Like other national parks across the country, Sandy Hook is waiving entrance fees through Sunday in honor of the National Park Service's 100th anniversary
SANDY HOOK -- How does the National Park Service celebrate its centennial anniversary at Sandy Hook?
It throws a four-day bash and lets everyone in for free.
At Sandy Hook and many of the park service's other facilities across the country, visitors won't have to pay entrance fees Thursday through Sunday to commemorate the National Park Service's 100th anniversary.
And with beautiful weather predicted through the weekend, park rangers at Sandy Hook could find themselves turning away visitors for a time. Sandy Hook, which draws 2 million visitors annually, usually fills to parking capacity before noon on holidays and on gorgeous weekends.
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Officially created in 1974, Sandy Hook is one of three units (including sites in Jamaica Bay and Staten Island in New York) making up the park service's Gateway National Recreation Area.
But the park actually dates back to Colonial times when an Army fort operated on the northern tip of its 7-mile peninsula. A public beach club operated on the southern portion for decades until the New Jersey took the property by eminent domain in 1962 for a state park.
The entire peninsula became a national park in 1974 when the fort, which was known as Sandy Hook Proving Ground and later Fort Hancock, was deactivated and the state park reverted to the federal government.
Thursday is the actual centennial marking the day in 1916 that President Woodrow Wilson signed an act creating the National Park Service to protect the 35 national parks and monuments in existence at the time.
The park service now oversees more than 400 areas covering more than 84 million acres in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, Saipan and the Virgin Islands.
MaryAnn Spoto may be reached at mspoto@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @MaryAnnSpoto. Find NJ.com on Facebook.