The 2020 Calendar of Post Offices and Places

So! It's been a while since I've written many articles, but I've still been logging several thousand miles visiting post offices. Alas, it's that glorious time of the year that brings us pumpkin spice and the annual Postlandia Calendar of Post Offices and Places. I'm not here to write about the flavors of autumn, so hello calendar! For those of you new to the 'tradition,' the Postlandia calendar is a 12-month calendar that features a different, interesting, and photogenic post office for each month, plus a description of why it's significant. There's nothing else quite like it anywhere. This will be the fourth iteration, and the calendar has now featured at least one post office from most U.S. states.

The 2020 edition of the Postlandia calendar takes us to post offices far and wide—notably the Caribbean, home to the U.S. Post Offices of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. I've still yet to transcribe my adventures, but I visited every single P.O. in both U.S. territories earlier this year, and it was an unforgettable experience. You'll see two really cool finds from the Caribbean in the calendar. This said, the calendar also takes us to the Northwest, New England, the Mid-Atlantic, and all the way out to the Grand Canyon. The post offices are big and small, and there's something for everyone. (Everyone who's interested in post offices and/or snail mail, at least.)

Here's the [edit: link removed; project retired] direct link to the calendar on Lulu, my trusty printer.

The images are printed in high resolution (far better than I present on this site), on high-quality paper. The dates include not only U.S. holidays but dates significant to American postal history. And, yes, you can write on it—again, good paper. Thick stuff.

Postlandia Calendar cover:


The cover (and one of the months) features one of my all-time favorite post offices: Milton, Pennsylvania. Heck, I featured it in a blog post back in 2011. But I stopped back to photograph it again earlier this year with far better lighting on the building, and this gem definitely deserves another look.

Delaware: Birth of an Empire


Illinois: A "Great American Post Office"


Texarkana: Two States, one Post Office


As always, there's so much more where these came from. I hope you experience as much enjoyment with this calendar next year as I've enjoyed curating it. Remember—I've trekked to thousands of post offices (I'm presently just shy of 10,000) so I can bring you some of the very best, anywhere.

I refuse to sell advertising on any website I manage or any product I manage, so this is the only way I make even a modicum of money from this hobby. It really does make a dent in my gas money bills, so I want to thank everyone who purchases a calendar for your support.

Again, the link to the calendar is [removed]. I've always said that this is the perfect gift for the special USPS employee or snail mail enthusiast in your life; a wonderful purchase for philatelist and stamp collectors; and generally speaking, just the perfect post office calendar. The calendar is available [link removed], at the secure website of the high-quality printer Lulu. Everyone I know who's purchased either the 2017, the 2018, or the 2019 Postlandia post office calendar has loved it!

BONUS!!

I'm a huge fan of FDR-era (1933-1942) post offices, more than 1,000 of which house beautiful examples of New Deal artwork. Last year I introduced a second calendar that overlaps somewhat with our postal fandom, and this year I'm bringing it back: [retired link] New Deal Legacy: 2020!

It features a bit of postal goodness from the FDR era, but goes way beyond to highlight some of the myriad of accomplishments put forth by various New Deal agencies across the country, including the Works Progress Administration (WPA), Public Works Administration (PWA), and Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC).

Again, each image in the calendar is accompanied by a full description of exactly what's going on.

2020 New Deal Legacy Calendar cover:


The projects...

Louisiana: Deco Justice


New Mexico: Desert Pride


Colorado: The High Road


The high-resolution images include the stories that make each one image significant. They are printed on thick, high-quality paper and will hold up to all of your writing-on-your-calendar needs. Just as with the Postlandia calendar, these span the country. There's something for everyone. Here is the combined link to my author's page that will lead you to both the the Postlandia and New Deal Legacy 2020 calendars.

Thank you for your continued support.
Evan

100+ Post Offices Celebrated the Eclipse with a Souvenir You Can Mail for

... And the Word from Wyoming

From Lincoln City, Oregon to McClellansville, South Carolina, post offices from—literally—coast to coast commemorated the eclipse of a lifetime last week with limited-time pictorial cancellation stamps for application to letters and postcards. Most of these post offices were in communities that experienced eclipse totality.

Post offices in more than 125 communities have special postmarks that are still available, for the 30 days beginning August 21. Idaho is best represented, with 29 post offices offering the cancellations, every single one of which was in the eclipse's path of totality (100% total eclipse by the moon). Oregon ranks second with 23 post offices, all but one of which experienced totality. (Union, Oregon, according to my sources, experienced a "mere" 99.4% sun coverage.) In Missouri and Wyoming 17 post offices have special cancels available, and Nebraska ranks next with 12. Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Kansas, and Illinois are also represented among 'totality' post offices.



