FDC Catalog # Help Please 1940 Hells /1 Acre/1938 Abilene KS

Hello, I have not been able to find these listed in a FDC catalog.Does anyone have catalog numbers for these? The first one is Hell's Half Acre and is dated 1940 and is posted from Hell's Half Acre, Wyoming. The second one is Abilene Kansas and is an Air Mail Week cover signed by the Postmaster. It is dated 1938 and posted from Abilene on May 19th. At the top is typed Special Pickup Flight. Thanks for any informationyou can give me on these covers.
David

you will probably have to look up the illustrator, you can see the first one on the back side on the bottom left corner of Lucifer's passage. I cant read it but I can see it. The second on is a little trickier, but I think there are initials on the back side under the horse's rump. SC or SE something. Then you may be able to follow or find the cover. - jeff

this one is owned by a mr tom loepp US

Thqanks jhlovell and rod222, That helps a lot. I will research the illustrators.
Thanks again
david

The first cover (Hell's Half Acre, WY) is (as the rubber stamp suggests) a "First Day of Mailing" meaning that it is the first day of nationwide release of that stamp (July 11, 1940) and someone prepared these covers as an interesting local topic for the Wyoming Statehood Stamp (Scott #897). The actual first day of issue of that stamp was in Cheyenne, Wyoming on July 10, 1940.

Interestingly, "Hell's Half Acre, WY" is a discontinued post office that was only in existence for 19 years (from 1940-1959). A quick internet search suggests the area is virtually abandoned today as it used to have a motel, diner, camp site, gift shop (and presumably a post office) back in its day but has been closed down, gated off, and the motel demolished many years ago.

It's about 40 miles west of Casper, Wyoming and is more of a curiosity of rock formations, etc., that led to the name. Since there is no population there, it sounds like it was probably nothing more than a "tourist trap" in the middle of nowhere that eventually went bankrupt.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell's...re_(Wyoming)

The middle cover (Abilene, KS) is part of the National Air Mail Week Promotion of 1938 wherein covers from all parts of the country were created in celebration of the 20th Anniversary of US Air Mail Service by the US Post Office Department. Here's an example of the extensive list of covers that were prepared nationwide for that event:

http://www.postalmuseum.si.edu/find...ail_Week.pdf

Here's Postmaster General James A. Farley with some of the mail from that event:



The above photo goes along with this caption:

tHANKS AGAIN ROD222, SOME EXCELLENT LINKS WITH A LOT OF INTERESTING INFORMATION. I DON'T GENERALLY COLLECT fdc'S ETC BUT IF A NICE ONE COMES ALONG I TRY TO GET IT.
dAVID

The song says, "Abilene, Abilene, Prettiest Town I've Ever Seen..."

I guess the beauty was in the finish of a long cattle drive.

KirkS