The Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness Quarter will mark the final of five 2019 strikes of the US Mint’s America the Beautiful Quarters® Program and honors the site in Idaho. This coin also marks the fiftieth of fifty-six strikes due in the program.

The America the Beautiful Quarters Program launched in 2010 with five new quarter dollars. An additional five new quarters were released annually since then with the program scheduled to be completed in 2021.

On the reverse of each of the new quarters (including the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness Quarter) is a design emblematic of a selected site of national interest from around the United States and its territories. Only one site was selected from each state, plus one from Washington D.C. and one from each of the five US territories, for a total of fifty-six.

Preceding the release of the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness Quarter are four other strikes in 2019 – the Lowell National Historical Park Quarter, the American Memorial Park Quarter, the War in the Pacific National Historical Park Quarter and the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park Quarter.

Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness information

The Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness is located in the state of Idaho and takes its name from two different sources. The first is taken from former US Senator Frank Church who served from Idaho from 1957 to 1981 and was instrumental in the creation of the wilderness area.

The second is taken from the nickname given to the Salmon River which runs through the area – River of No Return, owing to its swift current which makes downstream travel fast and upstream travel almost impossible.

The wilderness area was created in 1980 and encompasses a very large 2.3 million acres.