I was doing some research on these precancel stamps and thought I'd share what I found to be a rather interesting story.
The two precancels shown are from the Prexie (#803) and Liberty Series (#1031) but both precancels are from a town then-known as Desert Springs, California, for which a post office by that name only existed for about a decade, from 1949-1959, and probably due to its short life, it's one of the few precancels I have come across for which the town only used one precancel type (Style 734):
Anyway, I found the current name of the town to be Pinon Hills and as result came upon this short history of the town showing that it had as many as five names in less than 20 years time, which must be some sort of a record:
Quote:A Town With Five Names (a.k.a. Pinon Hills, California)An old map, printed before Highway 138 came through as a dirt road, showed the name of the town to be
Border Town as it was located on the San Bernardino-Los Angeles county line. Later the town was called
Horine Springs for Merrie Horine who homesteaded the foothill region east of the county line. The Horines let people dip water from the end of the water line at their house and did not charge for dipping. A man named Smithson ran cattle over most of the area, and the water company later created at the springs by Alfred Mondorf was named
Smithson Springs after the Smithson Springs Water Company. Naturally, the town
inherited the name for a while. But the residents didn't like all the s's, so they changed the name to
Desert Springs and they obtained a post office under that name. Winifred E. Ellison was their first postmaster. There was trouble in the wings for Desert Springs. The San Bernardino Post Office mail sorting division, threw the mail too fast and letters directed to Desert Springs went to Desert Hot Springs much too frequently (today, the zip code method would keep that from happening - anyone want to go back to Desert Springs?) The Area Received its Final Official Name,
PINON HILLS after a secret ballot by settlers at the Chamber of Commerce building. The name Pinon Hills was the winner.
There aren't too many other locations with the distinction of having had five names in 20 years. The name Pinon Hills comes from the Pinus monophylla (pinyon pine) that dominate the desert-facing slopes.
While I don't think the precancel stamps are particularly valuable, the story behind it certainly will make for an interesting read on an album page.
Posted 01/01/2011 12:44 pm
