JUNE 20TH, 2012 — JEREMY SHELLHORN
I was supposed to be fishing that was why I was here, but it was windy or slow or both…or maybe just maybe I had finally caught and released enough fish for the day. I had hiked and fished pretty hard like most who live in the flatlands and find themselves in the mountains for a few days and are trying to make up for lost time away from alpine streams and beautiful trout.
Anyway I wasn’t fishing for some reason and was wandering
around following a deer trail turned into fisherman’s trail then back to another trail as sometime fisherman do. I had trekked pretty far that day and wasn’t exactly lost, but I needed a little reassurance that I was heading the right direction when I came across one of those ubiquitous signs you see in a national park. You know the ones that have the text carved or “routed” into it.
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Entering Rocky Mountain National Park.
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I saw those familiar words. Set “National Park Service, United States Department of the Interior” — style. I wondered if it actually was a typeface or “font” that anyone could download and use?
Do park rangers have this as a typeface on their computers to set in their word docs, pdfs and power point slides?
I had a sketchbook with me and took some rubbings of the letterforms and asked my friend Miles Barger, the Visual Information Specialist for Rocky, if he had the typeface.
![]()
He asked the sign shop. No one has it?
Turns out it isn’t a typeface at all but a system of paths, points and curves that a router follows. The router’s "bit" follows the path and gives the letters its stroke weight or thickness only when engraving a sign. It doesn't really exist as a typeface unless a sign is made.
![]()
![]()
So my design colleague, Andrea Herstowski, students Chloe Hubler and Jenny O'Grady, NPS Ranger Miles Barger and myself decided to make this router typeface a thing.
Our National Parks belong to the people, so this typeface should too.
I was supposed to be fishing that was why I was here, but it was windy or slow or both…or maybe just maybe I had finally caught and released enough fish for the day. I had hiked and fished pretty hard like most who live in the flatlands and find themselves in the mountains for a few days and are trying to make up for lost time away from alpine streams and beautiful trout.
Anyway I wasn’t fishing for some reason and was wandering
around following a deer trail turned into fisherman’s trail then back to another trail as sometime fisherman do. I had trekked pretty far that day and wasn’t exactly lost, but I needed a little reassurance that I was heading the right direction when I came across one of those ubiquitous signs you see in a national park. You know the ones that have the text carved or “routed” into it.
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c02e725721ffd5ef19ea39d44ddfe0b3d14ce8fb4b332586a80ca50fd6b691bd/L1040171.jpg)
Entering Rocky Mountain National Park.
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a1b94a025b182ba5436d92af5a9fa1eaa4865d00932c4bcddaca25a15d69f8b1/IMG_4826.jpg)
I saw those familiar words. Set “National Park Service, United States Department of the Interior” — style. I wondered if it actually was a typeface or “font” that anyone could download and use?
Do park rangers have this as a typeface on their computers to set in their word docs, pdfs and power point slides?
I had a sketchbook with me and took some rubbings of the letterforms and asked my friend Miles Barger, the Visual Information Specialist for Rocky, if he had the typeface.
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1bd7cb93addc7056249b9ddbbdc9f5747ccd1ba08eaae7c3d3810df3e58d8ebb/NPS_TYPE4_RUBBINGS.jpg)
He asked the sign shop. No one has it?
Turns out it isn’t a typeface at all but a system of paths, points and curves that a router follows. The router’s "bit" follows the path and gives the letters its stroke weight or thickness only when engraving a sign. It doesn't really exist as a typeface unless a sign is made.
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d8dda8ec0453e8c6ca4b32789893c2b93b95b242e669d7bc8678f71b35252320/3.png)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e332369f6ad9e0cd4500dab966683541d46fccbdb9a676b89ce317d8c07a1a1b/Screen-Shot-2022-07-10-at-1.33.04-PM.jpg)
So my design colleague, Andrea Herstowski, students Chloe Hubler and Jenny O'Grady, NPS Ranger Miles Barger and myself decided to make this router typeface a thing.
Our National Parks belong to the people, so this typeface should too.
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/dd8497d26e11dc5d1776201e665c2428d44bea4f1efe032ee4b76ae00c76643d/Screen-Shot-2020-01-31-at-12.22.15-PM.jpg)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2c018665efe3c2984331b05dc5403d1dc815ecc185ab7f2ed7426b83e81a5cbb/Screen-Shot-2020-01-31-at-12.23.33-PM.jpg)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3fc7c9e7b100b6a15b50e2aecd7267c4099ffd6c1898c9562019a7452ea68e28/Screen-Shot-2020-01-31-at-12.26.06-PM.jpg)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/42369d93167fc498c94b20ec98dc7e39bd00dcf6d8b88de8ec588c4835ee6549/Screen-Shot-2020-01-31-at-12.25.33-PM.jpg)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3ee153d9e868ddd3bce24e5e489baf7f01bab7df51c613ff07d237203a974247/Screen-Shot-2020-01-31-at-12.25.17-PM.jpg)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/87b450fa0b712af7d2e51994201ce939eac42cd83d4a7eb59a1a9765df066393/Screen-Shot-2020-01-31-at-12.23.14-PM.jpg)