A handful of other post offices, dispersed around the country, experienced the eclipse more modestly but joined in the fun. Of these, a postmark available in San Diego represents the "least eclipsed" post office to make an offering. (To be fair, it is on behalf of a science center.) Among other outliers is Union Pier, Michigan, at 86%, among the closest to the eclipse in the state's far southwestern corner (a mere 283 miles from totality). In Mississippi a postmark representing Stennis Space Center (77%) can be had by mailing to the Postmaster in Jackson (84%). And this time around, what happens in Vegas (71%) doesn't have to stay there; mail your envelopes or postcards to: Postmaster, 1001 East Sunset Road, Las Vegas, NV 89199-9998 for their commemorative cancellation.

The Postal Bulletin from Aug. 17, 2017 provides a list of [nearly all] operations offering the cancellations; link here. It includes instructions for submitting your items for cancellation as well.

About 70 post offices are offering a 'standard' pictorial cancellation of this design:



However, many different designs are available. Some of my favorites include maps, featuring the eclipse's geographic arc, that tie the event more to the place. For example, Dawson Springs, Kentucky; Herculaneum, Missouri; and Stapleton, Nebraska:



Others highlight local scenes or monuments, for example: Jefferson City, Missouri; Hyannis, Nebraska; St. Joseph, Missouri; and Gering, Nebraska:



[Note: Please excuse the image quality above. The images stem from the Postal Bulletin, which never offers a very good resolution for these.]

In Nebraska several offices opened temporary units in parallel with nature's festivities: In Beatrice the postmark was "available Aug. 21 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Temporary Post Office at Homestead National Monument of America." In Gering: "8 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Temporary Post Office at Five Rocks Amphitheatre." Scottsbluff: "8 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Temporary Post Office at Landers Soccer Complex." And Seward: "Aug. 21 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Temporary Post Office at Junto Event Center."

The Word from Wyoming

Perhaps my favorite set of cancellations comes from Wyoming, where many participating offices made a special effort to marry the celestial with the terrestrial by including their community's particular location on the planet by way of latitude and longitude coordinates, and time and duration of totality. Simple and to the point, many of these daters resemble a post office's "standard" four-bar cancellation device—literally, as illustrated below, a date stamp with four solid bars sticking out the right side for the purpose of cancelling a stamp. For these special postmarks, the bars are replaced with four lines of text featuring specific eclipse information for the community: the time of totality (in Mountain Daylight Time); the latitude; the longitude; and the duration of totality.

Here is an illustration of four-bar cancellations in regular use, and as interpreted by way of two of these eclipse postmarks, from Lander and Powder River, Wyoming:



Curious as to how this set of designs came to be, I checked in with Corporate Communications for USPS's Western Area and Colorado/Wyoming District, which did a nice job of promoting their impressive assortment of pictorials. Here are stories they posted re: Oregon, Idaho, Nebraska, Wyoming.

They referred me to Antoinett ("Toni") Benthusen, Postmaster of Powder River, Wyoming post office (a PTPO, for those who are into that kind of thing). Powder River, located 40 miles west of Casper, has a population of "approximately 17 (not counting the dogs and cats)." The community is located on U.S. 20/26, one major route for those traveling between the Black Hills of South Dakota and the Yellowstone / Jackson Hole area.

Here is the Powder River post office, photographed in 1997 by Postlandia friend John Gallagher. (We also have another photo, taken last year, by Jimmy Emerson.)



Toni provided some insights into the pictorial design process:

"I got the idea for my design from Julie Greer, Postmaster of Upton, WY. She suggested using the four-bar dater and replacing them with the Coordinates for Powder River..." Coordinates and other eclipse information came from eclipse2017.org.

One step in the pictorial creation process is copyright management, by way of artist's release: "When I went to fill out the paperwork there was an Artist Release form which either I needed to fill out as the Artist, or have the person who created the artwork fill it out. So, I called Julie and asked her if she would sign the form as the Artist. She said no, that I was the Artist; she only gave me the idea and then I ran with it, making me the Artist. WOW was I blown away, me an Artist?! I couldn't believe it!!!!!"

