b'MEMBER NEWSMEMBER NEWS New U.S. Postal Service Forever StampsHonor the Mississippi River T he U.S. Postal Service (USPS) celebrated the beauty and wonder of the Missis-sippiRiverAmericasquintessential waterwayduring a first-day-of-issue stamp cer-emony at the Beale Street Landing in Memphis.Today,wecontinuethePostalServicestra-ditionofcelebratingournationswonderful heritage with the dedication of ten truly special forever stamps honoring the mighty Mississip-pi,saidGaryBarksdale,thePostalServices chief postal inspector, who served as the dedi-cating official. Joining Barksdale to dedicate the stamps were masterofceremoniesAlexBernhardt,cruise directorofAmericanQueenVoyages;Jim Strickland, mayor of Memphis; Tyree Daniels, boardchairofMemphisRiverParks;John Waggoner, founder and chairman of American QueenVoyages;FrankRivera,riverhistorianAmerican Queen Voyages displayed on one of the new of American Queen Voyages; and Quintin R.forever stamps honoring the Mississippi RiverSmith,pastoroftheHistoricalFirstBaptist Church of Millington. A video of the ceremony can be viewed here.transporting them from Minnesota to Louisi- ofthosemightypaddle-wheelers,andweare anathroughouthistory,saidWaggonerofhonored to have her grace the collection.Travelers have been captivated by the Missis- PVA member American Queen Voyages. Our sippiRiverromanticizingthesteamboatsflagship American Queen is an iconic symbolThe portfolio of ten photographic stamps each represent a state along the course of the river. With five rows of two stamps each, the panes arrangement corresponds to the states north-south and west-east sequence. The Iowa stamp shows David Sebbens photo of the steamboat American Queen near the city of Bettendorf. Art Director Ethel Kessler designed the pane attention to detail using existing photographs.The Mississippi is a main part of the nations heritage, and is often referred to as Americas backbone.FromLakeItascasoverspillin Minnesota,theMississippiflowsandgrows for over 2,300 miles through varied topogra-phy of ten states. The Ohio River, flowing in PHOTOS COURTESY OF U.S. POSTAL SERVICEalongKentuckysnorthernborder,doubles the Mississippis volume. At the point where the Mississippi reaches the Gulf of Mexico, the trickle that started in Lake Itasca has intermin-gled with waters from 31 states.The Mississippi stamps can be purchased online at the USPS store and at post office locations nationwide. News of the stamps is being shared with the hashtag #MightyMississippiStamps.www.beurteaux.comFOGHORN 28'