The U.S. Postal Service will celebrate the 190th anniversary of the first Stourbridge Lion run in Honesdale as well as the 150th anniversary of completion of the transcontinental railroad with a special ceremony.
The event will take place Thursday, Aug. 8, at noon at the Wayne County Visitors Center, 32 Commercial St, Honesdale, where guests can buy rides on the 190th Lion Anniversary Express.
A temporary post office station also will be set up for the event from 1 to 4 p.m. Guests can stop there to buy the new Transcontinental Forever Stamp (which the Postal Service issued May 10) and obtain a unique collector’s item — a pictorial postmark that local artist Jerry DeCrotie designed. Only items with uncanceled postage stamps (at the First-Class Mail rate) can receive the postmarking.
Those who cannot attend the event but still want to receive the collector’s stamp can mail a self-addressed stamped return envelope to Honesdale Railroad Station, Honesdale Post Office, 830 Main St., Honesdale, PA 18431, within 30 days.
The Stourbridge Lion was the first steam locomotive to be operated in the United States. Spectators lined up to watch the train’s 1829 trial run over the Lackawaxen River.
Just 40 years later, in 1869, the country celebrated the linkup of the transcontinental railroad by driving a gold spike into the last railroad tie.
Caitlin Heaney West is the content editor for Access NEPA and oversees the Early Access blog in addition to working as a copy editor and staff writer for The Times-Tribune. An award-winning journalist, she is a summa cum laude graduate of Shippensburg University and also earned a master’s degree from Marywood University. Caitlin joined the Times-Shamrock family in 2009 and lives in Scranton. Contact: cwest@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9100 x5107; or @cheaneywest
