Fun Find: The Waterford Washout of 1894

Located about an hour's drive northwest of Washington, D.C., Waterford, Virginia is a tiny town with a lot of heritage. The entire town was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1970, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Waterford is a mill town established in 1733, located alongside Catoctin Creek. The town's situation in a valley enabled one of the most phenomenal post office stories I've ever come across. Here's a general map.



The town's got a lot of nice buildings. My friend John and I were photographing the post office just as Officer-in-Charge Rick was returning from lunch. He was incredibly gracious and suggested that, if we were fans of documenting post offices, we would likely enjoy the framed printout of a story they've got on the wall.

Waterford, Virginia post office:


The USPS Leased Facilities report suggests that the post office has been at this site since 1955. According to Postmaster Finder, the first Postmaster, Daniel Stone, was appointed 1800. There is a large plaque on the wall listing all the Postmasters until 1997.

Here's the story of the Waterford Washout, as reported by the Loudon [County] Telephone of Hamilton, Virginia, on June 1, 1894. (It's tough to read at this size, so I've typed out the story in full below the image.)
(You can also read a brief history of The Loudoun Telephone here (source of the header image below). The Library of Congress reports that the Library of Virginia appears to have a microfilm copy of this paper available.

---

The report which was briefly mentioned in a portion of our issue last week, relative to a serious flood and washout in Waterford Thursday evening of last week, was not exaggerated. The rain poured down in torrents upon the hilly town and soon the main street, which was on low ground, was a roaring river, the water raising up to the doorsill of the insurance office. The tin and stove store of Mr. H.C. Bennett, in which the post office is kept, was built upon posts and was in the track of the torrent, which quickly undermined the building causing the lower floor to fall into the flood, carrying with it the contents of the post office, including the postmistress, Miss Clara Divine. Three men who chanced to be near by rushed in, at the risk of their lives, (for the upper floor, loaded with stoves &c., was liable to fall at any moment) and, with considerable difficulty, succeeded in rescuing Miss Divine. The iron safe and a box containing $80 went down into the flood but were subsequently recovered, but many other things were lost. The post office boxes were tipped backward and all their contents were emptied into the stream. The Mermaids of the Chesapeake bay are probably now enjoying the perusal of the letters that went down with the flood.

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They don't write stories like they used to.

One question is the precise position of Miss Divine, since Postmaster Finder reports that Mr. Bennett was the official Postmaster of Waterford at the time of the flood.

Nice towns: Red Wing, MN; Prescott, WI

Believe it or not this town of 16,500 was once the wheat-growing capital of America. Located an hour southeast of Minneapolis, the Goodhue County seat, along the Mississippi River, relinquished its prominent port regional status to the Twin Cities with the advent of regional railroads in the late 1800s. It's a gorgeous town with a great post office, several parks, and nice views from the peak of its local Barn Bluff. Back in 2008 I was told by my friend Katie in St. Paul that the town made a nice day trip from the Twin Cities, and I'm glad I went.

First, let's get a geographic fix on the town:


The quickest way to Red Wing is actually through Wisconsin, and I enjoyed a shoreline drive along SR 35 after a stop in the town of Prescott. It had a great main street and even beachgoers at Point Douglas across the Minnesota border. It seemed pleasant. Indeed, along Main Street a woman told me that once you move to Prescott, you never want to leave. A few hundred feet south of the automotive bridge lies a train trestle that made for a couple of great photographs. The towers resemble either Transformers-in-waiting or two bench-pressing muscle men. Below is a Google Street View inset that you can shift around and toy with if you so choose.


View Larger Map

Of course, here's a photo of the PO. It matches the collection boxes!

Prescott, WI post office


So, let's have a closer look at Red Wing.



The post office, a strikingly gorgeous building that dates from 1909, is located across a major road from a park. The two clerks inside were friendly and I got a solid round date for my collection. The building appeared to have been maintained well.

Red Wing, MN post office



Here's another view.

After lunch I headed to Barn Bluff and took the mild hike up what was at times a rather steep cross-slope. A full description and views of the bluff can be found here. Here's a view down the north slope.


