SALT LAKE CITY — For the second time in its 100-year history, Zion National Park will appear on a U.S. postage stamp.

The stamp, which features a sandstone formation in the slickrock area of the Park, will be unveiled at 10 a.m., June 28, at an event in the Zion Canyon Visitor Center, located inside the Park’s south entrance. A special postmark (see design below) will be available at the event. The postmark is free and can be applied to virtually anything with First-Class postage attached. Local dignitaries, and representatives from the National Park Service and the Postal Service, will be in attendance. The event is open to the public. The Park’s entrance fee will still apply.

The new 79-cent Zion National Park stamp is good for mailing postcards and letters weighing up to 1 ounce to Mexico, and may also be used domestically. Text on the stamp reads “Zion National Park, Utah.” Forty million of the stamps have been printed, and are available in sheets of 20 stamps. The first time Zion was on a U.S. postage stamp was in 1934, and featured the Great White Throne.

“We are pleased to have a Zion National Park postage stamp as part of the park’s centennial celebration,” said Superintendent Jock Whitworth of Zion National Park. “We invite the public to help us celebrate this national honor.”

The Zion National Park stamp is one of two stamps in the Scenic American Landscapes Series being released at Post Offices nationwide on June 28. The other stamp features Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming (98-cent, up to 1-ounce price for postcards and letters mailed to countries other than Mexico and Canada). Customers wishing to mail up to 1-ounce items to Canada may use the 75-cent Great Smoky Mountains stamp that was issued in 2006.

Established in 1909 as Mukuntuweap National Monument, the park was expanded and designated a national park in 1919. Now encompassing more than 229 square miles, Zion National Park is characterized by high plateaus and mesas with deep sandstone canyons carved into towering cliffs. One hundred twenty miles of hiking trails are available to the approximately 2.7 million people who annually visit the park. The photograph on the stamp was taken by Richard Cummins of Temecula, Calif.

This stamp will expose millions both nationally and internally to the scenic beauty of Zion National Park and Utah,” said USPS Salt Lake District Manager Ken McArthur.

The special Zion National Park Postmark is also available by mail. Simply address an envelope(s), ensure proper first-class postage is affixed, put the envelope(s) inside a larger envelope and mail to: Zion Postmark, 624 Zion Park Blvd., Springdale, UT 84767-9998. All requests must be postmarked no later than July 28, 2009.

# # #

Please Note: For broadcast quality video and audio, photo stills and other media resources, visit the USPS Newsroom at www.usps.com/communications/newsroom/welcome.htm.

An independent federal agency, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation, 149 million residences, businesses and Post Office Boxes, six days a week. It has 34,000 retail locations and relies on the sale of postage, products and services, not tax dollars, to pay for operating expenses. Named the Most Trusted Government Agency five consecutive years by the Ponemon Institute, the Postal Service has annual revenue of $75 billion and delivers nearly half the world’s mail.