Citizens of California! We interrupt your news feed’s stream of bonkers headlines to alert you to actual good news of a major freebie that has just been announced.
In honor of Juneteenth and the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence signing, the state of California is gifting residents with complimentary access to 33 units of the most important historic sites in California’s marvelous state park system.
That gives 39 million or so Californians (more than 11% of the U.S. population) free access to crucial landmarks of their shared pasts.
A state park in California isn’t like a state park in many other places. California is dense with natural and historic riches so special that, as Zac Thompson wrote at Frommer’s in 2024, “if these sites were located anywhere else, they’d probably be national parks.”
The full list of state parks that are participating in the free pass promotion can be found on the official info page for what the state calls the “Historian Passport.”
The Historian pass usually costs $50 and grants unlimited entry for up to four people at state historic parks and museums that normally charge a per-person entry fee or a vehicle fee. Once you download this special free edition, the passport remains valid until the end of 2026—even on holidays.
The only catch is you have to claim your free passport digitally by July 6, 2026.
To obtain your pass, head to reservecalifornia.com/passes/advancepasses and create an account (that’s also free).
Once you have signed in, on the Buy Passes page, go to the drop-down menu beneath your name and choose Special Edition Historian Passport 2026, which costs $0.00. Click “Add This Pass,” and on the following page, add it to checkout and then complete checkout. You’ll get a downloadable pass soon afterward.
“I hope the free Historian Passport introduces more Californians to the state’s historic gems and sparks a curiosity and thirst for knowledge that leads to many return visits,” California Department of Parks and Recreation director Armando Quintero wrote in a statement.
“By widening access to California’s historic state parks to more families, we help ensure that public lands are places where everyone can learn and benefit,” wrote Sen. Akilah Weber Pierson, chair of the California Legislative Black Caucus, in a statement announcing the initiative.
