NPS Family Tree MENU Contents Foreword Introduction Part I Part II Part III Part IV Part V Part VI Part VII Acknowledgements Abbreviations		Family Tree of the National Park System Part III part III REORGANIZATION OF 1933 NATIONAL PARK SYSTEM AREAS BY CATEGORY FOLLOWING THE REORGANIZATION OF 1933 We have now completed descriptions of each of the six branch lines of the Family Tree which joined the main line of the National Park System in 1933. The far-reaching consequences of this consolidation which brought important and diverse areas into the System may be visualized from the following table: National Park System Areas by Category Date Natural Areas Historical Areas Recreation Areas National Cap. Parks Other Total Areas in N.P. System 1916 27 9 — — 1 37 1933 Before Reorg. 47 20 — — — 67 After Reorg. 58 77 1 1 — 137 Natural areas increased from 47 to 58, reflecting the transfer of 11 scientific National Monuments from the U.S. Forest Service to the National Park Service. Historical areas almost quadrupled in number, increasing from 20 to 77 and becoming unequivocally a major category in the System. The first unit ultimately to be classified as a Recreation Area was added to the System — the George Washington Memorial Parkway — marking the beginning of a completely new category of areas. Lastly, a magnificent urban park system was added — National Capital Parks, represented on our table as a single area but actually containing hundreds of individual parks destined by 1972 to number 720 separate reservations. The total number of areas in the System more than doubled, increasing from 67 to 137, widely distributed throughout the United States. Once the Reorganization was achieved, the Service faced the formidable task of assimilating these many diverse areas into the fabric of the existing National Park System. This undertaking brings us to the next segment of the Family Tree.
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