What is the difference between national parks and national monuments, parkways, seashores, etc?
National parks are generally large natural places having a wide variety of outstanding features, sometimes including historic features. They must be created by an act of Congress, and are strictly regulated to prevent hunting and damage to the features it protects. National monuments are the same in many ways, but may be created by simple Presidential proclamation. Many national parks were national monuments first. A wide variety of other land designations exists in the National Park Service as well. On August 18, 1970, Congress defined the National Park System as, “any area of land and water now or hereafter administered by the Secretary of the Interior through the National Park Service for park, monument, historic, parkway, recreational or other purposes.
