Only one U.S. national park is named after a person.

Viewpoint at the Badlands

For the most part, America’s 63 national parks are named not after people, but after the cities and towns where they’re located or the geographical features in and around the parks. There are a couple of national parks that indirectly take their names from individuals — for example, Bryce Canyon National Park is named for Bryce Canyon, which is named for Mormon pioneer Ebenezer Bryce — but Theodore Roosevelt National Park is the only park that’s directly named after a person.

Teddy Roosevelt was an avid outdoorsman and conservationist, and made it a priority in his life and presidency to preserve the United States’ natural resources. During his two terms as president, he established the United States Forest Service, protected 150 national forests, and created five national parks. Along with several bird preserves, game preserves, and national monuments, Roosevelt protected around 230 million acres of public land.

Though Roosevelt was a New Yorker, the Little Missouri badlands in North Dakota held a special place in his heart. He first visited the region in 1883 at the age of 24 to hunt big game, and he fell in love with what he called its “desolate, grim beauty.” The next year, his wife and his mother died within hours of each other, and he returned to the area to grieve and established a ranch there. It remained a sanctuary for him throughout his life. After Roosevelt’s death in 1919, a park in the badlands he loved so much seemed like an apt memorial. It took another three decades to map the land and complete the site, but in 1947, Harry S. Truman formally established Teddy Roosevelt Memorial Park, which was designated as a national park in 1978.

By the Numbers

Did you know?

Mount Rainier is named after a man who never came close to it.

British explorer George Vancouver surveyed the Pacific Northwest coast in the late 18th century, and he named a lot of places along the way. When he spotted Mount Rainier, now the central fixture of Mount Rainier National Park, he decided to name it after his good friend Peter Rainier, a rear admiral in the British navy. Even though Rainier, who fought for the British in the American Revolutionary War, never actually saw his namesake mountain, the name stuck — though some locals prefer to use the mountain’s Indigenous name, Tahoma.