Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Monarch Butterfly - PFF #22


From Names on the Face of Montana by Roberta Carkeek Cheney - "Monarch (Cascade County) is an almost deserted mining town in the mountains at the junction where two gulches meet Belt Creek".

In 1889 when the settlement of Monarch was granted a post office with Charles Martin as postmaster, there were three mining claims being actively worked in the immediate vicinity with the names of 'King', 'Czar' and 'Emperor'. This may account for the name of the town, but the specifics are lost in the past. There was a railroad (Great Northern) which terminated in Monarch, and then it went further to the mining town of Niehart with passenger service on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday according to Opal Mayte, whom I spoke to for quite awhile this Monday past.

Opal was the postmaster in Monarch for thirty years, then her son became postmaster, at which time he fired his wife Grace as she had been a postal clerk for Opal previously.

Monarch literally came alive on Monday at about 11:30 when a brief ceremony was held for the issuance of the new Monarch Butterfly postage stamp. Without going into a lot of details on the marvelous job the current postmaster Kally Permann did to make the occasion so memorable, it was one of the nicest First Day Ceremonies I've ever had the pleasure of attending.

I designed the cancel for the postmaster, and she had prepared two hundred cacheted envelopes. She had ordered a thousand stamps, which amounted to fifty panes of twenty stamps to a pane. All of the stamps were gone by noon. The cacheted envelopes were also gone. They had mail requests from Europe as well as all over the United States already, and I'm certain that with the mention of the pictorial postmark in Linn's Stamp News the previous week, she'll be getting a lot more of them.

I am making the covers as I did with the Montana State Flag issue, so once I was through placing the stamps on the paper and canceling them, I was asked to sign my name under the cancel on the cacheted covers for those folks who purchased them when they bought the stamps, which meant I signed about two hundred covers as well.

Quite a day!

If you are interested in what others may be doing for Postcard Friendly Friday, hop on over to The Best Hearts Are Crunchy to see any number of posters with the theme this week of the Power of One Voice!

17 comments:

  1. Sounds like quite a day. And a mention in Linn's! Congratulations.

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  2. Beautiful butterfly, beautiful design!

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  3. Beautiful piece of work - the colors are gorgeous, and I'm afraid that that butterfly is going to just fly right off the envelope.

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  4. This is a nice job. The butterfly is nice to see and reminds me that I wish they were out and about here.

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  5. I love butterflies. This is a beautiful piece of artwork!

    Hope you're doing well! :-)

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  6. Have you ever been to Carmel when the Monarchs are covering just about everything? It's amazing to see a blanket of butterflies.

    Beautiful work as always!

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  7. It takes an artist's eye to see the M in the wings--quite a beautiful cancel as well. Monarch piece=Masterpiece. Details perfectly rendered.

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  8. Congratulations! Sounds like it was a prosperous day, as well as enjoyable. I'm with Penny on the "M" comment ... never really "seen" the "M" in the wing context before. Now I have. Thanks for your vision.

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  9. a gorgeous, delicate design! you signed 200 covers? now THAT's dedication - you risked carpal tunnel syndrome!

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  10. What a lovely postcard. I have a soft spot for Monarch butterflies. You are an inspiration! Your work is wonderful.

    Happy PFF!

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  11. Congratualtions on a job well-done. Now I'll order some of these stamps throught eh PO store.

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  12. How marvelous! As usual, congratulations on your beautiful art work and a job well done! Happy PFF!

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  13. The Monarch butterfly is the official state butterfly of Minnesota, and I have a beautiful modern Minnesota postcard of it. It would have made a nice maximum card--if only I paid attention to those things beforehand.

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  14. Lovely! I live in CA where they have the monarch butterfly event in Pacific Grove!

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  15. dave! catching up throughout the blog and everything is so beautiful...busy busy
    congratulations too on so many cool commissions!

    i have a reliable computer again...so i will be keeping better tabs on your lovely pieces that you so generously share.

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