Eastern National Announces 2012 Passport to Your National Parks® Photo Contest Winners

Fort Washington, PA, January 09, 2012 --(PR.com)-- Each year, Eastern National holds a photo contest for U.S. National Park Service employees and Volunteers-In-Parks (VIPs) to select 10 images taken at national parks—one national and nine regional, based on the geographical regions of the national park system—for the collectible Passport To Your National Parks® commemorative stamp set. The 2012 Passport To Your National Parks® Commemorative Stamp Set will feature a special stamp which honors the 100th anniversary of the Girl Scouts, and is printed and assembled in the United States.

The Passport To Your National Parks® program was launched in 1986 by Eastern National, as a means to promote visitation and create interest in the national park system. Park visitors can "cancel" their Passport books with a cancellation stamp, available for free at almost all 398 national parks across the United States.

The winners of the 2012 Passport To Your National Parks® Photo Contest are:

National Stamp: Shiloh National Military Park
Photo by Stacy D. Allen
Several Civil War battlefields and historic sites are preserved at Shiloh National Military Park, including Shiloh and Davis Bridge, Tennessee, Corinth, Mississippi, as well as the prehistoric Shiloh Indian Mounds National Historic Landmark. By April 1862, the Civil War was almost a year old when 109,784 Union and Confederate soldiers fought the war’s first epic battle in the West around a small log church called Shiloh Meetinghouse. In 2012, the park commemorates the 150th anniversary of one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War.

North Atlantic Region: Hamilton Grange National Memorial
NPS photo Authorized on April 27, 1962, Hamilton Grange National Memorial is the only unit of the National Park System dedicated to Alexander Hamilton, an American statesman and the first Secretary of the Treasury. The memorial was relocated in 2008, restored, and reopened to the public in September 2011.

Mid-Atlantic Region: Clara Barton National Historic Site
Photo by John E. Donoghue
The first national park site dedicated to the accomplishments of a woman, honors the “Angel of the Battlefield,” a moniker Barton earned due to her heroic Civil War relief work. Clara Barton was also founder and first President of the American Red Cross.

National Capital Region: John Ericcson Memorial
Photo by John E. Donoghue
Sculpted by James E. Fraser, and dedicated in 1926, the memorial in Washington, DC, honors the creative mind behind the revolutionary USS Monitor. March 9, 2012 marks the 150th anniversary of the Battle of the Ironclads that made the Monitor immortal.

Southeast Region: Natchez National Historical Park
Photo by Gavin Gardner
Natchez National Historical Park interprets the history of Natchez, Mississippi, especially the antebellum cotton culture. The kitchen and dairy buildings behind the main house of the 80-acre Melrose estate were a focal point of slave activity. Other park sites include the William Johnson House and Fort Rosalie.

Midwest Region: Pipestone National Monument
NPS photo
Celebrating its 75th anniversary in 2012, Pipestone National Monument has been an important cultural and spiritual site to many Native Americans. It is also home to the historic pipestone quarries, beautiful tallgrass prairies, and the majestic Winnewissa Falls.

Southwest Region: El Malpais National Monument
Photo by Jimmie McKenzie
El Malpais National Monument was established on December 31, 1987. The Garrett
Homestead, built between 1935 and 1937, is an example of one of the last homesteading episodes in the U.S., as victims of the Dust Bowl and Great Depression settled in this region. The area is also rich in Pueblo and Navajo Native American history.

Rocky Mountain Region: Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park
Photo by Paul L. Zaenger
The Black Canyon of the Gunnison's unique and spectacular landscape was formed slowly by the action of water and rock scouring down through hard Proterozoic crystalline rock. No other canyon in North America combines the narrow opening, sheer walls, and startling depths offered by the Black Canyon of the Gunnison.

Western Region: Fort Bowie National Historic Site
Photo by Karen Gonzales
Once homeland to the Chiricahua Apaches, the haunting ruins memorialize a bitter struggle over land and water during America’s westward expansion era. Fort Bowie National Historic Site protects the ruins of a strategic military outpost built in 1862.

Pacific Northwest and Alaska Region: Noatak National Preserve
Photo by Miriam Kwietniewska
Noatak National Preserve covers 6.7 million acres and protects 280 miles of the Noatak River plus the DeLong and Baird mountains. Much of the land is wilderness and supports healthy wildlife populations. Archeological sites document 11,000 years of subsistence use, a practice that continues today.

The 2012 Passport To Your National Parks® Commemorative Stamp Set is available for preorder at www.eParks.com.

Eastern National is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) cooperating association, whose mission is to promote the public’s understanding and appreciation of America’s national parks and other public trusts. Visit www.EasternNational.org for more information on Eastern National’s products and services.

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