Here's a view looking east from the top of the bluff:


While few angles escape views of industry, it was still great to see the curvature of the Earth over Wisconsin to the east. Here is a view of downtown Red Wing. (And I just checked -- the P.O. isn't really visible from this distance or angle.)


Cheers!

Post Offices of the Firelands

While volunteering at the PMCC [Postmark] Museum in north central Ohio a year and a half ago, I took a day off to explore some of the region's POs. In doing so I was able to learn about a little facet of history known by a few. In visiting 26 towns' POs I noticed that many of the names looked very familiar: New Haven; New London; North Fairfield; Greenwich. Norwalk lies to the northwest. Each of those is a prominent town in Connecticut. Here's a map of the region of Ohio in question:



Now, I'd been meaning to write about this connection for a year, but I wanted to be able to present the perfect map that demonstrates why this is the case. In September I stopped in the library after visiting the post office in Rocky Hill, NJ, and walked right into a massive wall map depicting exactly what I was looking for:



(Don't you love it when that happens?)

The land in question is what was known as Connecticut's Western Reserve (see also: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland), a great history of which can be found on the Thompson, Ohio Township website. Connecticut lay claim to these areas through and west of Ohio as part of its 1662 charter, which, by the King of England, granted the colony "land claims to the colonies westward to the mythical 'South Sea.'"

During the Revolutionary War, the British burned many Connecticut settlements to the ground -- including Fairfield, as detailed in this article by the Fairfield Citizen -- in retaliation for local colonists' supporting American independence. "In 1792," the Thompson, OH website notes, "the Connecticut legislature granted 500,000 acres of the western portion of New Connecticut to those of her citizens whose property had been burned by the British during the war. These lands were called the 'Fire Lands.'" And that's why so many of its towns bear the same names as Connecticut cities.

So: Let's see some post offices!

New Haven, Ohio post office:


The most fun part of this stop was meeting the friendly Postmaster and getting his autograph -- which, when I first saw, made me do a double take. USPS's Postmaster Finder confirms that I did, indeed, meet James Bond: Postmaster!

North Fairfield, Ohio post office:

I'm actually not sure whether or not that is a town office in the back.

Greenwich, Ohio post office:

Very photogenic -- love the setting, the gorgeous stenciling on the window, and the bunting.

New London, Ohio post office:


A WPA post office with a wonderfully, fantastically unique mural inside. It was an ABSTRACT mural painted in 1940. Have you ever seen such a thing? WPAMurals.com has the details:
New London Facets by Lloyd R. Ney.
Oil on canvas, 5 3/4 x 14 feet, 1940.
"The abstract style employed by Pennsylvania artist Lloyd Ney for his New London mural was unique among Ohio post offices. This was apparently not the result of any inherent dislike of abstract art by Ohioans, but rather from aesthetic prejudice within the Treasury Department's fine arts section. Only with the help of leading New Londoners was the artist able to convince administrators to approve his original proposal."

The mural, which appears to be relatively recently restored, was presented on PMCC member jimmywayne's Flickr photostream. (Jimmy is another PMCC member who's been to a lot of post offices.)



And this is why visiting post offices is so enjoyable.

Reader Submissions

[Edit: Welcome, HDNet viewers! I just found out that the segment on World News aired tonight, but I haven't seen it so I have no idea how it came out or how I came across. Regardless, I hope you enjoyed it! You can review some all-time favorite entries at the left, find posts by labels (Pennsylvania, great signs, etc.) below that, or follow the Going Postal Facebook page. Also, I volunteer for the PMCC postmark museum in Ohio.]

I'm always happy to publish photos from other postal fans showing post offices from around the country -- especially if they provide stories to go along with them. I thought it was about time to publish a few submissions here!

Our first, and a gorgeous, submission is that of an office currently being studied for closure:

Silver Plume, Colorado


Located in north central Colorado along the I-70 corridor, the town was so named as a former silver mining camp. The population of the historic town was 203 as of 2000. It's a popular tourist town during the summer, with some of the activities detailed on the Colorado tourism site.

