2010 Mount Hood America the Beautiful Quarter
The 2010 Mount Hood America the Beautiful Quarter will be the fifth release of the America the Beautiful Quarters Program and the final release for the series during 2010. The quarter design will feature Mount Hood National Forest in Oregon. The forest was first established as the Bull Run Forest Reserve in 1892 and eventually took on its familiar name in 1924.
The Oregon Quarter released under the previous State Quarters Program had featured Crater Lake National Park. Proposed designs had included a view of Mount Hood. For this series, Mount Hood gets its chance to take the national spotlight.
The Mount Hood Quarter reverse design features a view of Mount Hood with Lost Lake in the foreground. The inscriptions read “Mount Hood”, “Oregon”, “E Pluribus Unum”, and the date “2010″. The reverse was designed and sculpted by Phebe Hemphill. The obverse of the coin will feature a portrait of George Washington designed by John Flanagan for the 1932 Washington Quarter. This portrait has been used on the quarter continuously through the original series, the 50 State Quarters Program, District of Columbia & U.S. Territories Quarters Program, and current America the Beautiful Quarters Program.
The Mount Hood National Forest Quarter is tentatively scheduled for release on November 15, 2010. An official launch ceremony is expected to be held at the park. The US Mint will offer a variety of numismatic products which incorporate the new quarter.
About Mount Hood National Forest
Oregon has its fair share of amazing scenery, from bubbling brooks to majestic, ancient trees that seem to extend for miles up into the sky. Just twenty miles from the bustling seafaring city of Portland, one can lose themselves in the over one million acres of the Mt. Hood National Forest. This protected area has provided lifetimes of opportunities to participate in outdoor activities like camping, hiking, fishing, hunting, skiing and boating.
Not only does the Mt. Hood National Forest boast of being home to the volcanic mountain itself, the Forest also extends to include the Columbia River Gorge as well as the Olallie Scenic Area. Many people don’t know that in addition to being the highest mountain in Oregon, Mount Hood is a stratovolcano that many scientists consider to be the mostly likely to erupt in the state although it has been dormant for many years.
In 1893, conservationists moved to create the Cascade Range Forest Preserve which marked the first official federal protection of the area. After several divisions and revisions of the name, the area we know now became the Mt. Hood National Forest in 1924. The Forest is a rare jewel in the collection of National protected areas, as it contains some of the largest portions of untouched wilderness anywhere in the country.
