Last but not least or actually even the most stunning incomings during my absence came from the USA. Four covers arrived, all filled with postcards and stamps, which I decided to put together in one post, as the stamps on the covers are best seen together.
Used over three of the covers was a stamp set I was looking for for years already: the complete set of US stamps for the 30th anniversary of Star Wars (issued 25-05-2007). Shown on the stamps are heroes and villains from the original triology and the prequels like Darth Vader, Emperator Palpatine, Queen Amidala, Master Yoda, Darth Maul, Princess Leia and R2-D2. Interestingly the stamps are printed with some type of varnish due to which most of the postmarks were wiped off. On the third cover the German Post used a "cancelled afterwards" cancel, but also of that not much can be seen anymore. Apart from the souvenir sheet with the fifteen stamps a single stamp with Master Yoda came out in the same year (issued 25-10-2007). That stamp was used on the fourth cover together with a stamp about Scooby-Doo (issued 14-07-2018) and two of the ten stamps about the Art of Ellsworth Kelly (issued 31-05-2019).
Among the stamps that were in the covers there were these two souvenir sheets about Bugs Bunny (issued 22-05-1997) and the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote (issued 26-04-2000). The other stamps that were inside you can see here on my stamp blog.
In total 14 cards were in the covers. Most of them show national monuments or national parks and all of them have cancels on the backside. This is the order in which they were in the covers.
The Chiricahua National Monument is shown on the first card. The Chiricahua National Monument was established in the Chiricahua Mountains of Arizona in 1924 to protect its extensive hoodoos and balancing rocks.
Fort Bowie was used as army outpost during fights with Native Americans for thirty years between 1864 and 1894. Located in Arizona, it is protected as National Historic Site.
Zion National Park makes an appearance on the first card from the second cover. The national park in Utah was established in 1919 and is known for its unique geography and a variety of life zones that allow for unusual plant and animal diversity. Its most famous feature is the Zion Canyon.
The Organ Mountains are a rugged mountain range in southern New Mexico. In 2014 the Organ Mountains–Desert Peaks National Monument was established, which protects both wilderness and many archaeological and cultural sites of interest. Located nearby is the Prehistoric Trackways National Monument. Of both national monuments there are cancels on the backside of the card.
Tuzigoot National Monument preserves a pueblo ruin on the summit of a limestone and sandstone ridge in Arizona. The pueblo was built by the Sinagua people between 1125 and 1400, was excavated from 1933 to 1935 and was designated a national monument by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939.
Fort Union was founded in 1851 just three years after New Mexico was annexed by the USA at the conclusion of the Mexican-American War. Since 1954 it is a national monument.
The first card from the third cover shows the Red Canyon. The Red Canyon is located in the Dixie National Forest in Utah and is described as gateway to the Bryce Canyon National Park 15km to the north-west. I especially like the cancel about Smokey the Bear.
The Aztec Ruins National Monument was created in 1923. The ruins were built by the Pueblo Indians nearly a thousand years ago. Their name however is the result of a misattribution. They were not built by the Aztecs. As part of the Chaco Culture is the Aztec Ruins National Monument since 1987 on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah or more precisely Thor's Hammer in the park is shown on the next card. The national park was established in 1928 and despite its name it is no canyon, but a collection of giant natural amphitheaters.
The Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array is a centimeter-wavelength radio astronomy observatory built in New Mexico in the 1970s. Astronomers using the site have made key observations of black holes and protoplanetary disks around young stars, discovered magnetic filaments and traced complex gas motions at the Milky Way's center, probed the Universe's cosmological parameters and provided new knowledge about the physical mechanisms that produce radio emission. Also it has appeared repeatedly in American popular culture and especially Science Fiction movies since its construction.
Montezuma Castle National Monument is shown on the first card of the last cover. Also this name is the result of a misattribution. Originally the dwellings were built and used by the Sinagua people, a pre-Columbian culture, between approximately 1100 and 1425, but were abandoned more than 40 years before the famous Aztec emperor Montezuma was born. Also it is not a castle in the traditional sense, but more like a prehistoric high rise apartment complex.
The Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument in New Mexico is a complex of three Spanish missions, the Gran Quivira Ruins, the Abó Ruins and the Quarai Ruins. The first and the last are shown on these two cards. Once home to thriving Native American trade communities, in the early 17th century Spanish Franciscans found the area ripe for their missionary efforts. Gran Quivira is a national monument since 1909. The other two were originally New Mexico State Monuments, but in 1981 they were absorbed by the national monument, which got its current name in 1988.
The Death Valley National Park shown on the last card is not only one of the most famous national parks in the USA but also the largest in the contiguous USA. Famous for being one of the hottest places in the World, it is also home to the second-lowest point in the Western Hemisphere, Badwater Basin. In 2013 it was also designated as a dark sky park.
Thank You very much Sam-Quito for all these wonderful cards and stamps!
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