Yellowstone, the world’s first—and still most famous—national park, was established in 1872, the year the Brooklyn Bridge was being built and President Ulysses S. Grant completed his first term in the White House (then called the Executive Mansion). That same year Jules Verne was finishing up Around the World in 80 Days and Thomas Edison perfected the duplex telegraph. But nothing changed the world like Yellowstone.

The new park taught people the value of restraint; that we save wild places so they might one day save us.   

Here are ten surprising facts about Yellowstone and its enduring legacy, from the new National Geographic book The National Parks: An Illustrated History. (Also check out the new special Wild