Squared Circle/Precursor Cancels

Joe Montferrand, and the song writer is Tom stumping Connor. Both pictured on canadian stamps.

Way to go Gilles. I was beginning to wonder if anyone would respond and for those who don't know Big Joe Mufferaw and our Canadian poet Stompin Tom Connors here he is in fine form:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gy3knGGzZr8

Another test: name a Canadian-born songster who has mentioned more postal towns in a song than Stompin Tom Connors has in his Mufferaw Joe song.

I'll take Canadian Music icons for $100 Alex -- Who is Gordon Lightfoot?

Nitro: still laughing! It is not Gordon Lightfoot but a good choice all the same.

Hank Snow! Oh he of the wonderful hairpiece. Must take a lot of work to memorize the town list - no strumming his guitar during those lines.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W47c6w46Cgc

Ryan

Ryan: Way to go! The one and only Hank Snow and the song Everywhere and here is the Nova Scotia cowboy singing it. Postmarks anyone?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W47c6w46Cgc

Great site for viewing squared circles:

http://www.ece.uvic.ca/~agullive/sq...ight_sq.html

Thanks for that Canada squared circle link cynical

BeeSee: you are welcome! I may have did the site a dis-service in that there is even more stuff if you back out a level or two.

For history/nostalgia buffs interested in the mining industry its pretty hard to beat Cobalt, Ontario. For those interested in the history of the timber industry the place to see is Byng Inlet, Ontario, located west off Highway 69 near Britt between Parry Sound and Sudbury.

In the mid to late 1800's Byng Inlet, on Lake Huron's Georgian Bay, went from a large thriving community to being a ghost town in a matter of decades. Recently I was checking out its postal history, which is rather complex as the population was spread along the north and south sides of the inlet and for a brief time had two post offices, one on each side. The Byng Inlet North Post Office only existed from 1903 to 1913.

In checking my catalogues I noticed that Byng Inlet North used the thin-bar squared circle postmark and that its rendition of it is rarely found given the community's diminishing population at the time and the short period that the post office existed.

In searching the web I came across this squared circle site that shows an example from Byng Inlet North.

http://squaredcirclesofcanada.com/a-few-gems

I came across the reference below while looking for anything related to Byng Inlet, Ontario, postmarks:

A Rare Postmark Style [Byng Inlet] by Frank W. Campbell that apparently appeared in the 1954 Stamp Collector's Exchange Club Magazine (v19 no1)

I have not been able to find out what the article is about. Does anyone know if it relates to squared circles?

Really old old-timers here will remember the village of Formosa in Bruce County because of Formosa Springs Brewery. Others will know it from the famous flowing artesian well or the village's beautiful setting with its catholic church on the north rim of the valley.

I've told the brewery story here before so won't repeat it. The church is a great story in itself and can be found on Wiki. I won't give a whole lot away but the new stone church was build as a shell around the old church and then the old one dismantled. Famous Canadian author Jane Urquhart used the church construction as the backdrop for her novel The Stone Carvers.

Formosa is also known to the philatelic community for having a squared circle thick bar hammer that had the corners rounded off. Supposedly the theory is that the squared corners may have ripped the cloth on the ink pad. The solution was to round off the corners with a file, which produced an altered "state" hammer. The example below is one I got off the web:

Formosa Ontario Squared Circle Postmark With Rounded Corners

An Australian singer, Kamahl
memorised and recites the Gettysburg address
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOOGouXr2gQ

An absolutely stirring rendition Rod! Listened to it twice last night and again this morning with my coffee. Makes you want to absorb every phrase.

So - which post office had the squarest squared circle?

The answer is Wingham in Huron County, Ontario. According to BNA Topics (1955 v12 n4) its hammer is a perfect 25mm x 25mm but: