The National Park Service is celebrating its 100th birthday on Thursday with events across the U.S. including the creation of a giant, living version of its emblem in Washington, D.C., a naturalization ceremony on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon and an outdoor concert at Yellowstone National Park.

INCLUSIVE PARKS

Interior Secretary Sally Jewell says all Americans deserve the chance to experience the national parks.

Speaking below the Roosevelt Arch in Gardiner, Montana on Thursday night, Jewell said Americans from all walks of life should see themselves in the country’s public lands.

It was a full night of speeches and singing as about 6,000 people gathered to celebrate the 100th birthday of the National Park Service.

The Billings Gazette reports two-time Grammy winner John Prine sang “Paradise” in honor of his father, who used to take him to state and national parks. Next, Emmylou Harris and a stage filled with musicians sang Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land” as the crowd sang along.

Love was also in the air.

Joe Eicher said he had been carrying an engagement ring in his pocket for a month and proposed to Theresa Holloway during a hike to a cliff overlooking Mammoth Hot Springs.

The Livonia, Michigan couple drove 26 hours to Yellowstone National Park, which Holloway described as breathtaking and surreal.

LIVING EMBLEM

NEW MONUMENT

The park service’s newest national monument, Katahdin Woods and Waters in Maine, was being readied to welcome its first visitors since President Barack Obama used his executive authority to create it on Wednesday.

Donated by Burt’s Bees co-founder Roxanne Quimby, the expanse features views of Mount Katahdin, the tallest mountain in Maine.

Visitors are already allowed into the woods, which was open to the public before the designation. There currently is no fee.

The brochures for the monument are printed and signs are going up, and the National Park Passport Stamp beloved by park visitors is now available.

NATURE INTRUDES

For a time, both fire and ice hindered travel into Yellowstone National Park on the park service’s centennial anniversary.

Authorities closed a portion of the popular Beartooth Highway to the park’s northeast entrance Wednesday night because of snow and ice from a summer snowstorm, but the road reopened Thursday morning.

At the other end of the park, a portion of the road leading to Yellowstone’s South Entrance remained closed because of a wildfire. Visitors heading to Thursday’s celebration and concert with Emmylou Harris and John Prine at the Roosevelt Arch from the south face an hour-long detour into Idaho.

CLIMATE CHANGE

FREE ADMISSION

The park service is offering free admission to all its sites through Sunday. They’re among 16 free days scheduled throughout the centennial year. Some parks are serving birthday cake and offering ranger talks for the occasion. The Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park in Maryland is offering free mule-drawn boat rides on Thursday.