SSブログ

Post Office [Column_Cisco Townsite]

googlemaps_postoffice.jpg
post-office_01.jpg: Cisco, UT Sep. 11, 2014
post-office_03.jpg: Cisco, UT Sep. 11, 2014

I’m trying to duplicate the whole town of Cisco, Utah in N scale. This post introduces one of the structures in the town.


A few businesses survived along US Hwy 50 & 6 at Cisco in the early 70s; 4 gas service stations, a mercantile/cafe, and a motel. Some private houses also seem to exist along Second Street. This structure sits on Lot 12 of Block 8, Cisco Townsite.


Until May 1966, the Railway Post Office added to D&RGW Prospector consist served the region west from Grand Junction as far as Salt Lake City: all the RPO service contract at D&RGW was diverted to other modes on April 1, 1967[1, 2]. According to the ICC valuation map, the mail crane at Cisco station stood next to the depot on the west.

Not only mails addressed to Cisco, but mails to Castleton and Richardson were managed at Cisco: "celerity, certainly, and security (***)" Star Route contractors brought mails into both towns[3]. After the discontinuance of RPO service, Star Route contractor buses, trucks, and air taxis based at Moab succeeded the contract at Cisco[4]. Today, mails are carried from Green River.
 
report-of-site-location_1915.jpg: 1915 Report of Site Location for Cisco Post Office
 
The original Cisco Post Office at the narrow gauge railroad watering station was granted in 1887[5]. The initial object of the Cisco P.O. was to handle mail to/from Richardson P.O. It was moved along with the depot by July 1890. It was located in the depot until the P.O./Store combination facilities were erected next to the Cisco Hotel on Block 6 in the 1910s between 1915 and 1919.

In 1923, the post office structure, a combination post office/postmaster’s dwelling at that time, was moved one block west to Lot 12 of Block 5, next to the Cisco Mercantile. The "Federal Building" was repainted dark red with white trimming[6, 7].

The post office −exactly, only the postal cabinet− was moved again a mile west into Harris' service station when Wava Harris succeeded the postmistress in 1959[8]. Zip Code 84515 was assigned in 1963. However, unfortunately, the post office was once discontinued when Wava resigned in 1967: the postal function moved temporally into Cisco Mercantile after that[9, 10, 11]. In the movie Vanishing Point, upraised Stars and Stripes and a small OFFICE sign above the door clearly show the post office is in the mercantile.

The latest post office structure shown above at Second Street seems to have been installed by 1971: Cisco Mercantile closed its doors that year. The postal service at this office survived well into the 21st Century. The structure itself is living on borrowed time[12].

letter_postmarked,cisco.jpg: 1928 Cisco postmark

John Samuel Martin(1852 – 1918), a surveyor of the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railway, was the original postmaster since Mar. 10, 1887[5].
According to the Postmaster Appointments for Grand County, Utah, Richard C. Camp(1846 – 1923) was the second postmaster since Dec. 5, 1889.

John H. Miller was the first postmaster at the new townsite inside the railroad depot since Oct. 10, 1890.


Successive railroad agents must have held the postmasters at once (* shows the confirmed interlocking agent)[13]. Pardon H. Jeffers*(1846 – 1937) was the postmaster since 1895, Alfred B. Bush since 1898, Horace J. Cooper(1868 – 1939)* since 1899, Robert A. Greene*(1868 – 1922) since 1900, Henry T. Matthews* since 1901, Oakley M. Bailey since 1903, Sherman Bowen*(1876 – 1938) since 1905, Charles R. Cahill since Jan. 1907, Charles A. Pierson since Jul. 1907, Nathan E. Reynolds*(1879 – 1939) since Jan. 1908, Albert L. Hanson(1881 – 1977) since Jul. 1908, James I. Rounds*(1865 – 1945) since 1910, and Willis D. Ely*(1886 – 1965) since 1915.


Henry Hansen(1860 – 1932) had been appointed the postmaster since 1919 and for more than a decade into the 30s[14, 15]. However, unfortunately, Henry passed away on Dec. 1st, 1932. Thus, Luciel Quiett acted for Henry in Jan. 1933.

Henrietta Marie "Hattie" Fuller(1888 – 1969) was the postmistress from Feb. 1933 and well into the 50s. In 1958, Albert R. Myers succeeded Fuller.


