Who's going ? Last year 14 million people visited North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Parkway. This summer the Parkway’s reach will greatly expand. It will be featured on a soon-to-be-released 2015 quarter. The picturesque and mountainous Blue Ridge Parkway is 469 miles long and connects the Shenandoah National Park in Virginia with the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina. Two hundred fifty-two miles of the parkway are in North Carolina. It’s the North Carolina portion of the Parkway that will be featured on a 2015 quarter as part of the U.S. Mint’s America the Beautiful Series. “Back in 2008 new legislation was passed to create the U.S. Mint’s America the Beautiful quarters’ program,” said U.S. Mint program specialist Megan Sullivan. “The quarters began issuing in 2010 and the last one will go out in 2021. There will be a total of 56 quarters, one for each state, one for each of the five territories and one for D.C.” In addition to North Carolina, the series’ 2015 coins include national sites in Nebraska, Louisiana, Delaware and New York. Each state submitted a preferred site and three alternatives. “The Blue Ridge Parkway was the preferred site for North Carolina. The three alternatives were Cape Hatteras, the Great Smoky Mountains and White Water Falls,” Sullivan said. The North Carolina quarter is the 28th coin in the series. It will be released on June 22 and shows the state’s flower, the dogwood, alongside a curved mountainous road that leads to a stone tunnel, a distinct feature of the North Carolina side of the parkway. There are 26 tunnels along the entire stretch, with 25 of them in North Carolina These charming and picturesque tunnels were created by Italian and Spanish immigrant stonemasons from the Roosevelt public art project and they deemed that the beautiful, charming tunnels were the thing that everybody knows the parkway by and represents it the best," said New York-based artist Frank Morris, who designed the new coin. Morris said it was a challenge to compress the parkway’s grand landscapes and tunnels onto such a small space. Fortunately, he was familiar with the subject. He had traveled the parkway many times. “Two months after I got back from that last trip, the mint called with this assignment and so I felt the beautiful sunsets, vistas and atmospheric light and blue smoky mountains were all stuck inside my head when it came to sit down and draw. It was good timing,” Morris said. New York artist Frank Morris designed the 2015 quarter that features North Carolina's Blue Ridge Parkway. Credit U.S. Mint And Blue Ridge Parkway officials think he captured the essence of the site on the coin. “We’re excited to be a part of the series and I think the design on the quarter looks like the Parkway in North Carolina with its rock tunnels and showy blooms,” said a Parkway spokeswoman, Leesa Brandon. “Hopefully, people will look at the coin and say, ‘I’ve never been there and maybe I should visit.’” But the ceremony to mark the coin’s release won’t be along the Blue Ridge Parkway. Instead, it’ll be at a park in Asheville. A spokeswoman says a venue that could accommodate 500 people is needed. That’s one thing the Blue Ridge Parkway doesn’t have. This month officials with the United States Mint and The Blue Ridge Parkway will officially debut the Blue Ridge Parkway quarter to the public at an event in Asheville. The quarter will become the 28th coin to be released in the United States Mint America the Beautiful Quarters Program. According to the US Mint website the coin “depicts the grace and curvature of the road hugging the side of a mountain, with the North Carolina state flower in the foreground. Inscriptions are “BLUE RIDGE PARKWAY,” “NORTH CAROLINA,” “2015” and “E PLURIBUS UNUM.” The designer for the coin is Frank Morris, with engraving by Joseph Menna. The quarter launch and coin exchange will take place Thursday June 25,2015 at 10am at Pack Square Park in Asheville. The coins will be offered online by the US Mint Over 120 miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway runs through the High Country, and a total of 252 miles runs through western North Carolina. http://s1287.photobucket.com/user/a...=2&page=1&_suid=14333011419400581987486020877
Bit of a drive from here, and the Raleigh show starts the next day. Wonder if they'll do anything special there to observe the launch?
Will there be marching bands? After all, in a 56-coin program, the release of the 28th will be HALFTIME. There need to be bands.
I drove the parkway on my way back home after I finished my tour of duty on the uss Theodore Roosevelt back in 2003. It was summer, and I really enjoyed it along with both Shenandoah and smoky mountain.
Thank you for your service. Anyone younger than me who served did so voluntarily. They, and you, deserve the name "hero".
Could not have said it better than that. At this point in my life I have one regret and that is that I didn't volunteer. I have such respect for all of those who have served (volunteer or not). You all are my heroes. @coloradobryan - Thank You!
