WPSU’s TV and Digital series, Keystone Stories, explores the people, places and culture that make Central Pennsylvania unique. In the second episode of Season 4, “Taking Flight,” Keystone Stories looks at the history of airmail in Centre Country. In this sneak peek, you’ll hear first from Ken Martin and Marian Mills from the American Philatelic Society. The organization for stamp collectors is located in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania.
Ken Martin
The first official government flights of airmail were between D.C., Philadelphia, New York in May of 1918. Bellefonte started in late 1918, in December 1918, as being a regular stop for the New York to Chicago flight. Bellefonte just happened to be about the distance a plane could fly in a tank of fuel with just a little cushion if there's counter winds or whatever, you know, to get here.
So it stopped at Bellefonte, then Cleveland, then Bryan, Ohio, which is on the Ohio/Indiana line, and then Chicago. That was at least the scheduled stops. The early planes were kind of unreliable, so sometimes there were unscheduled stops or crashes. Unfortunately.
Marian Mills
A lot of the pilots that came through Bellefonte that flew the airmail in general were daredevils. They had to be really very brave and it was called a suicide club because it was a dangerous position and many of them died. Five of those died in Pennsylvania's Allegheny Mountains. And because of that, this region was called the Hell Stretch.
Ken Martin
So early on this was the most dangerous area. And this is where about half of the pilots that died in the first couple of years died in the Centre County region.
Pilots in 1918, 1919, they were seen sort of like an astronaut would've been in the 1960s. You talk about paparazzi with actors and so forth. They were fawned upon. If they flew into Bellefonte, families would almost fight if they needed to stay overnight. “Stay with us.” That would have been seen as prestigious and many of them dressed and also acted to sort of build a cult or whatever.
Narrator
Bellefonte remained a vital stop on the airmail system for 10 years. Now, nearly 100 years later, Bellefonte still has an important role in the postal service, specifically to stamp collectors.
Marian Mills
So we are in the American Philatelic Research Library, which is in the American Philatelic Center in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania. It caters to members of the American Philatelic Society who are interested in doing research related to stamps and stamp collecting, the Postal Service, postal history.
Ken Martin
We do have several exhibits, too. We have an exhibit on the early airmail. Right now we have a map that the pilots used to fly from New York to Bellefonte. It's a long, four foot map that would fold up and their uniform, their trousers, had a big pocket that they could put the map in.
Narrator
In June, Bellefonte added a mural of an airmail pilot and his plane. There’s a stamp in the corner and a border of blue and red dashes like an airmail envelope. Local Historia founder and public historian Matt Maris attended a block party to celebrate the new mural and Bellefonte’s place in the history of airmail in the United States.
Matt Maris
It really put us on the map, like literally at that time in the 1920s, and put the small town and central PA on the map. Back in the day, kids were rushing to see, these planes land as biplanes and, they would let them out of school. And, you know, people were fascinated by it. And now kids and adults can walk by and still be inspired.
Narrator
You heard from experts Ken Martin, Marian Mills, and Matt Maris.
Watch the full Keystone Stories episode about “Taking Flight" online.