Ceremonies planned at Fort Clatsop National Memorial and Cape Disappointment State ParkFriday marks the official first release day for the new postage stamps commemorating the Lewis and Clark expedition.

But Bill White got a sneak preview Wednesday at the Astoria Post Office.

The Portland stockbroker was given the opportunity to hand-stamp “first-day” postmarks on dozens of cards and letters bearing the new stamps that he’ll mail out or keep for his growing collection of historical postal markings. He was given the rare honor on one condition – that he agree not to send out any of the marked envelopes and cards before the official release day Friday.

That’s when the new stamps will be unveiled at two separate ceremonies, at 9 a.m. at the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center at Cape Disappointment State Park in Washington and at noon at Fort Clatsop National Memorial.

Fort Clatsop and Cape Disappointment are two of 11 sites across the country hosting ceremonies Friday where the new stamps will be unveiled.

The Postal Service is issuing three different designs for the 37-cent stamps – one featuring a portrait of Lewis, another of Clark, and the third showing both explorers gazing westward. Those attending the ceremonies can not only buy copies of the stamps, but also get letters and other pieces of mail stamped with “first day of issue” and special commemorative postmarks and mailed on site.

LORI ASSA – The Daily Astorian

Clark’s stamp, one of three stamps which will commemorate the Lewis and Clark expedition, are affixed to collectable envelopes in preparation for the first-day.The pictorial postmarks, one for Astoria showing Fort Clatsop and the other for Ilwaco showing a Lewis and Clark map of the lower Columbia, were created by noted engraver Thomas Rogers of Long Beach, Wash. Rogers has created designs for a variety of coins and medals, including three of the special-edition quarters and the Sacagawea dollar coin.

U.S. Postal Service Chief Financial Officer Richard J. Strasser Jr. will serve as the dedicating official at both events, which will also include local dignitaries, area park officials, tribal leaders and historians. A color guard with members of the National Guard, U.S. Coast Guard and National Park Service will also be on hand. Admission to both parks will be free all day Friday.

Fort Clatsop Superintendent Chip Jenkins said he’s extending a special invitation to families and children to Friday’s ceremony, where they’ll be able to create their own unique Lewis and Clark mementos with paper, pens, crayons and other supplies provided by the park which they can then have completed with the new stamps and postmarks.

Free Shuttle ServiceFree shuttle service will be available for people attending Friday’s Lewis and Clark stamp unveiling ceremonies.

Pacific Transit will offer free service to riders on its regular schedule between the Port of Ilwaco and Cape Disappointment State Park for the 9 a.m. ceremony at the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center. Cape Disappointment will also provide shuttle rides from the nearby boat launch parking area.

For the Fort Clatsop ceremony scheduled for noon, visitors can park at the Port of Astoria’s Pier 1 and ride a Sunset Empire Transportation District shuttle to the park. The shuttle service begins at 8:30 a.m., and return trips to Astoria will continue until 5:30 p.m.

The Fort Clatsop parking lot will be open, but visitors are encouraged to use the shuttle because of the limited parking available. The Lewis and Clark stamps are among several released this year honoring everything from the new World War II national memorial to Dr. Seuss. Many are unveiled in ceremonies at significant places and dates – in the case of the Lewis and Clark stamps, May 14 is the 200th anniversary of the explorers’ departure from St. Louis, Mo., at the start of their two-year journey.

White said he planned to mail out about 100 letters containing the stamps and postmarks – “It’s like a Christmas card list,” he said – and keep some for his own collection and give others to other collectors. He never sells any postmarks, he said.

The issuance of the Lewis and Clark stamps is a big event for Oregon, White said – the last first-day ceremony the state hosted was in 1993 for the Oregon Trail stamp – but he’s interested in less momentous occasions, too, like 100th and 150th anniversaries of post offices around Clackamas County. He keeps a data base of all the relevant dates and calls up the post offices a year in advance to let them know about their upcoming birthday, in the event they’ve lost track, he said. Then he attends the ceremonies to collect any special postmarks created for the occasion.

White emphasizes he’s a “postal history collector,” not a stamp collector. What he’s after, and has been for the past 37 years, are the postmarks stamped onto letters, postcards and packages that identify when and where the item was mailed.

“So many people go through shoeboxes looking for old stamps, when often what is far more interesting and valuable is the postmarks,” he said. “Some of the best finds are destroyed because people don’t realize what they are.”

His interest began in the 1960s when the house mother of a fraternity he worked for told him that stamps commemorating U.S. space missions would probably become very valuable. He began seeking envelopes with postmarks from naval vessels that retrieved the returning spacecraft, and a hobby was born.

He narrowed his focus in the 1970s after buying property in the community of Brightwood near Mount Hood and began researching the history of the area. He’s set his goal on finding postmarks from the 147 post offices that have operated in Clackamas County over the past century and a half.

“When you start something, you collect everything, and it takes a couple of years before time, and your pocketbook, says ‘Hey, you better specialize,'” he said.

Some of the marks are from post offices in long-established cities like Oregon City, while others are from mining and logging camps that operated only a year or two. White’s favorite is an 1852 letter addressed to one Phillip Foster “at the foot of the Cascade Mtns., Oregon City, O.T. (Oregon Territory).”