Category Archives: Science & Nature

Traveling the Old Florida Heritage Highway

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LaFlorida-Forever-pane-BGv2It’s amazing to think that 500 years ago, Ponce de León stepped ashore on land that became the state of Florida. Things have certainly changed since then! Now when people think of Florida, they might picture laid-back Key West, the colonial architecture of St. Augustine, or the hustle and bustle of Miami and Tampa. Few imagine a forested and pastoral countryside. But that is exactly what can be found along Scenic U.S. 441, the Old Florida Heritage Highway.

The unique landscape of the area has inspired naturalists, writers, and painters for centuries, including William Bartram, America’s first naturalist, who visited the area in 1774. Travelers can still visit this well-preserved area to see more of Florida’s natural, scenic, recreational, historic, and cultural heritage.

Fans of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Yearling can visit Majorie Kinnan Rawlings State Park in Cross Creek, a few miles from Gainesville. Visitors will experience 1930s Florida farm life at Rawlings’s home, which has been restored and preserved as it was when she lived here.

Press sheet with die cuts

Perfect for framing, this colorful 14½ x 36¼ -inch press sheet with die-cuts contains 10 sheets of 16 La Florida (Forever®) stamps. Click the image for details.

One of the jewels of the area is Micanopy, the oldest inland town in the state. Micanopy is a former Seminole Indian town settled in 1821 as Wanton’s town. Today, the town is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Because of its authentic Old Florida ambiance, the movies Cross Creek and Doc Hollywood were both filmed there.

In 1971, Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park became the state’s first preserve and is now a National Nature Landmark. The preserve’s habitats are home to alligators, bison, horses, and more than 270 species of birds. The observation tower at the visitor center offers a panoramic view of the preserve. Visitors can also hike, ride horses, bicycle, and fish.

You can learn more about other treasures along the Old Florida Heritage Highway on the Micanopy website.

No matter where you go in historic Old Florida, don’t forget to use the beautiful La Florida stamps on your cards and letters to remind you of your trip. La Florida Forever® stamps are currently available online and in Post Offices around the country.

Think Pink! Vintage Seed Packets Giveaway

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It’s time to give away another vintage seed packet! Today’s prize is the pinks packet.

DSC03811The front of the seed packet depicts two shades of pinks, one pale, one dark. The back of the packet describes the flower in more detail:

A great variety of rich, brilliant colors, shades and markings; plants in bloom constantly from early summer till after severe frosts.

To win the pinks seed packet, all you have to do is answer one question: Pink is a common name for which genus?

Send your answer, along with your name and mailing address, to uspsstamps [at] gmail [dot] com. One winner will be selected at random from those who answer correctly. The deadline for entries is 11:59 p.m. EDT Saturday, June 1. Good luck! (Note: No seeds are included with this vintage packet.)

The Vintage Seed Packets stamps are Forever® stamps. (Forever stamps are always equal in value to the current First-Class Mail® one-ounce rate.) Find them in your neighborhood Post Office, call 800-STAMP24 (800-782-6724), or order them online today.

New Stamped Card May Show Key Deer

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The Deer stamped card’s Forever® rate means that its postage will always be equal to the value of the First-Class Mail postcard rate in effect at the time of use, even if the rate increases after purchase. Click the image for details.

The delicate creature prancing across the new Deer stamped card is a bit of a mystery. Because it’s more fanciful than realistic, it’s hard to pin down exactly what type of deer it could be—but if Sherlock Homes were here, he might deduce that it’s a Key deer. Put on your (forgive the pun) deerstalker cap, and follow the trail of clues as we make the case.

  • Cattails: The rare and endangered Key deer is found only in the Florida Keys, where cattails, like the ones that surround the deer in the artwork, thrive in the state’s many wetlands.
  • Small size: Sometimes called “toy deer,” Key deer stand only about two feet high at the shoulder. Newborn fawns are tiny, weighing just two to four pounds. If the cattails in the artwork are growing close to the ground, they’d be the right height in comparison to a Key deer.
  • Tendency to travel: Just like a stamped card, which doesn’t even wait for a stamp to move around the country, Key deer get around. They swim between islands in the Florida Keys when they get the urge to move on.

