2010 Yellowstone America the Beautiful Quarter
Yellowstone America the Beautiful Quarter Design Proposals
The second release of the new quarter program will be the 2010 Yellowstone America the Beautiful Quarter. The design will feature Yellowstone National Park. The park is located primarily in Wyoming, although the its borders extend into Montana and Idaho. Yellowstone became the country’s first National Park in 1872. The quarter will be released during the year 2010.
The final reverse design for the Yellowstone Quarter has not yet been selected. Proposed designs depict various views of the geysers for which the park is famous. The designs will be reviewed by the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee and Commission of Fine Arts, before the final selection is made by the Secretary of the Treasury.
Many had anticipated that the quarter featuring Yellowstone National Park would be the first quarter released in the new series since it was the first officially designated National Park. It ended up being the second release since the Hot Springs National Park was designated as a federal reserve forty years earlier.
About Yellowstone National Park
Long before Yellowstone National Park became of importance to the newly formed people and government of the United States of America, it was already considered sacred ground to the Native Americans. They used the area that we now know as Yellowstone as hunting grounds, a place to set up their temporary villages, and the center of many of their travel routes for trading and hunting. When you visit Yellowstone, which was officially named a National Park in 1872, it is easy to see why it was considered so valuable by all who passed through it. The area now enclosed by the Park contains a wide variety of wildlife and geothermal structures, including one of the most famous natural geysers, Old Faithful.
The reason that these geysers exist is that Yellowstone is thought to be centered right over the top of one of the largest super volcanoes in the whole continent of North America, known as the Yellowstone Caldera. All over Yellowstone National Park, you can see lava still flowing and also the rock formations that have formed as the lava cools after reaching the surface of the earth.
Another great thing about Yellowstone National Park is that it is home to some of the most diverse populations of fish, birds, mammals and reptiles in the entire country. Several of the species of animals that call the park home are endangered or threatened, making the protection of the Park very important to their survival. Although there are some paved roads around certain features of the park, much of it has remained unspoiled by human development, making it a unique place to reconnect with nature.
