You have to be fucking kidding......

Frustrated visitors sue National Park Service over cashless policies

By Sam Mauhay-Moore

Three people sued the National Park Service earlier this month for its policy not to accept cash payments at a growing number of locations. 

Esther van der Werf of Ojai, California, Toby Stover of High Falls, New York, and Elizabeth Dasburg of Darien, Georgia, filed their lawsuit on March 6 after being prevented from paying in cash at various national parks, monuments and historic sites around the country. Citing a U.S. code that states U.S. currency is legal tender for all public charges, the lawsuit alleges that the park service’s cashless policy is in violation of federal law. 

The park service instituted cashless policies at approximately 29 locations, according to the lawsuit. The plaintiffs said cash payments were refused at sites in Arizona, New York and Georgia.

Stover, for instance, said she was unable to take a tour at Roosevelt-Vanderbilt National Historic Site in New York after attempting to pay the $10 tour fee using cash. Van der Werf was allegedly denied entry at three different Park Service-run locations in Arizona — Tonto National Monument, Saguaro National Park and Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument — after she attempted to pay for her entrance fees in cash. Dasburg, after sending an email to Fort Pulaski National Historic Site in Georgia asking how to enter the park without a credit or debit card, was told via email to go to a grocery store or Walmart and purchase a gift card, which could be accepted instead of cash, the lawsuit says.

“NPS’s violation of federal law cannot be overlooked in favor of any purported benefit NPS Cashless could hope to achieve such as reducing logistics of handling cash collected,” the lawsuit states. 

The Park Service instituted cashless policies at a number of its locations in 2023, including California’s Death Valley National Park. In one news release regarding the cashless policy at Death Valley, the park service said that the $22,000 in cash collected by the park during the previous year took more than $40,000 to process. 

“Cash handling costs include an armored car contract to transport cash and park rangers’ time counting money and processing paperwork,” the Park Service wrote in the news release. “The transition to cashless payments will allow the NPS to redirect the $40,000 previously spent processing cash to directly benefit park visitors.”

The plaintiffs are not requesting that the park service stop accepting non-cash payment options, according to the lawsuit. 

“Rather, Plaintiffs ask the Court to restore entrance to NPS sites to those who cannot access non-cash payment methods (and those who choose not to) by declaring NPS Cashless to be unlawful,” the lawsuit states.