Niagara Falls State Park encompasses the New York parkland around the American side of Niagara Falls, including views of the American Falls, Bridal Veil Falls, part of Horseshoe Falls, and the Niagara Gorge. Widely regarded as the oldest continuously operating state park in the United States, it emerged from a late 19th-century effort to rescue the falls from private control and guarantee public access. Frederick Law Olmsted, James T. Gardner, Thomas Vincent Welch, and Calvert Vaux were central to its creation and design. Established as the Niagara Reservation in 1885, it became a landmark in American conservation by preserving a celebrated natural wonder for public use.