The next closest post office is about two miles away as the crow flies, though walking to it would be out of the question: you can only access the neighboring town, Georgetown, CO, by the Interstate. And if it's snowing, you would probably rather admire your town by walking.



Darwin, California:


It was brought to my attention by a regional reporter that Inyo County, California currently houses 10 post offices, but "four are in some state of closure". One of which is Darwin, and some local postal protagonists established an Occupy site in their efforts to keep their local post office open. Photos of residents in front of the post office can be found on their Facebook page. Here's a photo from said:



I love it.

Albert Lea, Minnesota


Albert Lea is located near the southern border of Minnesota:


A local postal employee notes that while the Albert Lea post office is not in danger of closure, the town takes pride in its WPA post office. There are lots of beautiful details that employees and customers admire alike: "There are carvings on the front of the building depicting the history of the postal service, including images of pony express and early air mail. The inside has a lot of beautiful woodwork and terrazzo tiles in the lobby in intricate patterns. There is also a lot of decorative plaster designs on the ceiling around the light fixtures."

I love unique and humorous stories, and I particularly enjoyed reading this one:
"Many of the original glass globes for the light fixtures were cracked or broken. About a dozen years ago the maintenance man was looking to replace them but could not find anything like them. Then he happened to go into a kitchen store in a nearby town. Here he found many salad bowls that were the same size and shape as the original glass ones he was looking for. He bought enough for each fixture, drilled holes in the bottom of the bowls, and attached them to the fixtures. People cannot tell that they are not original. There is also a beautiful stained glass window in the lobby stairwell going up to the second floor. Today the building looks the same as when it was first built."

Pool, West Virginia:
[I've got no photo! Alas.] Jeff, who has since moved to Pennsylvania, writes:

"I lived in Pool for 3 years back in the early 90's. The Post Office there was in one corner of an old farm house. It was about 9' by 12' big. Two sisters and two brothers lived at the farm and raised sheep. The farm had belonged to their parents and none of the four had ever married or left. Colorful, friendly people. They invited me into their house once to show me their Charlie Brown Christmas tree.

One of the sisters (the names escape me) was the postmaster and seemed to always be there no matter what time of day you stopped. You walked through the yard, where the sheep roamed, to get to the PO which had it's own entrance. When I first moved there I went in to get a box and the lady said "Which one do you want?" She had about 50 boxes but it seemed that no more than 20 were ever used at one time while I lived there. I picked PO Box #25 because it was easy to remember.

Interesting enough, that was the first place I ever bought the self-adhesive stamps when they were brand new. I remember the lady telling me about them when I was buying stamps and offering the choice of the old ones or the new ones. When I moved to Pennsylvania (near Philadelphia) shortly after that I went to the West Chester, PA post office to buy stamps and when I asked for the self-adhesive kind they had no idea what I was talking about! They actually had them first in that little PO in Pool. Pretty cool!"

Note:
And, if you can't get enough post offices images, another website that focuses on Illinois and Iowa facilities can be found at Post Office Freak!

A Round of Alplaus

In rural communities post offices are more than places to buy stamps. During my school's winter break I visited the town of Alplaus in upstate New York which, due to bizarre circumstances, faces losing an important part of its identity despite the present moratorium on postal closures. The Alplaus CPO was forced to close its doors on January 6. Residents felt as though they were losing a part of their community's soul.



This situation is partly due to a bizarre provision in a USPS—APWU contract signed last April, which explicitly designates exactly 20 CPUs (Contract Postal Units) and CPOs (Community Post Offices – a type of CPU) for closure. The provision is supposed to ensure a maximum amount of work for union clerks and/or rural carriers, but its primary effect is the arbitrary inconvenience of affected communities, including several towns in the Northeast. You can read the provision here: APWU, USPS Tentative Contract.

Among those 20, the Community [Contract] Post Offices (CPOs) in Alplaus, New York and Boscawen, New Hampshire closed the first Friday of this year. The Alplaus CPO made $40,000 a year – net, not gross. That is, USPS profited by $40,000 a year due to this location, and still closed it. The operation was scheduled to be discontinued (terminated) outright, but a letter from Colorado converted it to a suspension earlier during the week. More about that later.

