Post Offices That No Longer Exist

Hi all! Who knows about Post Offices that no longer exist? These 2 cancels are from Monroe County, Iowa. I believe that they were just "Pop-ups" from coal mining towns. So, if anyone knows of any good books or websites I could check out, please let me know. I thank you in advance.

Try the "U.S. Post Offices" link at left side of Jim Forte's website to get to a list of post office opening/closing data:

https://www.postalhistory.com/

To obtain exact dates, then use this website for "postal bulletins":
http://www.uspostalbulletins.com/pd...oup=48&id=48

Thank you, John Becker! I appreciate your help.

I'm one of those metal detecting guys, and I know so ething about those kind of post offices. Back around the 1800s and way-early 1900s, a lot of little hamlets had their own post offices. In fact, a lot of railroad stops were named after the post office fledgling town. Mind you, this was during pioneer times (think Little House on the Prairie), and the post office back then was at the general store,feed store, places like that. But as 20-30 years went by and the railroads became more prominent and more people moved
d in, the towns grew significantly and the people voted for different names or the US Postal Service got involved for different names and all that.

Ir sometimes, the towns just became ghost towns and things petered out.

Still, you have a local-interest item that your town or county or state might be interested in because really, your item on,y has local historical value, it seems. If I were you, I'd contact them.

STTScott, I have about 35 of the old local post office cancels on postcards. At least half of them are ghost towns. If you take a country cruise to where some of these places were, you can see ruins of these places.

My area of New South Wales is quite similar. Post Offices popping up in fleeting mining towns or navvie camps when the railways were constructed. Some open only for a few weeks or months.

It's as fascinating as it is romantic

To paint with a broad brush, I suspect for Iowa and much of the midwest, that many of the discontinuances (especially those c1900-1915) were for conversions to RFD routes out of adjacent towns.

Morning BakerJ and all,

Google up maps of Iowa from the era of your post offices. Especially look for an old Rand McNally Shipper's Guide map which contains every little berg with info on the railroad lines that serve it. Should be a fruitful search.