A Vicksburg museum will get a little extra help drawing visitors thanks to a national designation and signage.

The Lower Mississippi River Museum is one of seven places that have recently received one of the green and white signs with a river steamboat inside a pilot wheel — signifying that it has been named as one of the many Interpretive Centers along the Mississippi River corridor.

“We have distributed the signs for the Great River Roads this year throughout centers in Mississippi,” said Faye Wilkinson, who serves as one of the commissioners of the Mississippi River Parkway Commission.

The Lower Mississippi River Museum and the Vicksburg National Military Park are now two of more than 70 interpretive centers located along the Great River Roads which include river-related attractions.

The  National Mississippi River Parkway Commission was established in 1972 with the objective of assisting in the promotion, preservation, enhancement and economic development of the Great River Road, said Wilkinson.

The Mississippi River is the second largest watershed in the world, with waterways from 33 states and two Canadian provinces emptying into what the Native Americans named the Misi-ziibi, which means Great River.

The idea of one continuous road along the Mississippi River was not economically feasible, so in 1938, it was decided that a network of existing roads and newly built highways that ambled and intersected the river would be linked together and it is now the Great River Road — a National scenic byway that travels nearly 3,000 miles and runs through ten states.

Carol Buelow serves with Wilkinson, and the pair represent Warren, Issaquena and Sharkey counties.

Commissioners from counties that border the Great River Roads and the Mississippi River are appointed by the governor, serve without compensation and attend two national meetings a year, said Wilkinson

“The national conference will be in Natchez in 2016 at the Grand Hotel,” Wilkinson said.