When it was suggested to me during finals by Andy Gilpin, President of the Alplaus, New York Residents Association, that I visit the small town just north of Schenectady to document a post office that would close January 6... well, obviously I was heading up!

Alplaus (prounced AHL-plause) is derived from Aal Plaats, Dutch for place of eels. (Alplaus lies along the Mohawk River – the Hudson's largest tributary.) The location has served as the setting for a couple of historic events, including that shown on a state historic plaque, below.



The town has been around for quite some time, and so too has its post office. Town historian Cliff Hayes notes: "National archives and records administration states Alplaus PO was first commissioned Oct. 4, 1888 to Joseph Hanigan. Hanigan operated hay and feed business located at the railroad tracks ... The PO served the many crop farmers in the vicinity; mail being transported by train from Schenectady." Discontinued in 1908 (possibly due to the advent of Rural Free Delivery), it was reestablished in 1922. The office has operated as a contract unit since 1973.

In the past, when the Post Office Department (or, now, USPS) discontinued a post office, it would often be replaced by a contract operation known as a rural branch or rural station. Those terms have since been replaced with the catch-all CPO. CPOs could still be established anywhere USPS's newfangled "Village Post Office" could go; except the latter offer far fewer services to the affected communities.

A truck picks up the day's mail at the CPO:


Before its postal operations were established as a CPO, there was question as to whether Alplaus would retain its office at all. Longtime Postmasters for both Rexford and Alplaus operated post offices out of their homes, and both retired in 1972. The Postal Service wanted to combine the two operations in a new building, but the town feared losing its identity and center of social life – just as it does today. With the help of Congressman Sam Stratton, the decision was eventually made to house Alplaus postal operations on a contract basis.

The Alplaus Post Office, ca. 1910. Courtesy Cliff Hayes.

(If the above photo looks familiar, it's probably because that building has housed the post office, with just a couple years' exception, to the CPO of the present day.)

The town also successfully fought an effort by USPS in 2001 to reduce the house of operation from 28 to 12. Once again, the town enlisted its local Congressman and the hours remained intact. Mr. Hayes notes that the operation was profitable then as it remained to the present.




When I arrived at the office late Saturday morning, there were 11 residents spending time at the post office. (To be fair, this wasn't typical; they knew I was coming. However it's not uncommon to see five residents at the post office at that time on a given week.) I took the opportunity to ask the fine folks a few questions. For instance, I noticed there were only two cars in front of the CPO. Of the 11 folks at the office, only one regularly drove; the rest walked.



I asked that question because the answer makes an important point: I'd imagine one might say that the residents of this town are merely complainers, that the nearby Rexford post office, a 1.1-mile drive, is an easy substitute for those who use the Alplaus CPO. But I believe the operative word is drive. Kathleen Schnitzer was one of the residents at the CPO that morning: "It's a nice walking town. You [always] see your friends, and sometimes it's the only reason people leave their house every day." Jessica Evans added: "It's the routine of village life."

Sometimes the routine in Alplaus includes bringing home-baked cookies to the post office for everyone. And it's not just the people who enjoy visiting the PO: there are dog biscuits as well. (There's even a special stash for Norm's Pomeranian, Peter.)

While the main road through Alplaus is conducive to walking, the Rexford post office is best visited by car. As I was taking photos across the road, six cars pulled into the parking lot. The 40-plus-mph drag (shown, along with a photo of the post office itself, below) isn't safe for pedestrians, and certainly not for the more elderly residents of Alplaus, some of whom don't drive.




One 24-year Alplaus resident thinks the result of the postal closure could extend beyond mere inconvenience: Stephanie Wolos stated that "people choose to live here partially due to the post office. I think it could affect real estate values." For the members who use the post office on a daily basis, she added, "It's unbelievably sad for us."




