Ozark America the Beautiful Quarter

Five new quarters will be issued in 2017 as part of the United States Mint America the Beautiful Quarters™ Program, the third of these will be the 2017 Ozark America the Beautiful Quarter. The Ozark strike also has the distinction of being the thirty-eighth coin out of 56 to be created under the program.

The public will probably not know the final design for these Ozark strikes until early in 2017. Design candidates, however, should be made available in 2016 for review.

Coins honoring Effigy Mounds National Monument of Iowa and the Frederic Douglas National Historic Site in the District of Columbia will precede the Ozark strike in 2017. The coin will be followed by quarters struck for Ellis Island National Monument (Statue of Liberty) of New Jersey and George Rogers Clark National Historical Park of Indiana.

Ozark National Scenic Riverways of Missouri

Located in Southern Missouri, Ozark National Scenic Riverways is the first national park area set aside to protect a wild river system.

The Riverways claim two of the clearest spring-fed rivers in the world, the Current and the Jacks Fork. Due to the dissolved limestone found in this water, it has an amazing blue tint which is amplified when the water is deeper or when the sky is blue. Also found in the area are many caves, some of which offer tours into their depths.

The park consists of 80,000 acres with canoeing, hunting, hiking and fishing being just some of the activities that are enjoyed there.

Many think the Ozark is a state park instead of a national one. Their confusion is not entirely unfounded. Three of the largest campgrounds in the park used to be run by the state, but they were donated to the federal government in 1964 when the Ozark National Scenic Riverways was created.