This quest involves visiting the bronze memorial plaques that honor Stephen Tyng Mather in our national parks.

Quest Objectives

What Qualifies (?)

This quest involves visiting the bronze memorial plaques of the style as originally sculpted by Bryant Baker that are publicly accessible within official units of the National Park System.

List of Objectives

There are 52 national park units that feature a publicly accessible Stephen Mather plaque. Three of the park units (Grand Canyon, Mt Rainier, and Yosemite) feature two plaques.

1. Acadia National Park
2. Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site
3. Assateague Island National Seashore
4. Bent's Old Fort National Historic Site
5. Big Bend National Park
6. Big Cypress National Preserve
7. Blue Ridge Parkway
8. Bryce Canyon National Park
9. Cabrillo National Monument
10. Canyonlands National Park
11. Carlsbad Caverns National Park
12. Casa Grande Ruins National Monument
13. Chamizal National Memorial
14. Colorado National Monument
15. Crater Lake National Park
16. Death Valley National Park
17. Denali National Park & Preserve
18. Everglades National Park
19. Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site
20. Glacier National Park
21. Golden Spike National Historical Park
22. Grand Canyon National Park (2 total)
23. Grand Teton National Park
24. Great Basin National Park
25. Guadalupe Mountains National Park
26. Haleakalā National Park
27. Harpers Ferry National Historical Park
28. Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park
29. Hot Springs National Park
30. Independence National Historical Park
31. Indiana Dunes National Park
32. Isle Royale National Park
33. Joshua Tree National Park
34. Lassen Volcanic National Park
35. Lewis and Clark National Historical Park
36. Mammoth Cave National Park
37. Mesa Verde National Park
38. Mount Rainier National Park (2 total)
39. Petersburg National Battlefield
40. Petrified Forest National Park
41. Pipe Spring National Monument
42. Rocky Mountain National Park
43. Saguaro National Park
44. Sequoia National Park
45. Theodore Roosevelt National Park
46. Virgin Islands National Park
47. Walnut Canyon National Monument
48. Whiskeytown-Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area
49. Wind Cave National Park
50. Yellowstone National Park
51. Yosemite National Park (2 total)
52. Zion National Park

Bonus objectives

There are a number of bonus objectives, which are similarly styled plaques that reside outside of a National Park unit.

1. Bear Mountain State Park (NY)
2. Humboldt Redwoods SP, Mather Grove (CA)
3. NPS old Region III Bldg (Santa Fe, NM)
4. NPS Rocky Mountain Regional Office & Denver Service Center (Denver, CO)
5. Stephen Tyng Mather High School (Chicago, IL)
6. UC Berkeley Botanical Garden (Berkeley, CA)

Milestones or Smaller Quests

Many questers will include this quest as a companion to their larger “named” National Parks quest (#GoQuesting1002), so they may also want to focus on plaques in those parks only. For those questers, here’s a list limited to only named National Parks:

You could also further limit this quest to just the National Parks in the contiguous US.

Connect with fellow questers!

Be sure to add #GoQuesting2676 when you post about this quest on social media or a blog so other questers can find you.

Want to connect with others working on this same quest? Click these links to automatically search for this quest on each network (pro tip: save this search for next time!):

Quest Finishers

Fellow Questers

• Brian Bailey
• Kathy

Related Quests

Tips and Resources

• This photo-rich rundown provides an excellent history of the plaques, along with the locations of most of the plaques and details on the production of each plaque.
• If you are a member of the National Park Travelers Club, here is perhaps the most current list of Mather plaques, including the location of each within the national park unit, with location photographs and gps coordinates for many.

Help make this better

#GoQuesting relies on the Questing Community—that’s YOU!—to maintain and improve these quest pages.

• Updates to the list of objectives
• Add a resource or tip
• Add yourself as a quest finisher
• Add yourself as a quester
• Something else

Please submit any suggested updates using these forms. Thank you! 🙏