If you've never seen a Postmaster greet someone by name by the sounds of their entering the building, it's always an impressive sight. Like small-town Postmasters everywhere, Alplaus's 'Contract Postmaster' Kathy Boyle is vivacious, knowledgeable, energetic, and knows (knew?) her customers. Beginning as a temp in 1990, she held the contract and officially operated the CPO since Nov. 2001.

By and large Kathy interacts with the adults in the community, but she is familiar the goings on with residents of all ages – even what's happening at the nearby high school: "The only time I see the young kids come in is when the interim reports [from school] come in." Usually the parents will call Kathy up and tell her to hold the mail until they arrive.

That is one reason why many Alplaus residents opt against the available free delivery: security. Stephanie Wolos said that she happily pays $42 a year for the security of a PO Box with Kathy, "and I would be willing to pay more than that." While the community is close-knit and I didn't get the impression that there was any crime of which to speak, the PO Box keeps the cats out of the bag, as it were. And remember, you don't meet your friends if you walk out to just your own mailbox.

Some mailboxes along the main road in Alplaus:


A couple of residents noted that they felt safer knowing that Kathy is always on duty and monitoring the town – passively or otherwise. For example, if a resident doesn't pick up his/her mail for a few days, Kathy might just call directly to see if everything is alright: "If I don't see Norm we find out where Norm is." And a sigh of relief might sound like this: "I was just about to peek in your garage window and see if you were home!"

That is an echo of a story I've heard at small locations all over the country, and you can't get this level of service or community involvement at a larger office! It's just another of many services, official and informal, that are best provided by a postal operation at the heart of the community it serves.


Kathy also special-orders stamps for customers who request them—orders of late included romance-themed stamps for wedding invitations, Owney the Postal Dog stamps for local canine lovers. One resident noted that not everyone wants Liberty Bells! (This is one disadvantage to a VPO, which can only sell exactly one type of stamp.)

Framed articles along the wall of the CPO:




An interesting incident occurred in early November when a man identified as a local APWU executive walked into the Alplaus CPO and started taking photographs. When asked about his intentions, a resident recalls: He "claimed he would help us; that he was 'on our side'; and that it was not financially sound for USPS to have the local carriers take over delivery from folks who have boxes here." Furthermore, he specifically stated that "the union did not ask to have this post office closed." Rather, the claim is that USPS willingly proposed the aforementioned provision in the APWU contract, and the union merely accepted it. This claim could be contradicted by some APWU documents on CPUs. An August 2011 document titled Contract Postal Units (CPUs); Returning Work to the APWU declares, "The union is attempting to identify Contract Postal Units (CPUs) that perform work that should be returned to our members." A 2009 article titled Fighting Contract Postal Units; Protecting Retail Jobs speaks for itself.

When a Post Office is being studied for discontinuance, personnel must photograph the facility and its surroundings as part of the proceedings. It is probable that the supposed APWU defender's photographs of the office provided what was necessary to proceed with the closure of the office.




Alplaus is presently attempting to defend its post office for the third time. The town, with the help of a local lawyer, has filed an appeal with the Postal Regulatory Commission to attempt to remand the decision to close the office back to USPS. (You can see the docket, A2012-88 in full on the PRC site.) The Postal Service denies that the PRC has any jurisdiction over contract operations, but there is a precedent the town is counting on: the PRC case involving the CPO of Knob Fork, West Virginia. In this 1984 decision, the PRC determined that while the Postal Service sought to dismiss the town's right to appeal based on a technical determination between Postmaster-operated and contract-operated post offices, "In ordinary usage, 'post office' is a retail facility where patrons may purchase postal services, and dispatch and possibly receive mail [source; pg. 7-8]." What they went on to declare was that regardless of who operates it, if it looks like a postal duck and it quacks like a postal duck, then the PRC can issue a decision on the case. (Here is a link to the decision re: Knob Fork, WV.)

At least two other CPO closure decisions were remanded by the PRC after the Knob Fork precedent: Foraker, Indiana in 1984, and Ranchita, California in 1985.

