Some object to cashless payment system at some federal locations
At dozens of national parks and historical sites around the United States, getting away from it all to revel in the country’s wideopen spaces has taken on a whole new meaning.
Leave your dollars and coins behind, too.
The National Park Service is continuing to convert dozens of its sites across the country to cashless payments only, drawing complaints and, now, a lawsuit.
Starting in June last year, visitors to Rocky Mountain National Park were told they could not use cash to enter the park or use its campgrounds.
The negative reactions were swift, with visitors raising privacy concerns and expressing confusion about why the U.S. dollar would not be welcome in the U.S. parks system. Some noted that not everyone has credit or debit cards.
“The National Parks belong to the citizens,” wrote one person, among dozens who complained about the decision on the site’s Facebook page. “If we want to use legal tender then we should.”
“So now RMNP is becoming like Walmart self-checkout,” another wrote under the park’s announcement, which later stopped accepting comments and directed people to official channels.
The park service has been rolling out the policy for several years. In 2019, the service announced it would accept only credit cards, debit cards and special park passes at Pipe Spring National Monument in Arizona. Similar changes came to Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument in Montana then Death Valley National Park in California. And this month
Hovenweep National Monument in the Four Corners and Natural Bridges National Monument in Utah will go cashless.
The park service said it wanted to reduce risk and the time employees spend managing cash, as well as increase revenue and accountability.
Now the complaints are the subject of a lawsuit filed March 6 in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia, asserting that the service’s policies violate federal law defining cash as legal tender and the visitors’ “lawful right to pay in cash” at national sites, including those without bank accounts or cards or those who simply prefer to pay cash.
In addition to the park service, its director, Charles F. Sams III, and the Department of the Interior were named as defendants. They did not reply to questions Wednesday and Thursday.
The lawsuit is seeking a declaratory judgment.