National Park Week | USPS Stamp of Approval

We were delighted last month by the news that President Obama had designated five new national monuments. Located in Delaware, Maryland, Ohio, New Mexico, and Washington, the monuments include historic sites that help tell the story of our shared cultural heritage, as well as natural spaces, now protected for future generations.

The new monuments are:

First State National Monument (Delaware)
Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Monument (Maryland)
Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument (Ohio)
Rio Grande del Norte National Monument (New Mexico)
San Juan Islands National Monument (Washington)

“These sites honor the pioneering heroes, spectacular landscapes and rich history that have shaped our extraordinary country,” said President Obama on March 25. “By designating these national monuments today, we will ensure they will continue to inspire and be enjoyed by generations of Americans to come.”

To celebrate the newest additions, we’ve created a (digital) topical collection of related stamps:

Can you match each stamp to the correct national monument? Which stamps would you add to the collection?

Encompassing approximately 800 square miles of mountainous terrain in both North Carolina and Tennessee, Great Smoky Mountains National Park is renowned for its diversity of plant and animal life. Scientists believe that the 12,000 identified species of wildlife account for only one-tenth of the organisms that flourish there. Also found in the park are structures that represent the Southern Appalachian Mountain culture of the settlers who once lived in the area.

The mists that enshroud the Great Smoky Mountains are the result of evaporation and incredible downpours that qualify the park’s highest peaks as rain forests. Those who follow the park’s hundreds of miles of hiking trails find that in the Great Smoky Mountains, nearly every stream or river leads to a waterfall. Established by Congress in 1934 and dedicated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940, the park receives some 10 million visitors annually.

To celebrate National Park Week, we’re holding a daily contest here on the blog centered around our love of national parks. Each day’s single winner will receive a set of the , which showcase photographs from parks across the country.

To enter the contest for today, simply answer the following question:

How many acres does the largest national park measure?

Submit your answer to uspsstamps [at] gmail [dot] com and remember, spelling counts! The winner will be selected at random and notified by email. Deadline for entries is 12 p.m. EST on Sunday, April 29. Good luck!

Ninth in the Scenic American Landscapes series, this stamp features a photograph of the Gates of the Valley in Yosemite National Park in California. Established on October 1, 1890, the park encompasses 747,956 acres in the Sierra Nevada. With the impressive Yosemite Valley as its centerpiece, the park includes a breathtaking range of geographical features, such as waterfalls, lakes, glaciers, expansive meadows, groves of giant sequoias, and granite monoliths such as El Capitan and Half Dome.

Each year nearly four million people enjoy the spectacular sights of Yosemite. Approximately 800 miles of marked trails can be found in the park. Nearly 95 percent of Yosemite has been designated wilderness.

To enter the contest for today, simply answer the following question:

How many acres does the smallest national park measure?

Originally established in 1909 as Mukuntuwean National Monument, Zion National Park in Utah was expanded and designated a national park in 1919.

Now encompassing more than 229 square miles, Zion National Park is characterized by high plateaus and mesas with deep sandstone canyons carved into towering cliffs. Bare expanses of sandstone reveal artifacts and layers of rock that showcase the park’s geological history. Diverse environments within the park include deserts, canyons, slickrock, hanging gardens, and plateaus.

Zion Canyon, one of the park’s largest and most visited sites rises more than 2,000 feet above the canyon floor. One hundred sixty miles of rivers, streams, and waterfalls support a remarkable diversity of plant and animal life, including more than 270 species of birds. One hundred twenty miles of hiking trails are available to the approximately 2.5 million people who visit the park annually.

To enter the contest for today, simply answer the following question:

What was Mission 66?

In 2010, the Postal Service, in conjunction with the National Park Service, released , a 166-page book that combines history and nature in a brand new way. With breathtaking images of sites throughout the national park system coupled with corresponding stamps, the book enlivens the senses and illuminates an indispensable service in our country.

Though seemingly unrelated, parks and stamps tell intertwined stories and frequently share a common goal: to preserve what Walt Whitman called “the grandest things” for future generations. From the inception of the National Park Service to the now more than 84 million acres of federally protected land,The Grandest Things takes you through time with fascinating images, stamps, and stories.

Perhaps the most striking element of the book is its visual tour across America—with more than 75 national parks, monuments, and memorials, and amazing photographs of just some of the sites that make these places so incredible. From the volcanoes of Hawai’i to the deciduous forests of New England, The Grandest Things covers the nation, coast to coast.

In addition to the rich, image-based history detailed in the book, The Grandest Things also includes nine mint-condition stamps and a special collecting section for mounting, as well as background information on each of the stamps. Eight of the stamps come from the Scenic American Landscapes series, which began in 2001. The ninth stamp is the Old Faithful, Yellowstone stamp, issued in 1972 to commemorate the nation’s first national park.

To enter the contest for today, simply answer the following question:

The name for this magnificent book comes from the following Walt Whitman quote:

We see that while many were supposing things established and completed, really the grandest things always remain; and discover that the work of the New World is not ended, but only fairly begun.

In what Whitman piece does this quote appear?

USPS Stamp of Approval

Category Archives: National Park Week

Topical Stamp Collectors Celebrate: 5 New National Monuments Designated

America’s Landlocked Rain Forest: The Great Smoky Mountains

The Majesty and Splendor of the U.S.’s Oldest National Park

The Mystery and Wonder of Zion National Park’s Sandstone Formations

The Grandest Things in Our National Parks