Park History
Valley Forge was established as the first state park of Pennsylvania in 1893 by the Valley Forge Park Commission "to preserve, improve, and maintain as a public park the site on which General George Washington's army encamped at Valley Forge.". The area around Washington's Headquarters was chosen as the park site. In 1923, the VFPC was brought under the Department of Forests and Waters and later incorporated into the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission in 1971.
The park served as the location of the National Scout Jamboree in 1950, 1957, and 1964.
Valley Forge was designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1961 and was listed in the initial National Register of Historic Places in 1966. The area covered by these listings goes outside what was the Valley Forge State Park boundaries to include four historic houses where the Marquis de Lafayette and other officers were quartered.
In 1976, Pennsylvania gave the park as a gift to the nation for the Bicentennial. The U.S. Congress passed a law, signed by President Gerald Ford on July 4, 1976, authorizing the addition of Valley Forge National Historical Park to the National Park System.
Read more about this topic: Valley Forge National Historical Park
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