It is unclear how the revised decision to suspend the operation, as opposed to outright discontinue it, will affect the proceedings. Additionally, even if Alplaus were to win its case with the PRC, the Postal Service could decide to close the operation anyway.

A few new mailboxes have sprung up on Alplaus's main road, and other residents are filing to have their mail delivered to PO Boxes in Rexford. However, most residents I spoke with expressed that they would gladly take the opportunity take a PO Box back at Alplaus as soon as it might reopen. The town would consider opening a VPO ("It's better than nothing."), but astute residents in this town are aware that many of their postal desires could not be met at such a location. One example is the aforementioned ordering of specially requested stamps that Kathy provides. Another was told to me by Jessica Evans, regarding package shipping: "We ask [Kathy] what's the cheapest way to get it there and how long it will take, and she helps us. We have a conversation before I mail a package, and it makes me feel secure." By contrast, all Village "Post Offices" can do is give you a Flat-Rate box and take it back in.

I inquired as to whether the residents had Internet access; and if so, did they still mail bills at the post office? Pat Beaver responded: "Most have Internet, but you'd rather come here anyway." Is that right? "Absolutely. There's nothing personal on the Internet."

The Glenville Fire District owns the building which housed the Alplaus CPO, and the site will remain as it stands for the time being. Allow me to present some of the building's other gems: a classic safe that you'd need a truck to haul away despite the fact that it's got wheels; mural panels painted by local artists in the '90s that beautifully represent the buildings in the town; and a wall of photographs and newspaper articles detailing events from town history.








I think Mr. Hayes says it best: "My family established residency in Alplaus exactly in 1911, 100 years ago. Closure of the Alplaus PO would be losing part of the family."

At this point, only one question remains: Postally speaking, will there be an encore for Alplaus?

Being Thankful: Rozet, Wyoming

The thought should have occurred to me to write about Rozet earlier. It was one of my first postal experiences while I was exploring the country during the summer of '08, and to this day I would still call it the most meaningful. (Not to mention it's nice having people visit your blog, and several hundred of you have done so by searching "Greenville, PA post office" after my touting of it on NPR. I'm sure several hundred more have also tried with "Rozet, Wyoming post office".)

I have quite a lot to be thankful for this year. Not only the fact that you're all here, actually reading this (thank you to the fantastic writers and editors at The Washington Post, Time, NPR, and Save the Post Office, as well as to several other outlets to be unveiled shortly). Thank you to those who have contributed, through comments or email: photographs, suggestions, and your own meaningful post office stories. Keep 'em coming! This year I've not only started to do interesting graduate work at the University of Pennsylvania, but I've been able to make the time to visit more than a thousand post offices -- getting postmarks, taking photographs, meeting some very wonderful people, and learning many unique stories.

I know that millions of you nationwide are thankful for the fact that your community is [still?] served by a U.S. Post Office. Remember, the U.S. Postal Service's core mission, by its birthright, is to serve us; it was founded to bind our country together -- and this means all the communities of our great nation. Its mission is most certainly NOT to be profitable in every small town or non-affluent community: it's the U.S. Postal Service; not the U.S. Postal Business. I ask that you do not take this distinction lightly.

But back to Rozet...

Let's explore this corner of Wyoming. I suppose it's best to do so the way I did it: starting with Devils Tower, our nation's first National Monument. That was one of my intended destinations for my cross-country road trip; it fit in-between the Badlands of South Dakota and the wonder that is Yellowstone.

Here's our geographic fix:


But to fully comprehend the story behind Rozet, Wyoming, you need to understand Devils Tower:


What is now one of the recreational climbing meccas of America has been a sacred location for Native Americans for centuries. Many tribes' legends pertain to bears -- the "Bear's Tipi" is a common reference. Many tribes' legends and rituals are kept private, but you can learn more about Devil's Tower as a sacred site here. The site was formed about 50 millions of years ago -- underground -- as an intrusion of magma that bubbled up, separated the sedimentary rock, and solidified. The hexagonal columns you can still see are a result of the cooling of the molten rock. Scientists believe that the formation was exposed as the covering rock was worn away within the past couple million years. Experienced climbers can register and go up; an experienced guide can lead you up for $250 (at least back in 2008). The National Park Service provides an FAQ about the site. The total height of Devils Tower, from base to top, is 867 feet. Approximately 4,000 visitors climb Devils Tower every year.

