National Park Travelers Club
Encyclopedia
The National Park Travelers Club (or NPTC) is a non-profit 501(c)7 social club organization. Its mission is to provide networking and recognition opportunities for visitors to America's National Park System
National Park Service
The National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...

. This Club acts to support and expand appreciation of the U.S. National Park System.

Description

The NPTC was founded in 2004, at the second meeting of a small group of National Park enthusiasts. Since then, it has grown to nearly 800 dues paying members (dues are $10 for the first year, and $5 per year after that), and over 4000 members of the free online site www.parkstamps.org. Paying dues gives members access to the master list and master map of all known national park passport stamp locations, in addition to voting in club elections. The online site features trip reports and hints for visits to parks, information on legislation impacting parks, and a message board for park related topics. The membership meets yearly at the NPTC Annual Convention and also arranges smaller group meetings at events such as park dedications or important park anniversaries. Additionally, awards are given out to members meeting visitation criteria, such as visiting certain numbers of park units within a year, or over a lifetime. The NPTC publishes a quarterly newsletter called The Stamp Pad.

Conventions

The NPTC has hosted 9 annual conventions at various National Park units. These meetings serve as an opportunity for club members to socialize, share trip stories, hear keynote presentations from National Park Service rangers
Park ranger
A park ranger or forest ranger is a person entrusted with protecting and preserving parklands – national, state, provincial, or local parks. Different countries use different names for the position. Ranger is the favored term in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Within the United...

, and take group guided tours of the area. Attendance at the meeting is free and open to the public. A special official national park passport stamp is produced for each convention, and only available during the convention.
  • 2003: Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area
    Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area
    Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, administered by the National Park Service, preserves almost of land along the Delaware River's New Jersey and Pennsylvania shores, stretching from the Delaware Water Gap northward almost to the New York state line...

  • 2004: Rocky Mountain National Park
    Rocky Mountain National Park
    Rocky Mountain National Park is a national park located in the north-central region of the U.S. state of Colorado.It features majestic mountain views, a variety of wildlife, varied climates and environments—from wooded forests to mountain tundra—and easy access to back-country trails...

    , the NPTC was formally chartered at this convention
  • 2005: Mammoth Cave National Park
    Mammoth Cave National Park
    Mammoth Cave National Park is a U.S. National Park in central Kentucky, encompassing portions of Mammoth Cave, the longest cave system known in the world. The official name of the system is the Mammoth-Flint Ridge Cave System for the ridge under which the cave has formed. The park was established...

  • 2006: Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore
    Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore
    Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is a United States National Lakeshore located along the northwest coast of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan in Leelanau County and Benzie County....

  • 2007: Olympic National Park
    Olympic National Park
    Olympic National Park is located in the U.S. state of Washington, in the Olympic Peninsula. The park can be divided into four basic regions: the Pacific coastline, alpine areas, the west side temperate rainforest and the forests of the drier east side. U.S...

  • 2008: Lowell National Historical Park
    Lowell National Historical Park
    Lowell National Historical Park is a National Historical Park of the United States located in Lowell, Massachusetts. Established in 1978 a few years after Lowell Heritage State Park, it is operated by the National Park Service and comprises a group of different sites in and around the city of...

  • 2009: Sequoia National Park
    Sequoia National Park
    Sequoia National Park is a national park in the southern Sierra Nevada east of Visalia, California, in the United States. It was established on September 25, 1890. The park spans . Encompassing a vertical relief of nearly , the park contains among its natural resources the highest point in the...

  • 2010: El Malpais National Monument
    El Malpais National Monument
    El Malpais National Monument is a National Monument located in western New Mexico, in the Southwestern United States. The name El Malpais is from the Spanish term Malpaís, meaning badlands, due to the extremely barren and dramatic volcanic field that covers much of the park's area.-Geography:The El...

  • 2011: National Mall
    National Mall
    The National Mall is an open-area national park in downtown Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. The National Mall is a unit of the National Park Service , and is administered by the National Mall and Memorial Parks unit...


The 2012 convention will be held at Apostle Islands National Lakeshore
Apostle Islands National Lakeshore
The Apostle Islands National Lakeshore is a U.S. national lakeshore consisting of 21 islands and shoreline encompassing 69,372 acres on the northern tip of Wisconsin on the shore of Lake Superior....

.

Awards

The NPTC awards travelers for lifetime achievement, as well as for annual visitation of the parks.

Lifetime Achievement Awards

  • Bronze: visiting 100 park units
  • Silver: visiting 200 park units
  • Gold: visiting 300 park units
  • Platinum: visiting all current National Park units, currently earned by 19 members who had visited 394 places each as of June 2011 (the opening of Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial made it 395 on August 28 2011).

Annual Master Traveler Awards

  • Special Achievement: collecting 20 national park passport stamps from 10 park units in 2 geographic regions
  • Clean Sweep: visiting a park unit in each of the 9 geographic regions within a year
  • Bronze: collecting 50 stamps from 25 units in 4 geographic regions
  • Silver: collecting 75 stamps from 35 units in 5 geographic regions
  • Gold: collecting 100 stamps from 50 units in 6 geographic regions

Other Awards

  • Ten Most Wanted: for finding a park passport stamp that has been exceptionally difficult to locate
  • Surprise Park: for visiting a park selected each year by the President of the Club for having an anniversary of historical importance

Club Recognition

In addition to the articles referenced below, the club has been recognized by various organizations, including:

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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