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National Parks Year Issue

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5-cent National Parks Yellowstone single

To encourage domestic tourism and to promote America's national parks, a series of ten stamps was issued on various dates from July 16 to October 8, 1934. In denominations of 1- to 10-cents, the stamps depict scenes from the national parks in various colors.

  • 1-cent green, El Capitan, Yosemite National Park, California
  • 2-cent red, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona
  • 3-cent violet, Mirror Lake, Mount Rainier National Park, Washington
  • 4-cent brown, Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado
  • 5-cent blue, Old Faithful Geyser, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
  • 6-cent dark blue, Crater Lake National Park, Oregon
  • 7-cent black, Great Head, Acadia National Park, Maine
  • 8-cent sage green, Great White Throne, Zion National Park, Utah
  • 9-cent orange, Mount Rockwell and Two Medicine Lake, Glacier National Park, Montana
  • 10-cent gray black, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, North Carolina

Two imperforate souvenir sheets were issued with designs from the National Parks Series. A souvenir sheet of six 3-cent stamps was issued on August 28, 1934, for the American Philatelic Society Exhibition. A souvenir sheet of six 1-cent stamps was issued on October 10, 1934, for the Trans-Mississippi Philatelic Exposition.

The National Parks Series was reissued on March 15, 1935, in imperforate, ungummed sheets of two hundred, and in imperforate, ungummed sheets of twenty panes of six stamps each. Referred to as 'Farley's Follies', Postmaster General James Farley's 'special printings' suffered a storm of criticism. It boiled over with this excessive issue. Farley was pilloried in both the philatelic and the popular press. He finally abandoned the practice. The National Parks series was the last of the special printings.

Gordon T. Trotter

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1-cent National Parks Yosemite single

The 1-cent green National Parks stamp issued July 16, 1934 pictures the rock formation "El Capitan" in Yosemite National Park. The park, famous for its waterfalls plunging thousands of feet into Yosemite Valley, was established in California in 1890.

Gordon T. Trotter

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2-cent National Parks Grand Canyon single

The 2-cent red National Parks stamp issued July 24, 1934, shows a view of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River. Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona was established in 1919. Various Native American groups have inhabited the canyon over the centuries. The first white men to see the Grand Canyon were from the Coronado expedition in 1540.

Gordon T. Trotter

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3-cent National Parks Mt. Rainier single

The 3-cent violet National Parks stamp issued August 3, 1934, pictures Mount Rainier with Mirror Lake in the foreground. Mount Rainier National Park was established in Washington State in 1899. Mount Rainier is an active volcano that poses significant potential danger to the heavily settled areas around it.

Gordon T. Trotter

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4-cent National Parks Mesa Verde single

The 4-cent brown National Parks stamp issued September 25, 1934, depicts the 'Cliff Palace' in Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado. The park was established in 1906 to preserve and protect the cliff dwellings and other archaeological remnants of the ancient Puebloan Indians, also called 'Anasazi'.

Gordon T. Trotter

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5-cent National Parks Yellowstone single

The 5-cent blue National Parks stamp issued July 30, 1934, features an image of Old Faithful geyser in Yellowstone National Park. Yellowstone is noted for its wide variety of thermal activity—geysers, hot springs, and bubbling mud pools, and for the spectacular Upper and Lower Falls in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River. The nation's first national park, Yellowstone was established in Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana in 1872.

Gordon T. Trotter

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6-cent National Parks Crater Lake single

The 6-cent dark blue National Parks stamp issued September 5, 1934, pictures Crater Lake, a six mile wide body of water occupying the caldera of an ancient volcano. The color of the stamp suggests the deep blue waters of the lake, whose maximum depth is 1,932 feet. Crater Lake National Park was established in Oregon in 1902.

Gordon T. Trotter

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7-cent Acadia National Park single

The 7-cent black National Parks stamp issued October 2, 1934, honors Acadia National Park, established in Maine in 1919 as Lafayette National Park and renamed Acadia in 1929. The park occupies Mount Desert Island, which features varied terrains—a rocky coastline, mountains, and forests. All terrains support a wide variety of wildlife. The stamp pictures the shoreline rock formation known as 'Great Head'.

Gordon T. Trotter

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8-cent National Parks Zion single

The 8-cent National Parks stamp issued September 18, 1934, fetures an image of the Great White Throne rock formation in Utah's Zion National Park. The park, established in 1919, is noted for its numerous varied and peculiar rock formations.

Gordon T. Trotter

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9-cent National Parks Glacier single

The 9-cent red orange National Parks stamp issued August 27, 1934, features an image of Mount Rockwell with Two Medicine Lake in the foreground. The two are in Glacier National Park. Glacier National Park preserves more than a million acres of forests, alpine meadows, lakes, rugged peaks and glacial-carved valleys. The park, established in Montana in 1910, was associated in 1932 with Canada's adjacent Waterton Lakes National Park to form the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park.

Gordon T. Trotter

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10-cent National Parks Great Smoky Mountains single

The 10-cent gray black National Parks stamp issued October 8, 1934, shows a view of Mount Le Conte in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The park, consisting of Appalachian Mountain ridges straddling the border between North Carolina and Tennessee, was established in 1934. It is noted for its wealth of flora and fauna and its rich cultural history involving Cherokee Indians, white settlers, and the Civil War.

Gordon T. Trotter

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