New Hampshire America the Beautiful Quarter
The New Hampshire America the Beautiful Quarter will begin the fourth year of the new quarter series featuring National Parks or Sites from each state, territory, and the District of Columbia. The quarter is expected to be released in early 2013.
The White Mountains National Forest will be depicted on the reverse of the quarter. This site was selected as part of a complete register of sites established before the series began. This has given collectors a sneak preview of the full scope of the America the Beautiful Quarters Program.
Design candidates for the White Mountains Quarter will be prepared by the United States Mint in 2012 based on source materials provided by a federal liaison to the site. These designs will be reviewed by various parties in advance of the final selection by the Treasury Secretary.
About White Mountains National Forest
The White Mountains of New Hampshire have provided homes and jobs for many different types of people throughout the history of this country. Native Americans built their villages, travel ways, sacred grounds, hunting areas and camps among their craggy peaks. Early American settlers found places for their towns, farms, buildings, factories and recreation sites in their shadow. Now visitors to the White Mountain National Forest, which was established in 1918, can relive the significance of these diverse cultures that first called these mountains home.
Since the establishment of the National Forest, archaeologists have found over twenty confirmed prehistoric sites of early Native American inhabitants. Testing has indicated that Paleo-Indians were living at the base of the White Mountains’ northern slope as early as ten thousand years ago. It would not be until the mid seventeenth century that early European settlers would begin to explore the uncharted slopes and peaks of the White Mountains.
Visitors to the White Mountain National Forest are encouraged to visit the variety of historical houses and cultural sites that include the traces of past inhabitants.
