Pictured Rocks America the Beautiful Quarter

The first 2018 strike of the United States Mint America the Beautiful Quarters™ Program will be the 2018 Pictured Rock America the Beautiful Quarter. This coin will also be the forty-first in a series of 56 to be included in the series which started in 2010 and runs through 2021.

Pictured Rock design information for the quarter will not be known until probably 2017 at the earliest. If the Mint follows its normal procedure, sometime during that year, the design candidates should be released for review. Then, in early 2018 the final design should be unveiled.

As the first strike in the series for the year, the Pictured Rock coin will be followed later in that year by coins showcasing the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore of Wisconsin, Voyageurs National Park of Minnesota, Cumberland Island National Seashore of Georgia and Block Island National Wildlife Refuge of Rhode Island.

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore of Michigan

Created in 1966, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in Michigan along Lake Superior has the distinction of being the first National Lakeshore ever created by Congress.

The Lakeshore consists of over 42 miles of shore covering 73,000 acres along the way. Paved roads enter the area on both ends, but anyone wishing to drive the entire length would have to do so on a county road.

Sites in the Lakeshore not only include the shore itself but a forest, lakes, waterfalls, sandstone cliffs and sand dunes. Colorful sandstone cliffs along the shore gave the area its name with their walls rising sometimes 200 feet above the lake level. The erosive effects of the water have created caves and other structures that are quick to foster the imagination in anyone.

Due to the Lakeshore’s proximity to Lake Superior, a few plants found in the region are more typically found in much colder climates. These include the Arctic crowberry and thimbleberry.