I write all this so you can appreciate what the Postmaster in Rozet, WY gave to me. But as for Devils Tower, which became our nation's first National Monument on September 24, 1906, a post office was established in 1925:



The post office is currently threatened with closure as part of USPS's "Expanded Access" [Thousands Fewer Post Offices] initiative. Here's a list of all offices in Wyoming threatened as part of that program.

On to Rozet:
Here's a photo from a railroad overpass, showing the town of Rozet, several miles away, in the distance. If you can look closely, you can even see a coal train making its way from one of the coal mines around the large town of Gillette.


Postmaster Bruce Redfield has served Rozet since 1990 as an Officer-in-Charge. He's been Postmaster since February 23, 1991, and as I stated over the air, he was responsible for "servicing" a set of seven commemorative, limited-time, pictorial cancellations honoring Devils Tower. (That is, post offices around the country can commemorate events by using postmarks that aren't just circles, but which feature images -- they're available for a limited time, but you can find out about them through Linn's Stamp News or USPS's Postal Bulletin. You can mail items, bearing proper postage, to be cancelled at that location, which will then be mailed back to you ("servicing"). Generally the time window to obtain such special cancellations is 30 days.)

I've gotten dozens of pictorial cancellations, but this was different: Postmaster Redfield literally climbed the sack of mail with thousands of people's requests for postmarks from all over the world, and applied the postmarks ON TOP of Devils Tower. He had the sack of mail on his back while he climbed that 800-foot, vertical-walled behemoth. That is astounding in and of itself.

Rozet, Wyoming post office:


So when I stopped by Rozet, stated that I drove out from New York and that I wanted his postmark, not only did I get a standard Rozet postmark... he saved a special set of those envelopes ("covers") which he had carried to the top of Devils Tower, each with a different commemorative pictorial postmark on it, and he gave it to me. It was incredibly generous and meaningful, and so I thank you, Postmaster Redfield, today. The envelopes are in a safe place.

This day also included experiences at other offices in northeastern Wyoming, which I detailed in my fourth-ever entry for this blog: As Rural as it Sounds -- Recluse, Wyoming, et al. This was the very day that my appreciation for post offices first took hold, and during which visiting them became an integral part of my overall experiences while exploring America.

Here's a parting scene of some of the residents of Rozet. I'd never seen antelope before!

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Followup: 11/28/11 10:47pm
This quote is taken from a comment left below the NPR writeup of the All Things Considered piece. His perspective of the story is fantastic, and I thank him for sharing:

Frank Sanders (Towerguide) wrote:

I am Proud to be the climbing guide that was privaledged to take the Rozet, Wyoming Postmaster Bruce, to the top of Devils Tower, for the Special Hand Cancelation of the envelopes. It was in 2006 and Devils Tower was celebrating its 100th anniversary of being a National Monument. The Special Cancelation was set for July 4th!!! The Post Office collected mail,for anyone who wanted that Special Cancelation. We started our climb to the Tower Top that afternoon, arriving at sun set. Bruce had me haul a large cutting board, along with all the mail, so that he had the Best possible place to work. And work he did; hundreds of envelopes, each carefully stamped and cancelled!!! We were able to enjoy the view, looking DOWN at the local fireworks going off BELOW us!!! AMAZING!!! When the fireworks were over and the cancellations were completed, we rappelled down, with the headlamps on. What a Wonderful Night.

The Real Story is Postmaster Bruce!!! He CHOSE to do the job himself, although he had never climbed before. He trained with me through several weeks, learning to climb! On top that night, his feet barely touched the ground! He radiated American and Postal Pride. It is a Huge Shame that his Post Office is slated for closure...

Friday, November 25, 2011 3:25:00 PM

(Rozet's post office is not presently being studied for closure; but I could see why one might think it was, given the context of the article.)