26 January 2002 La Posta
Figure 7 Postal stationery card postmarked at Anchorage,
Figure 10 Example of Fairbanks, Alaska’s Clear Rural
Alaska’s Whittier Rural station, September 14, 1961.
Station postmark affixed to a U.S. postal stationery card on
June 15, 1959.
Figure 11 Fairbanks machine cancel struck on the
card’s back, showing that the Fairbanks P.O. first
handled the card on June 12th.
as a primary food source, meteorologists using state-
of-the-art technology for advanced weatherFigure 8 Large cds North Pole, Alaska postmark with 4-
bar trailer ties the postal stationery stamp. The handstamp studies, and ecologists watching over the delicate bal-
shown on the card’s lower left side indicates that North Pole
ance between man’s technological thrusts and preser-
was a rural station of the Fairbanks P.O.
vation of the state’s unique natural environment.
Alaska’s population will have increased dramatically,
Navy guarding against missile strikes. It will also be
and so will the number of philatelists interested in
a much more developed source of oil and natural gas
Alaska’s rich postal history. I predict that rural sta-
while remaining an ecological haven for the indigenous
tion markings made at Alaska’s transition from terri-
flora and fauna. I predict that Alaska will be a mecca
torial status to statehood will be very popular. Fig-
for scientists studying the area’s surrounding waters
ures 1 through 11 are examples of rural stations from
Alaska during its transition period.
Hawaii will always retain its tropical mystique, al-
though I’m not so sure that it will grow at the same
rate as the civilian populations in other states. Its value
as a military outpost and staging area for the navy
and air force, however, will not diminish. The vast
installations at Pearl Harbor and Hickam Air Force
Base will be maintained to handle upgraded military
hardware available 100 years from now. But while
its population growth might lag, the number of future
collectors interested in Hawaii’s 20th-century transi-
Figure 9 Large cds Paxson, Alaska marking
tion from territory to statehood will increase the de-
accompanied by a distrinct 4-bar trailer which was struck
mand for rural stations that existed in the late ‘50s
on a postal stationery card on October 2, 1961. Paxson
and early 1960s. What makes them desirable even to-
was also a rural station of the Delta Junction P.O. in
day and probably more so in the next century are sev-
1961. Paxson was originally established as a regular post
eral factors.
office on January 16, 1912, but its status changed over
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