1870 – A historically important postally-used envelope sent from Fort Yuma, California to Auburn, California, in the heart of what had formerly been California’s richest gold-mining country

Item Details

Fort Yuma, California, 1870, Unbound

Very Good

This postally used envelope (no contents) was sent from Fort Yuma in California to Auburn, California via Arizona City in the Arizona Territory. It is franked with a 3-cent ultramarine transcontinental railroad stamp (Scott #114) tied to the envelope by a bulls-eye killer handstamp. It bears a scarce “Geo. A. Johnson & Co. / Fort Yuma” double-oval handstamp as well as an Arizona City postmark, both dated May 18^th, 1870. In nice shape with a small chip at the lower left corner and minor soiling along the left margin.

Fort Yuma (which was located in California, not Arizona) was established in 1850 to protect settlers in and travelers through the Imperial Valley from attacks by the Quechan and Cocopah during the Yuma War. Later, it protected the Yuma Quartermaster Depot, located across the Gila River in the Arizona Territory, which supplied military forts and units throughout the southwest during the Indian Wars of the second half of the 19^th century.

George A. Johnson & Company was a partnership between three men who pioneered navigation on the Colorado River: Benjamin M. Hartshorne, George Alonzo Johnson, and Alfred H. Wilcox. It was founded in the fall of 1852 and reorganized as the Colorado Steam Navigation Company in 1869. (Apparently, the company continued to use its old postmark after the reorganization.) Its ships transported military supplies and equipment from California ports to the Yuma Quartermaster Depot.

Fort Yuma did not have its own post office, so mail from the post was carried across the Gila River to Arizona City in the Arizona Territory where it was loaded onto the Johnson Company’s Colorado River steamers for transport to Port Isabel on the Gulf of California in Sonora, Mexico. From there, it continued around Baja California to San Diego and finished its journey by land to Auburn.

A very scarce example of riverboat mail documenting the route that supported U.S. Army posts throughout the southwest. A few faults as noted above, so priced accordingly.

#10478