At this point "other offices (7 in all) started calling me and asking if they could use my design." And they needed help by a bona fide artist. "Would I help them with the paperwork since I had already done mine, and gotten approval to use the design for my stamp? I was so honored that they wanted to use my design and that" Corporate Communications specialist "David Rupert thought enough of it to use on a release." [See links, above.] "He then asked me to create a flyer with all the [participating] offices in Wyoming, and their addresses," for distribution to their customers. Here's a snippet from the flyer featuring several of the unique designs representing the state:



Toni recounts her experience at the Powder River post office last Monday:

[W]e sat just a few feet north of the center of the path of totality. This gave us a crystal clear view of the Eclipse, and what a spectacular event it was! The 20 or so people who chose to park off the edge of the highway were ecstatic about their choice! Immediately after the event a lady from Italy, who is currently living in California, came in to mail a backpack full of extra things she didn’t want to haul along on her trip. When she saw that I was selling the Eclipse Stamps and sleeves and doing the Special Cancellation she went outside and spread the word to everyone out there who all came in and bought me out of sheets of stamps and sleeves, and then bought envelopes to collect and send. I did 160 special cancellations that one day, which for my office is Huge!

I have since restocked my office with Eclipse stamps and sleeves so anyone interested can still purchase them from me or any other offices who still have them in stock. And it’s not too late to get the special cancellation postmark until September 21, 2017. Just send your cards and/or envelopes bearing First-Class postage stamps inside another larger self-addressed stamped envelope to any Post Office who are doing the special postmark.

I was very impressed by how calm and nice everyone was during the days before and after the event! ... The business people in Casper and Riverton interviewed on TV said ... they were very pleased with the amount of customers they had. So...

THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR MAKING THIS ONE OF THE FONDEST MEMORIES IN MY LIFE!

Finally, here are three photos from the day in Powder River, courtesy Postmaster Toni: getting ready for the big day, with glasses and special shirt for the occasion; viewers in from out of town, in front of the distinctively Wyoming cowboy-signed post office; and an image of the eclipse in progress, through a pinhole projected against the blue collection box.







See USPS eclipse photos at USPS Link. Data for the Postlandia map, top, from Vox.

On Route 28, Idaho

I was saddened when the results to my recent FOIA request to USPS came back -- not because they didn't send me what I asked for, but because I saw the small-town post office in Lemhi, Idaho has received a Final Determination notice, meaning that its closure is imminent.

This little corner of Idaho is sparsely populated, but has a big place in history that is little-known: Lewis and Clark crossed the Continental Divide at nearby Lemhi Pass; this is where the first American flag was unfurled west of the Rocky Mountains (a nice page for road trippers, by the way).

Here's a little schematic map of Idaho I made for y'all:


This is General Store country, and this rural stretch of Idaho State Route 28, which runs through a stretch of valley at the edge of the Rockies, offered me four post offices over the 120 miles on which I drove it (from Terreton to Salmon) -- three of which are in general stores, and two of which are in towns so small that Google Maps won't even present them to you unless you're zoomed rather far in.

Assuming this [interactive] map shows correctly you can see what I mean:

View Larger Map

Leadore (think mining; lead ore) was presented once before on this blog, but I think it's worth another look. This is located in a beautiful old general store with a wooden false front. See if you can make out the fantastic hand-carved wooden sign denoting the P.O.! The town's population lies just south of 100.

Leadore, Idaho: General Store and Post Office:


I saw not a building on this road for 18 miles until I hit the unincorporated town of Lemhi. And once I found this post office, I didn't see anything until that of Tendoy! The town, and Lemhi County, are named after a local native Shoshone tribe that was pushed to a reservation in 1907.

There are people who live around here; it just takes a satellite view to show that their houses and ranches are off the main road a bit. If you do take a look, you can even see the circular rings caused by central sprinkler systems!

Lemhi, Idaho: General Store and Post Office

It's a shame that the Lemhi post office will be closing.

Tendoy, eight miles up the road, is another place you wouldn't see coming if you didn't otherwise know it was there -- again, this is the main building in town. I was thankful to come by Tendoy, partly because the friendly folks there filled up a water bucket with which I could really clean my windshield, which was getting splattered and battered during a late-season surge of insects. It's nice to be able to admire landscapes with your visual sight lines unobstructed!

Tendoy, Idaho: General Store and Post Office


Here's a close-up of the postal sign / front:


The end of this journey takes us to Salmon, Idaho, the seat of Lemhi County and the biggest town for many miles around.

Salmon, Idaho: Post Office