection in 1897 when President Grover Cleveland designated the Olympic Forest Reserve.This designation protected the area's forests, but not the native wildlife.Within years, the area's elk population had plummeted due to overharvest and trophy hunting and in 1909, President Theodore Roosevelt designated part of the Forest Reserve as the Mount Olympus National Monument. On June 29, 1938, after several decades of public discussion and debate, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the bill establishing Olympic National Park. In establishing the park, Congress defined the park's purpose as to: "… preserve for the benefit, use and enjoyment of the people, the finest sample of primeval forests of Sitka spruce, western hemlock, Douglas fir, and western red cedar in the entire United States; to provide suitable winter range and permanent protection for the herds of native Roosevelt elk and other wildlife indigenous to the area; to conserve and render available to the people, for recreational use, this outstanding mountainous country, containing numerous glaciers and perpetual snow fields and a portion of the surrounding verdant forest together with a narrow string along the beautiful Washington coast." |
Last updated: February 28, 2015