💰 🏞 AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL: Idaho’s Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness

Calling all homeschool historians, geographers, artists, and treasure hunters! Here’s something new to search your pockets for this month: the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness “America the Beautiful” quarter, just out from the U.S. Mint.

If you’re looking for a fun and easy way to include some interesting geographical and historical facts in your homeschool schedule (as well as a little motivational treasure hunting), you can’t do better than to keep an eye on the “America the Beautiful” quarters series. This commemorative series began in 2010 and each year five new designs are issued featuring national parks and other historic sites in the U.S. states and territories.

The latest quarter commemorates the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness in Idaho, and it has just gone into circulation:

“The Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness in Idaho is made up of rugged mountains, deep canyons, and wild whitewater rivers, including the Main Salmon River and Middle Fork of the Salmon River. “Frank Church” was attached to the site’s name in honor of late U.S. Senator Frank Church, who played a leading role in its preservation. The area is the largest single connected wilderness in the contiguous States and contains four national forests. This design depicts a piloted drift boat on the rushing river encompassed by the trees and rock formations of the wilderness.“ (U.S. Mint)

The Mint has a remarkably comprehensive set of free lesson plans available for the whole America the Beautiful series — you could make quite an American history course out of them. And the Mint also has a very nice simple album for this series (amzn.to/2D2A3dO) — just the thing to get some educational treasure hunting under way.

(And next up, if you want to look ahead: a quarter for the National Park of American Samoa, scheduled for next February.)

What numismatical discoveries have you made in your homeschool this Cygnus Term? 😊

❡ Come, here’s the map: The America the Beautiful quarters are a great tool for teaching about geography. Locate each park and each historic site in your homeschool atlas (riverhouses.org/books), and spread out your whole collection on atlas plate 35, the map of the entire United States. 🗺

❡ Make it a tradition: Why not pick up an old roll of circulated quarters at your local grocery store or bank each week and invite your students to go through it around the kitchen table. A whole world of historical and geographical discovery awaits them. 💰

❡ Cabinets of wonder: This is one of our occasional posts on the educational value of collections and collecting for homeschoolers. Add your name to our free weekly mailing list (riverhouses.org/newsletter) and get great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox all through the year. 🔎