In honor of Juneteenth and the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, a special edition of the California State Parks Historian Passport is free to download through July 6. This Historian Passport can be used for free admission at more than 30 historic state parks throughout California for the rest of the calendar year.<\/p>\n
The availability of the free pass, which typically costs $50, is made possible by California State Parks Foundation and the California State Railroad Museum Foundation.\u00a0Through July 6, Californians can download the pass for free and then use it for unlimited visits to participating state parks through Dec. 31. An account with ReserveCalifornia.com, California State Parks\u2019 official reservation service, is required to download the pass. It can be used for admission of up to four people per pass.<\/p>\n
\u201cCalifornia\u2019s state historic parks preserve some of our nation\u2019s most powerful and meaningful stories, and I\u2019m proud to live in a state that celebrates diversity to connect more people with those stories through this limited-time free pass,\u201d said California State Parks Director Armando Quintero. \u201cI hope the free Historian Passport introduces more Californians to the state\u2019s historic gems and sparks a curiosity and thirst for knowledge that leads to many return visits.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, California State Parks Foundation funded a free-admission day at more than 200 state parks in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. California State Parks Foundation also champions the California State Library Parks Pass, which provides free vehicle access to more than 200 state parks for library cardholders across the state.<\/p>\n
The parks that accept the special edition Historian Passport highlight California\u2019s diverse cultural, political, and social history, from Gold Rush-era communities to military landmarks, missions, and museums. Participating parks include:<\/p>\n
Antelope Valley Indian Museum State Historic Park: Located in northeastern Los Angeles County, Antelope Valley Indian Museum State Historic Park offers visitors the opportunity to learn about the Native peoples of the Great Basin. Antelope Valley was a major prehistoric trade corridor, so the exhibits emphasize several Indigenous communities in the area. The museum explores both the history and contemporary impacts of Native cultures in the region.<\/p>\n
Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park: Located in the Central Valley, Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park preserves the story of a remarkable community founded by Black pioneers more than a century ago. Today, visitors can walk historic streets, explore restored buildings, and learn about the people who built a California town founded, financed, and governed by Black Americans.<\/p>\n
Indian Grinding Rock State Historic Park: Located in the Sierra Nevada foothills east of Jackson, Indian Grinding Rock State Historic Park contains 1,185 granite bedrock mortars used to process acorns, seeds, and other items \u2014 the largest collection of mortars in North America. Within the park, the Chaw\u2019se Regional Indian Museum features a variety of exhibits and an outstanding collection of artifacts, including those from Northern, Central, and Southern Miwok, Maidu, Konkow, Monache, Nisenan, Tubatulabal, Washo, and Foothill Yokut.<\/p>\n
Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park: Located in Coloma, west of Sacramento, Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park offers a site to reflect on the history of the Gold Rush and its impacts on California. These are the ancestral homelands of the Nisenan and foothill Miwok peoples and the area \u201cCullumah\u201d means \u201cbeautiful valley\u201d in the Nisenan language. The discovery of gold would consequentially lead to the migration of over 300,000 settlers and miners to the area, devastating the local Native people, and putting California on a fast track to statehood.<\/p>\n
Railtown 1897 State Historic Park: Located in Jamestown, southeast of Sacramento, Railtown 1897 State Historic Park is home to the Historic Jamestown Shops and Roundhouse \u2014 an intact and still-functioning steam locomotive repair and maintenance facility, portions of which date to 1897.<\/p>\n
A list of participating parks is available at bit.ly\/HistorianParksPassport. To download the pass, visit <\/a>reservecalifornia.com\/passes\/advancepasses<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In honor of Juneteenth and the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, a special…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":386056,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[74,76,75,420,2422],"class_list":["post-386055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-things-to-do","tag-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/386056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}