National Parks set wraps up with Yellowstone National Park

By Michael Baadke

Two bison in the early morning sun at Yellowstone National Park are shown on the 16th and final stamp design revealed in the United States Postal Service’s upcoming National Parks set.

The Postal Service has been revealing a different single image from the set each day over the past three weeks. The full pane of 16, which will be issued June 2 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service, will be revealed later this week.

Yellowstone National Park was established in 1872 by legislation signed by President Ulysses S. Grant. The park covers almost 3,500 square miles, primarily in Wyoming, but extending into Idaho and Montana as well.

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The park includes an active volcano, a lake with surface area of 131.7 square miles, 67 species of mammals, 285 species of birds, 466 miles of roads, and 1,000 miles of back country trails.

More than 3 million visitors enjoy the park each year.

One of the most famous sights in the park is the Old Faithful geyser, which erupts about 17 times a day. The geyser was pictured on the previous stamps celebrating Yellowstone National Park: the 5¢ blue of 1934 (Scott 744 and 760), and the 8¢ National Parks Centennial stamp of 1972 (1453).

The 1972 stamp set commemorates the founding of Yellowstone 100 years earlier.

The image on the new stamp was captured by photographer Art Wolfe of Seattle, Wash., who described it as “perfectly backlit bison standing on a small rise in Yellowstone’s Lamar Valley.”

The stamp set will be issued June 2 during World Stamp Show-NY 2016 at the Javits Center in New York City.

The other 15 designs revealed by the Postal Service honor Acadia National Park, Arches National Park, Assateague Island National Seashore, Bandelier National Monument, Carlsbad Caverns National Park, Everglades National Park, Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, Grand Canyon National Park, Gulf Islands National Seashore, Haleakala National Park, Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens, Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park, Mount Rainier National Park, San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, and Theodore Roosevelt National Park.