In 1940, Congress and President Franklin D. Roosevelt created a new national park to include the glacially-formed splendor of Kings Canyon. The newly established Kings Canyon National Park subsumed General Grant National Park into it. Since the Second World War, Kings Canyon and Sequoia have been administered jointly. Over the past 125 years, these parks have grown to encompass 1,353 square miles of which 97% is designated and managed as wilderness. Today, more than 1.5 million people enjoy these special places each year. While we face new challenges in the 21st century that were not envisioned when the parks were created, the basic purpose of the parks remains essentially unchanged: to protect and preserve these public lands for future generations.