Failed National Park Proposals in “Sweet Home Alabama”

The national park system has grown from Yellowstone in 1872, through the creation of the National Park Service (NPS) in 1916, to contain more than 429 units in 2024. Today, Alabama has eight units within the state and three multistate trails or roads that cross through it. Yet records show that eight times that many places were proposed by legislators, civic associations, individuals, or the NPS itself. Why did those efforts fail? Who proposed each one? What has happened to those sites in the succeeding years? The NPS uses four criteria to judge a proposed unit: significance to the entire nation; suitable representation of a natural, historical, or recreational category of the system; feasibility in terms of cost, completeness of resource inclusion, and potential public opposition; and whether another organization or agency can protect the resources. Alabama, from the 1920s to the early 1950s, sought to gain national parks especially as politicians and citizens were establishing its state park system. Later, opposition to federal control, particularly from those who lived near proposed units, blocked proposals. The newer units have resulted from national attention to civil rights history.