EARLY PARK ROAD DEVELOPMENT The road systems in each of the
national parks developed differently. Many were started before
the establishment of the National Park Service in 1916. Some
were old mining roads that were suitable enough to be upgraded
into wagon and motor roads. The army built others for patrolling
purposes, and then at the request of the Department of the
Interior and through congressional appropriations, expanded some
of them into touring roads. Other park roads were built by
states, counties, or private enterprises. As more parks were
added, some of them came with existing road systems, and others
came with no roads at all. The saga of the start of road
construction at Yellowstone National Park was an example of the
evolution of park road development. Yellowstone, famous for its
Grand Loop Road, received its first appropriation for road
construction in the 1880s, and the responsibility for
administering it rested with the Corps of Engineers. In 1883,
Capt. D.C. Kingman was the first officer det