Western Express

Quarterly Publication or the Vol. 45 No.4 WESTERN COVER SOCIETY December 1995 Whole no. 178 Unit NO. 14 ·American Philatelic Society

Express Overland Territorial Postal Rates

Ocean Mail Post Offices Statehood Postal History

TABLE OF CONTENTS

From Your Editor 1 Secretary's Report 2 Langton's Humboldt Express by James Garnett 3 The Humboldt Range, Mail Express and Staging by Alan H. Patera 9 Doble, San Bernardino County by Lewis Garrett 26 Two Covers and the Ebbetts Pass Route by Dale Wilson 30 Saville, California Postmark Catalog 43 Bancroft's Guide for Travelers, July 1869 44 Awards Silver Vermeil STaMpsHOW 89 Vermeil SESCAL 91 Vermeil PHILITEX 1992 Vermeil COLPEX94 Vermeil STAMPSHOW 95

The frontpiece illustration ofLangton's Pioneer Express is courtesy of John Drew. It is from the same correspondence as the cover illustrated on Page 4.

MEMBERSHIP INFORMATION

If you collect Western Express covers, Territorials, Town cancellation, or anything pertaining to the mails of the Old West, you are invited to join the Western Cover Society and enjoy meeting other collectors.

Local groups of members meet more or less regularly to talk, swap and generally share their enthusiasm for Western covers. There is a Dutch treat luncheon meeting in San Francisco almost every Friday in the 12th floor dining room of the Marine's Me morial Club, Sutter and Mason streets, from about 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. or later. Visitors are always welcome, including non-members. Call Henry Spelman at 415-453-4663 to see if we will be meeting while your are in town.

Patron Membership $30.00 a year Sustaining Membership $20.00 a year Active membership $15.00 a year

Membership dues include subscription to Western Express

Send application with appropriate check to: Western Cover Society John Williams. Secretary 887 Litchfield Ave. Sebastopol CA 95472

Please state your collecting interests. Your application will be acted upon at the next meeting of the Board of Directors.

Advertising rates, per issue: Full page $55.00; half page $27 .50; quarter page $17.50

From Your Editor

Alan H. Patera P.O. Box 2093 Lake Grove OR 97035

This issue This issue is weighted towards Nevada, in par Photos can be best be reproduced by making a ticular the Humboldt rush of the 1860s. We start half-tone from the photo. As Western Express is with Jim Garnett's article on Langton's Express printed on an offset press, we utilize half-tones with covers to and from this pioneer mining area. Hope a 100-line screen. It works most efficiently if you fully the new information will spark some interest just send the photographs with the article, and they and comment. will be returned to you once they are no longer Furthermore, the Humboldt Range is a dear needed. place to your editor. I have hiked it and camped in For covers, it used to be that for good repro it on numerous occasions, exploring the remnants duction it was necessary to either make the half of the towns and mining camps and roaming the tone directly from the original, or from a photo hills. I have also done extensive research, recently graph of the cover. Many of these covers are valu published as The Humboldt Range. 19th Century able; your editor doesn't like to have possession of Mining Camps as part of the Western Places se your valuables any more than you like to have them ries. A by-product of this research is included in out of your possession. Photographing them is this issue -- a transcription of significant articles costly and time consuming -- modern technology on expresses, mails and stages as published in to the rescue! Unionville's pioneer newspaper, The Humboldt Black and white photocopies turn out grainy - Register. They tell an interesting tale of civiliza you've seen them. But the