to the state Department of Forests and Waters. Presque Isle quickly became the most popular state park in Pennsylvania. Presque Isle was an early example of locating state parks near cities, a trend that would become prevalent statewide only in the 1960s. The first paved road was built in the park in 1924, and today of roads run through the park. Pennsylvania Route 832 is the main road into the park, and is subsequently known as Peninsula Drive. Presque Isle has been referred to as "Peninsula State Park". The Perry Monument in the park was constructed in 1926 near Misery Bay and the burials in Graveyard Pond. By 1937 official state publications were referring to the park as "Presque Isle State Park", and that same year it led the state park system with 1.4 million visitors. In the 1950s the peninsula was enlarged to accommodate new roads and parking, using of sand dredged from the interior of the peninsula. The resulting basin became the current marina. Other new facilities included three modern bath houses built in 1957. That same year Gull Point (at the eastern end of the peninsula) was named a nature preserve by the state. Presque Isle was named a National Natural Landmark by the National Park Service in 1967. A recommendation was made to abolish the independent board as early as 1930, although this did not come about until January 19, 1971, with the creation of the state Department of Environmental Resources (which later became the DCNR). From 1989 to 1992, over 50 breakwaters were built along the western and northern shore of the peninsula to help control erosion. In 1997 the park's Important Bird Area (IBA) was one of the first 73 IBAs established in Pennsylvania. As part of the State Parks 2000 strategic plan of the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR), Gull Point was named a "State Park Natural Area for rare and migratory shorebirds to rest, feed and possibly nest". The Tom Ridge Environmental Center at the entrance to the park opened in May 2006. As of 2007, the Pennsylvania DCNR Bureau of Parks, which administers all 120 Pennsylvania state parks, had chosen Presque Isle for its "25 Must-See Pennsylvania State Parks" list, citing its status as Pennsylvania's only surf beach, its status as a National Natural Landmark, and its "geological and biological diversity and its historic significance". Scenes for the