Show Me Your Highway Post Office Aka Hpo Covers

loads of these on buckacover. I love that site but it's stock been really thinned out lately.

I always forget to check that site. Thanks for the reminder.

This link has a nice video with archival footage of Highway Post Offices:

http://www.postalmuseum.si.edu/exhi...movie.html#1

Hello all, this cover is for the initial run of the Yakima, Wa. to Pasco, Wa HPO. It is signed by the Yakima Postmaster of that time Tom Stave. I knew Tom because I worked at the Yakima PO in the early 60's to middle 70's. Tom was quite a guy, he was a doughboy in WWI. I recall that he never used any sick leave. When he had to have surgery once he used his vacation time to cover it. When he retired, with about 40 years of service, he had over (I think) 5000 hours of sick leave, which in those days, he was not compensated for it. You don't find too many folks like that any more. yakboomer.

Hmm, now that I look at my cover, the cachet says first trip, but the postmark says trip 64. I am sure that someone on this site can explain it to me. thanks, yakboomer.

Let's give this old topic a dust-off! I was thumbing through my RPO covers today and discovered I had a couple HPO first trip covers in with them. So I did a little searching on the forum and came up with this thread.

Turns out I have a bookend to one of the covers posted eight years back, the last day trip of the Portland to Corvallis, Oregon route. This one has some personal significance to me as I lived in Portland for 12 years.





Posted by Battlestamps in 2010:


I also have one from the Baltimore to DC first trip:





I'd love to see some more of these from other routes!

This cover is one that I mailed to myself when I was 13 years old. We lived in Hemet CA, 4 miles from San Jacinto and the HPO came through town for a short time. Surprised I could actually find the cover.

Here's another cover for your enjoyment:

On Oct 11 1958, Mendocino California celebrated 100 years of postal service and dedicated a new post office building. As a special feature of the celebration, the USPOD authorized it's Highway Post Office Vehicle No 1 to participate in the celebration. The cover contains a flyer with more details.

I was wondering the same thing about that San Jacinto cover. Anyone have an answer?

The trip number is a reference to the route. Normally, on a HPO cover it is Trip 1 as shown on the Baltimore to Washington cover. Trip 2 would be the return trip from Washington to Baltimore. While 1 and 2 are the most common numbers, others were used, often where the HPO met a RPO route.

So Trip 64 would be an extension of an RPO route number?

Another bump up on the HPO covers.

Non-philatelic HPO covers are difficult to find. HPOs picked-up, sorted, and dispatched mail on their routes, but did not cancel much on the bus.

This cover is kind of a hybrid. It is not a first trip, but is, I believe, philatelic in origin. Given the signatures in the upper left corner, it is likely a favor cancel. The addressee apparently worked as a clerk for the Postal Transportation System, the successor to the Railway Mail Service. Note the PTS in the killer instead of a RMS. I have seen other HPO covers addressed to him and my guess is he was clerk on an HPO or a RPO and collected HPO covers.

I worked for the Postal Transportation System as a substitute mail clerk. Never on an HPO, but on RPOs between Chicago and Omaha, Omaha and Cheyenne, and Omaha and Denver, and in the PTS terminals at Council Bluffs and Omaha from 1958 to 1960 when I transferred into the Omaha post office. I don't collect HPO covers, but was taken with the cachet on this one and bought it for my general cover collection.

Don

Yet another nice HPO. Nothing on the reverse.