This is a list of Minnesota state parks in the Minnesota state park system. A Minnesota state park is an area of lan in the U.S. state of Minnesota preserved by the state for its natural, historic, or other resources. The Minnesota State Park system consists of 72 state parks, eight state waysides, one state trail, and 54 state forest campgrounds and day use areas, totaling approximately 267,000 acres (1,052.18 km²). The 72 state parks are 66 state parks and six state recreation areas. Each was created by an act of the Minnesota Legislature and is maintained by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. The Minnesota Historical Society operates sites within some of them. The park system began in 1891 with Itasca State Park when a state law was adopted to "maintain intact, forever, a limited quantity of the domain of this commonwealth...in a state of nature." Minnesota's state park system is the second oldest in the United States, after New York's.