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Cash Payments Won't Be Accepted For Tours At Wind Cave National Park

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Published Date

June 7, 2022
Tickets for Wind Cave tours can now be reserved online up to three months before your visit/NPS file

Cash payments for cave tour tickets will no longer be accepted at Wind Cave National Park as of June 15/NPS file

If you want to camp at Wind Cave National Park or go underground on a cave tour, you'll have to pay with a credit card as the park won't accept cash payments as of June 15.

Cave tours, camping and pass sales are important sources of revenue used to improve the visitor experience at Wind Cave National Park, including road and facility repairs and maintenance, trail and campground improvements, installation of accessible exhibits, visitor and resource protection services, and more.

Moving to a cashless system allows the park to be better stewards of visitor dollars by reducing the cost of collecting and managing fees, increasing the amount of fee revenue available to support critical projects and visitor services, and improving accountability and reducing risk, a park release said.

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Comments

Submitted by Karen P. on June 9, 2022 - 8:45am.

As I look at my Federal Reserve Notes, they specifically state "this note is legal tender for ALL debts, public and private."


Submitted by Rick B. on June 9, 2022 - 5:00pm.

Take your legal tender to a soda pop machine and you have no guarantee that being right will get your thirst quenched. 


Submitted by y_p_w on June 14, 2022 - 10:57am.

Karen P.:
As I look at my Federal Reserve Notes, they specifically state "this note is legal tender for ALL debts, public and private."

That's a common misunderstanding of the meaning of legal tender.  It legally only refers to payment of a debt.

https://www.federalreserve.gov/faqs/currency_12772.htm
Is it legal for a business in the United States to refuse cash as a form of payment?
There is no federal statute mandating that a private business, a person, or an organization must accept currency or coins as payment for goods or services. Private businesses are free to develop their own policies on whether to accept cash unless there is a state law that says otherwise.
Section 31 U.S.C. 5103, entitled "Legal tender," states: "United States coins and currency [including Federal Reserve notes and circulating notes of Federal Reserve Banks and national banks] are legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes, and dues." This statute means that all U.S. money as identified above is a valid and legal offer of payment for debts when tendered to a creditor.


Submitted by Treehugger on June 15, 2022 - 8:59pm.

How does this decision affect those who do not qualify for credit cards? And please remember all of us "own" the parks and should be able to access parks and pay user fees with cash checks or credit cards. 


Submitted by Anonymous on June 16, 2022 - 9:31am.

How does this decision affect those who do not qualify for credit cards? And please remember all of us "own" the parks and should be able to access parks and pay user fees with cash checks or credit cards. 

 

It means you are too poor to visit your parks... Its the same trend with recreation.gov which requires a secure internet access to use.

This is just the start of the war on the poor that has been waged for years.  Sadly, its only recently people are aware


Submitted by Sincere Commenter on June 16, 2022 - 2:04pm.

While I understand the concerns of pricing out people from parks, something makes me think that it's unlikely you'll be visiting a park if you can't qualify for a credit card. I would think you'd have bigger fish to fry at that point.

I share the concerns of those who fear that accessing our public lands will become even more unaffordable to the common person. This is an important reason to write your representatives and push for more appropriated funding from Congress to the NPS so that parks don't need to increase or start charging fees to offset administrative and other park operational costs. If parks are backed into a corner where they feel that charging or increasing fees is the way to go, then that means that they're not getting enough flexible funding from Congress to address their needs.


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