Wava Frances Harris(1917 – 1969), the spouse of the highway foreman Ballard Harris, had been appointed to the postmistress in 1959 and was on duty for eight years[5]. The original postal cabinet made of oak was relocated into Harris' gas station a mile west of the town[8]. Upon the retirement of Wava, she and Ballard moved the postal cabinet to Dewey and displayed it in their gas service station for the next forty years. Today, the cabinet is at Coleman House B&B in Harrodsburg, Kentucky[10]. A photo of Ballard with the cabinet is found on the web[16].

postofficecabinet_01.jpg
postofficecabinet_02.jpg: Harrodsburg, KY. Sep. 9, 2019
letter_postmarkedCisco_1968.jpg: 1968 Cisco postmark

Thereafter, the post office was operated as a branch of the Green River Post Office. Beulah Rose Campbell(1907 – 1971) of Thompson was taking care of the mail in 1969[17]. Helen LaVita Bylerly Walker(1906 – 1979) of Cisco Mercantile was the postmistress in 1971[4]. Raymond Scott(1908 – 1989) of Cisco Automotive Service was the postmaster in the 70s at least until 1976[18]. Sharon Francine Dalgleish(1947 – ) was the postmistress at least in 1979[19].

Paula Dee Raney(1947 – 2010) was the postmistress in the early 90s[20]. Sharon Dalgleish was again the postmistress maybe since 1992[21, 22]. Sharon finally closed the post office no later than 2010.

post-office_02.jpg: Cisco, UT Sep. 11, 2014


In 2003, Wim Wenders, the Paris, Texas movie director, took a photo of the post office during the location at Cisco for his movie Don’t Come Knocking[23]. The movie below shows the interior of the post office in 2009. The full eagle logo of the United States Postal Service, used between 1970 and 1993, barely shows what this shack was today. Letters barely read on the façade are;

U.S. POST OFFICE

CISCO, UTAH

EL4370  84515

revised, Nov. 3, 2018
revised, Mar. 30, 2019
revised, Aug. 3, 2021
revised, Jan. 8, 2022
revised, Jun. 3, 2022
revised, Dec. 28, 2022
revised, Mar. 16, 2023
revised, Nov. 10, 2023

[1] Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad Company, Annual Report 1967
[2] Strack, Don “D&RGW Prospector and Royal Gorge”, UTAHRAILS.NET;
[3] Jun. 17, 1954 Times-Independent;
[4] Apr. 29, 1971 Daily Sentinel;
[5] Postmasters Appointment for Emery County, Utah Territory;
[6] Herman Grell Giodwad(#8000-11545), Investigative Case Files of the Bureau of Investigation 1908 - 1922;
[7] May 24, 1923 Times-Independent;
[8] Oct. 25, 1959 Daily Sentinel;
[9] Mar. 6, 1969 Times-Independent;
[10] Coleman House B&B web page;
[11] Jul. 27, 1969 Daily Sentinel;
[12] May 6, 1971 Times-Independent;
[13] May 16, 1913 Grand Valley Times;
[14] Feb. 14, 1919 Times-Independent;
[15] Dec. 8, 1932 Times-Independent;
[16] Repko, Sue (2002) “H. Ballard Harris”;
[17] Dec. 11, 1969 Times-Independent;
[18] Apr. 1, 1976 Times-Independent;
[19] Jul. 1, 1979 Daily Sentinel;
[20] Jun. 30, 2010 The Daily Sentinel;
[21] Jackson, Jen (2010) “The Madness and Memories of Cisco, Utah”, Inside Outside Southwest Magazine;
[22] JR4X (2008) “Cisco-Home of The Hills Have Eyes?”, Bulletin Board, Colorado4x4.org;
[23] Wenders, Wim (2003) “Cisco Post office”;

: post office interior
 
 
Ciscoの町に、学校および郵便局以外、病院や消防署などいわゆる公共施設は一切設けられることは無かった。ここでは、郵便サービスがこの地の果てのような荒野のただ中にある町において、どのように進展したか紹介する。

郵便局は、1887年、まだ改軌・移転する前の駅前に設けられた。1890年の改軌・ルート変更に伴い、町ごと移転している。1966年までは、D&RGWのProspectorという列車に連結された郵便車・Railway Post Office(RPO)において、この地域発着の郵便物を取り扱っていた。

移転後の郵便局はCisco mercantileの西側にあった。郵便局長の住まいを併設した、小さなログ・キャビンであったようだ。この建物は1967年に解体され、現在の場所に写真にあるプレハブのような建物が建てられた。

再移転後は、専任の郵便局長ではなく、町の住人が生業の傍ら局長を務めていたようだ。例えば、1970年代初めに局長を務めていたRay Scott氏は、以前紹介したCisco Automotive Serviceというガソリンスタンドのオーナーである。2010年ごろ閉鎖され代用の宅配ポストが左脇に設けられたが、これに頼っているひとはいるのだろうか。

コメント(0) 

コメント 0

コメントを書く

お名前:[必須]
URL:
コメント:
画像認証:
下の画像に表示されている文字を入力してください。

※ブログオーナーが承認したコメントのみ表示されます。