Cumberland Gap America the Beautiful Quarter

The 2016 Cumberland Gap America the Beautiful Quarter will be the second coin released that year as part of the United States Mint America the Beautiful Quarters™ Program. The series consists of 56 new strikes which started in 2010 and are released at a rate of five per year with the Cumberland coin marking the thirty-second issue.

Design information on the Cumberland quarter should be known sometime in the first part of 2016. However, the public should not have to wait that long to catch a glimpse of what the coin might look like. That is because design candidates for the series are usually released for review early in the previous year.

A quarter honoring Shawnee National Forest of Illinois will precede the Cumberland Gap strike in 2016. It will be followed by coins created for Harpers Ferry National Historical Park of West Virginia, Theodore Roosevelt National Park of North Dakota and Fort Moultrie (Fort Sumter National Monument) of South Carolina.

Cumberland Gap National Historical Park of Kentucky

Established in 1940, Cumberland Gap National Historical Park in Kentucky honors the gateway to the American West that was used for centuries by both the Native Americans and later the European settlers.

The Gap is located at the border between Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia and features a prominent break in the otherwise tough to traverse Appalachian Mountains. Through this break, hundreds of thousands of settlers journeyed westward into Kentucky and beyond during the early years of the United States.

During the time of the American Civil War, the gap was considered a tactical necessity to hold since it provided easy access through the mountains. As such Confederate troops under the command of Brigadier General Felix Zollicoffer built earthen fortifications in the area.

Today, an estimated one million visitors are attracted to the park by its history as well as the scenery and trails which the park has to offer. Pinnacle overlook offers perhaps the best panoramic overview of the gap along with the surrounding states of Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee.

The park itself consists of 20,508 acres of pristine scenery that is sure to excite all who visit.