The U.S. Postal Service is including a stamp celebrating the 200th anniversary of Missouri becoming a state in next year's lineup of new stamps.
Missouri joined the Union on Aug. 10, 1821. The stamp commemorating the bicentennial next year is set to feature a photograph of Bollinger Mill State Historic Site by landscape photographer Charles Gurche, according to USPS.
Bollinger Mill is located in Burfordville in the southeastern part of Missouri, west of Cape Girardeau and Jackson.
Construction on the mill and dam on the Whitewater River began in 1800 following settlement in the area of a group of North Carolina families led by George Frederick Bollinger, according to Missouri State Parks.
Bollinger later served as a state senator in Missouri's first General Assembly.
The mill was originally built with logs but was rebuilt in stone in 1825. That foundation is still visible in the present day - the only thing that survived Union forces burning the mill down during the Civil War to keep flour and meal produced from the water-powered grinding of grain from falling into rebel hands.
The brick structure visitors see today was completed in 1867.
More information about the site and visiting is available at mostateparks.com/park/bollinger-mill-state-historic-site.
Gurche's art is mostly exhibited in hospitals and airports on the West Coast, but nature images from Missouri were the focus of his first large-format book, according to his website.
Other images of Missouri in his online portfolio include Ozark National Scenic Riverways, Mark Twain National Forest, Wilson's Creek National Battlefield, Elephant Rocks State Park, Sandy Creek Covered Bridge State Historic Site, the St. Louis Gateway Arch, the Mississippi River, autumn in Gasconade County and Table Rock Lake State Park.
The stamp was designed by art director Greg Breeding, who - according to the National Endowment for the Arts - leads the independent design firm Journey Group. Breeding is one of four art directors who regularly work with the USPS to design new stamps.
Other new stamps in USPS' 2021 lineup include Japanese Americans who fought in World War II, an influential American nuclear physicist, Western wear (cowboy regalia), Mid-Atlantic lighthouses, Day of the Dead, barns and espresso drinks.