Shenandoah National Park Shines Brightly On New Quarter

With a trickling waterfall of shiny new coins, a newly minted quarter featuring Shenandoah National Park was launched on Friday.

Of the 1,000 people attending the event at Skyline High School, half were students, according to U.S. Mint spokesman Mike White.

“Thirty thousand dollars in quarters were exchanged,” he said, with quarter enthusiasts walking away with 120,000 of the coins following the launch. “Usually people are really enthusiastic.”

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Mint Deputy Director Richard Peterson, Shenandoah National Park Superintendent Jim Northup, state Secretary of Natural Resources Molly Ward and Warren County Administrator Douglas Stanley spoke during the ceremony in the school auditorium.

The Shenandoah National Park quarter depicts a hiker at Little Stony Man Overlook, with the Blue Ridge Mountains in the background. The coin is the 22nd released as part of the program, which resulted from the America’s Beautiful National Parks Quarter Dollar Coin Act of 2008.

The Mint began launching five quarters per year with a national site on the reverse (“tail”) side in 2010.

The last quarter will be released in 2021. A site from every state will be featured, as will locations in Washington, D.C., Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands.

Friday’s quarter celebration included a patriotic fanfare with a National Park Service Honor Guard, and performances by the Skyline [High School] Singers, the All-[Warren] County Elementary Choir and Warren County Middle School students.

As governor from 2006 until 2010, Kaine was allowed to choose the Virginia national park which would be featured on the quarter.

The state has 22 national parks, 10 national natural landmarks, 122 national historic landmarks and two national heritage areas, according to the National Park Service’s website nps.gov.

“When governors have to make choices like these it can be hard ...,” Kaine said. “There were a lot of other choices. And folks, it wasn’t even close.”

He and his family are avid hikers and campers.

“Some of the most beautiful hiking trails in America are in Shenandoah National Park,” Kaine said.

He singled out Old Rag and White Oak Canyon as favorite spots within the park.

“We spend as much time as we can in Shenandoah National Park,” Kaine said. “And when we’re not in the park, we’re canoeing on the Shenandoah River.

“In a state that’s just filled with beautiful places — state parks, national parks ... Shenandoah National Park does stand at the very pinnacle.”

Northup said the park is one of the park system’s “crown jewels.”

“I like to think that this hiker [on the quarter], who gazes out over the Blue Ridge Mountains and the wilderness, is thinking about the past, the present and the future of Shenanodah National Park,” he said.

Employees of the Park Service made a replica waterfall for Friday’s event, with ferns on either side.

Kaine, Northup, Ward and Peterson emptied bags of quarters over the top of it, creating a shimmering silvery waterfall.

The 200,000-acre park is also home to 105 miles of Skyline Drive, a national scenic byway and national historic landmark, more than 500 miles of hiking trails and 101 miles of the Appalachian Trail, Northup noted. He said it has 1.2 million annual visitors.

“We’ve been documenting American history with the images we put on [these] coins,” Peterson said.

He addressed the students — each was given a quarter at the end of the event.

“You’re the first people in Virginia, the first people in the country and, really, the first people in the world who will be receiving this coin, so I urge you, don’t spend it,” Peterson said.

Instead, they should show it to their family, and then save it to show their grandchildren, he suggested.

In an interview after the launch, Kaine described the quarter’s design as “perfect.”

“Because Little Stony Man is a really classic Shenandoah National Park Blue Ridge overlook,” he said. “It has the Skyline Drive in it. It’s got a hiker in it. It’s got the beautiful mountains in it, but it also does a really good job of representing what the park is. I really like they put a hiker in it. That’s one of the things that’s most special about this park.”

Susanna Daniels, 11, and her father Jeff attended the launch.

The home-schooled Front Royal resident liked the looks of the quarter. “I think it’s really cool. I thought it was pretty cool to get our picture taken with [Kaine].”

Her father added: “We’re big supporters of the park, so it was good to hear all the history the speakers have with the park. [The quarter] is beautiful, very well-designed.”

Quarters featuring the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee were released in January.

Other parks celebrated with quarters this year are Arches National Park in Utah, Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve in Colorado and Everglades National Park in Florida, according to a news release from the mint.

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