2011 Glacier Park America the Beautiful Quarter
Design Candidates for Glacier Park America the Beautiful Quarter
The 2011 Glacier Park America the Beautiful Quarter will be released during 2011 as the seventh release of the new series featuring National Parks and Sites of America. Although Montana’s Glacier National Park encompasses more than one million acres of land, 300 lakes, more than one thousand specifies of plants, and hundreds of species of animals, it will be depicted on the diminutive canvas of a quarter.
The United States Mint has prepared three design candidates for the Glacier Park Quarter. Reviews provided by the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee and Commission of Fine Arts were generally favorable. Both recommended the design MT-03, which depicts a mountain goat with the northeast slope of Mount Reynolds in the background.
This page will be updated with the latest information on the quarter. Check back on this page for the final design selection and details of the Montana America the Beautiful Quarter release!
About Glacier National Park
Like many of our most treasured wild areas, Glacier National Park in Montana was inhabited and loved by the Native Americans long before any European settlers arrived there. There is archeological evidence that humans were living in the mountains and plains of Montana almost ten thousand years ago.
It was not until the 1800’s however, that pioneers like Lewis and Clark began to take expeditions to explore and map out these wild areas as they trapped and hunted for their livelihoods. As forest trails became roads, and treacherous roads became railroads, more and more people became interested in what adventure and fortune might lie out in the wilds of the Western forests.
As the 1900’s dawned and a new century began, people in America began to slowly understand that there can sometimes be more value in a piece of land than simply the resources that you can extract from it. Sometimes land can be valuable just because of its unique beauty and wildlife.
George Bird Grinnell was one of the people that agreed with this state of mind, and he worked hard to convince the federal government that the forests and glaciers of the western part of Montana were worth preserving just the way they were. Although the area was first made into Forest Preserve in 1900, this designation still left the area open to the developments of homesteaders and miners. Grinnell did not rest until President Taft officially signed legislation making Glacier the tenth National Park in the nation. Today, visitors can still enjoy camping, hiking, fishing and hunting in the Park, as well as a stay in one of its historic lodges.
