US National Parks "Passport "

http://www.eparks.com/store/product...ry-Edition*/


I'm not sure how long this has been around, but it wasn't available during my last trip to a US National park. I can't seem to find photos of any of the cancelations that go into this booklet. Does anyone have photos to share?

Brian

I don't actively collect them, but here's a link that has illustrations of many of them dating back to their inception in 1986:

http://azroadie.esmartweb.com/

The passport/stamp program began in 1986. I remember because that was the year I went to Mammoth Cave.

The first passports had bookbinding. A few years later, the more convenient spiral bound passports appeared. I have both. I don't know if the spiral bound passports are still available. You can buy them at the gift shops at the National Parks.

The earliest park stamps actually looked like stamps -- i.e., they had serpentine perforations. After the first 5+ years, much to my dismay, they came as cards with tabs. That's when I quit collecting them.

However, I still do the cancels. There is usually a cancelling device at the lobby entrance of the visitor center, or at the gift shop. Just ask them and they will tell you where. Most cancels are usually circular with park name (and/or visitor center) at top, date in center, and park location (city/state) at bottom. A few locations have the park name/location reversed at top/bottom. Some parks that have more than one visitor center will have slightly different cancels for each visitor center. Occasionally, you will run across a very simple circular cancel that only has the park name. Some locations, such as Ford Theater, will have a very nice pictorial cancel.

Sorry, I don't have any pics. My wife is the keeper of the digital camera.

Great link, wt1!!

I also have a passport book, which I picked up sometime after 2006. I should have gotten one sooner as I was in Washington DC in 2006 and visited many of the NP sites. It is quite fun and cost very little. Plus you know when you were at each specific site.

Stamperdude,

I haven't gotten any new passport books because I no longer actually collect the "stamps" after they quit making them look like stamps.

However, I am curious. The original passport books used to cover 5 years worth of stamp issues. The first one covers 1986-1990, and the stamp pages are dated by the year. The 2nd book I got in 1991 provides spaces for 5 stamps for each region, but is not dated (sort of a generic 5 year passport). Is the passport you got the same generic undated 5 stamp spaces/pages, or are the pages dated by year?

Mine is a blue, small comb-bound book. I do not think it is dated anywhere. It is broken up by regions and color coded. There is also a fold out map that lists the National Park Sites at that time. I rarely get the chance to use it, I think the last time was in 2009 while in St Augustine Florida.

I've seen them at other National sites as well, like National Historic Sites, etc. There's a very good flickr group with over 4000 images here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/parkstamps/. There's also a forum site much like this: http://www.parkstamps.org/