The Postal Service will help Timberline Lodge commemorate its 75th year by issuing a special postmark in honor of the anniversary at 10 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 28, 2012. The public is invited to attend this free event.
The historic birthday of the lodge on the south slopes of Mt. Hood will actually be celebrated with the issuance of two collectible postmarks. The first, specifically honoring the Northwest icon’s anniversary, features a rendering of the Lodge with Mt. Hood in the background and will be available from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Timberline Lodge, or by mail until Oct. 29, 2012.
In addition, the first of a series of seven pictorial postmarks celebrating Mt. Hood area communities will be issued the same day at Timberline Lodge. The others in the “Postmark America” program, celebrating our nation’s most-treasured landmarks, will be issued over the coming year at Post Offices in the following Oregon communities: Timberline, Government Camp, Rhododendron, Welches, Brightwood, Sandy and Mt. Hood Parkdale.
Each of the Postmark America designs created by Oregon artist Gary Randall includes a unique image of Mt. Hood and will be available at customers’ request indefinitely after they are issued. All that is needed to obtain the free postmark is a stamped envelope or card. The postmark issuance dates will be announced in the near future.
Scheduled speakers at the Sept. 28 anniversary event include Mike Gentry, President of the Friends of Timberline; Radonna Price, Postmaster of Government Camp; Supervisor Chris Worth of the U.S. Forest Service; Jeff Kohnstamm representing R.L.K. and Company, operators of the Lodge; and Bill White, Past President of the Friends of Timberline and philatelic historian. The Lodge’s official St. Bernard mascots, Heidi and Bruno, will also attend.
During the Great Depression Timberline Lodge was constructed via the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1937 under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The project provided work for hundreds of Oregonians and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1977. Today, Timberline continues to serve the public as one of the Northwest’s most popular tourist attractions.
# # #
A self-supporting government enterprise, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation — 151 million residences, businesses and Post Office™ Boxes. The Postal Service™ receives no tax dollars for operating expenses, and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations. With 32,000 retail locations and the most frequently visited website in the federal government, usps.com®, the Postal Service has annual revenue of more than $65 billion and delivers nearly 40 percent of the world’s mail. If it were a private sector company, the U.S. Postal Service would rank 35th in the 2011 Fortune 500. In 2011, Oxford Strategic Consulting ranked the U.S. Postal Service number one in overall service performance of the posts in the top 20 wealthiest nations in the world. Black Enterprise and Hispanic Business magazines ranked the Postal Service as a leader in workforce diversity. The Postal Service has been named the Most Trusted Government Agency for six years and the sixth Most Trusted Business in the nation by the Ponemon Institute.
Follow the Postal Service on www.twitter.com/USPSstamps and at www.facebook.com/USPSSTAMPS.