If you’d like to see the enchanting Key deer in person, you can visit the National Key Deer Refuge on Big Pine Key, about 30 miles north of Key West. This delicate animal is a subspecies of the much larger white-tailed deer, which is found throughout much of the United States.

We’re Giving Away Another Vintage Seed Packet

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It’s time to give away another vintage seed packet! Today’s prize is the digitalis packet.

DSC03546The front of the seed packet depicts stalks of yellow, pink, and coral digitalis. The back of the packet describes the flower in more detail:

A very beautiful and interesting old fashioned plant whose culture is very simple. The bell-shaped flowers borne on long spikes make an exceedingly handsome and stately border.

To win the digitalis seed packet, all you have to do is answer one question: What is the common name for digitalis?

Email your answer, along with your name and address, to uspsstamps [at] gmail [dot] com. One winner will be selected at random. The deadline for entries is 11:59 p.m. EDT, Wednesday, May 15. (NOTE: The digitalis seed packet is empty; no seeds are included.)

The correct answer is Foxglove. Congratulations to Chad Crabtree, the lucky winner of the vintage digitalis seed packet! Check back next week for another chance to win.

After today there will only be four more chances to win. Check back next week for another vintage seed packet giveaway.

The Vintage Seed Packets stamps are Forever® stamps. (Forever stamps are always equal in value to the current First-Class Mail® one-ounce rate.) Find them in your neighborhood Post Office, or order them online today.

Tracing the Spanish Roots of La Florida

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Last month, USPS marked the 500th anniversary of the first recorded Spanish expedition to Florida with the release of four new stamps called, simply, La Florida. Brimming with an opulent floral display, these attractive stamps evoke the beauty of the state’s lush vegetation. But we wanted to know more about the historic event they commemorate, so we did a little research.

f-2013-lafloridaThe first written record of European exploration was the landing of Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León in March 1513. Ponce de León (1460–1521) had sailed with Christopher Columbus on his second voyage to the “New World” in 1493. After serving as governor of the island of Puerto Rico, he obtained a charter in 1512 from King Ferdinand of Spain for exploration of “Bimini” and other lands that were thought to lie to the north. To this day popular belief is that Ponce de León set out to discover the fabled Fountain of Youth, but his charter from the king did not mention such a quest.

Traveling with three ships, Ponce de León came within sight of the peninsula during Easter week of 1513. He named the land La Florida for Pascua Florida (Feast of the Flowers), Spain’s Easter celebration, and for the verdant display of vegetation visible beyond the shore. A few days after that first sighting, he landed on what he believed was an island and formally took possession in the name of the Spanish crown.

Ponce de León’s first visit was brief, but he secured a second royal grant, which made him governor and gave him the authority to colonize La Florida. Setting out in 1521, he chose the southwestern part of the peninsula as the location for his proposed settlement. Native defenders, most likely Calusa, attacked the Spanish, and in the battle Ponce de León was gravely wounded. Unable to continue, he set sail for Cuba, where he died of his wounds.

First Day Covers

Commemorate the 500th anniversary of the naming of Florida with this set of four First Day Covers, each bearing an affixed La Florida (Forever®) stamp and an official First Day of Issue postmark. Click the image for details.

Several Spanish adventurers came after Ponce de León—treasure hunters and colonizers alike—but they met with little success. Hernando de Soto was among those searching for treasure, traveling the southeastern part of the continent from 1539 until his death in 1542, without ever discovering the cities of gold he sought. In 1559, Tristán de Luna y Arellano attempted to establish a Spanish settlement at Pensacola Bay, but a series of disasters ended the colony’s brief history in 1561.

Other navigators who came after 1513 had discovered that the “island” named by Ponce de León was actually part of an immense continent. By 1565, when Pedro Menéndez de Avilés founded the first successful Spanish settlement at St. Augustine, La Florida was the name Spain used to identify the Atlantic coastline as far north as Newfoundland.

In 1845, 332 years after Ponce de León first stood on its shores, Florida became the 27th state of the United States.

La Florida Forever® stamps were issued April 3 in St. Augustine, Florida. Forever stamps are always equal in value to the current First-Class Mail® one-ounce rate.