Luxury of Rural Mail Delivery on Rock Creek

In early years the residents of Rock Creek did not have mail delivery. Bearmouth to Coloma route was established in 1897. Rural mail route contracts for Granite County in 1901 were: “Drummond to Helmville to Ovando and back [Contract pay $1,229 per year]; Philipsburg to Granite and back [Contract pay $264.79 per year]; Princeton to Flint Railroad station and back [Contract pay $260.00 per year]; Bearmouth to Garnet to Coloma and back [Contract Pay $417.68]. Thomas Parks who homesteaded at the mouth of Trail Gulch petitioned and received the appointment as Postmaster for the Post Office of Wilma which existed from 1903 to 1905, allowing the people in the south western part of the county to receive their mail for at least a couple of years.

Lawrence Hauck, Postmaster of Philipsburg met with Congressman Dixon on September 24, 1904 to request a rural mail route for free delivery of mail “for the people of Rock Creek and Willow Creek in Granite County.” A petition was given to the Congressman with signatures from all the residents on the route. During the week of June 16, 1905, Mr. Fogerty (Postal Inspector) made a tour of the proposed mail route with James Hickey.

In August, 1905 bids were let to carry the mail from Philipsburg to Wilma, a distance of 18 miles. The term would be from September 19, 1905 to June 1906 and the time schedule would be: “Leave Wilma Tuesday and Saturday at 7 a.m. and arrive at Philipsburg at 12 noon. Leave Philipsburg Tuesday and Saturday at 1 p.m. and arrive at Wilma at 6 pm. A bond of 800 dollars will be required with each bid.”

There is no evidence a bid was let for this route but instead I found an advertised examination for a rural mail carrier for Rural Route No. 1 to be held on November 25, 1905, if at least three applications were received by November 15, with delivery beginning January 4, 1906. Because the description of the route was in section lines I will condense it to read: beginning at the P’Burg Post Office they will travel south 6 ½ miles, then west ½ mile to school house then southwesterly (over Mungas Hill and down Trail Gulch) to Wilma 6 ½ miles, then passing the Middle Fork School and over the Kaiser Hill and up Ross’ Fork to the Naef Place (Schillings Gulch), then retrace route to Middle and East Fork; then northwesterly to West Fork and Rock Creek then down Rock Creek to Willow Creek; down Rock Creek to Wyman Ranch and retrace route to Willow Creek to Luthje Ranch then retrace 2 miles and continue easterly over Marshall Creek Hill to P’Burg Post Office. Distance 59 ¾ miles;  number of houses 80; population 310. Schedule: Leave Post Office Mondays and Thursdays at 8a.m. arrive at Naef place Monday and Thursday afternoon at 4 p.m. Leave Naef place Tuesdays and Fridays at 8a.m. arrive at Wyman’s place at 4 p.m. Tuesday and Friday afternoon; leave Wyman’s place Wednesday and Saturday morning at 8 a.m. arrive at Philipsburg Post Office Wednesday and Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m.

Restrictions listed to apply for the test: not being able to do the work, such as persons with only one arm or one leg or who have crutches; wages paid each month totaling $720.00 a year. Families desiring mail service must supply a mail box. The cost of the approved boxes  ranged from 75 cents to $4.00. John H. Ley was named carrier with Henry Dissett as alternate, in January. Obviously Mr. Ley did not pan out as the January 11, 1906 Mail stated “January 12^th the Rock Creek Mail Route will start with Millard L. Bashor as carrier.

            

            December 1, 1910 there was a vacancy on the Rock Creek Rural route with new wages starting at $900 a year. By January 1911 “Rural mail carrier Farrington turned back this morning at the lane beyond Schoonover’s being that the snow was too deep after high winds Wednesday made drifts as high as the fence. 

Then    Then by April “W. N. Fessler has been appointed temporary rural carrier on the Rock Creek route. Ward Carothers resigned to go on his father’s farm in Idaho.” W.N. (Wilbur) then became the permanent mail carrier. In 1916: “Mrs. W.N. Fessler is serving as substitute rural mail carrier” while her husband was on vacation in Spokane. “Mrs. Fessler reports very high water… with the roads  impassable below the Gillies bridge and the West Fork bridge has gone out. Yet this plucky little woman hasn’t missed a trip making the lower Rock Creek route one day and the upper route the next.”  

            Wilbur Fessler and his wife were the mail carriers until the route was cancelled in 1917, when “The Rock Creek rural mail route appears to be a thing of the past according to a letter received by Postmaster Clara D. McDonel. Legislative action limits rural routes served with horse drawn vehicles to 25 miles. Relief is expected by amending the postal laws and the rural delivery to Rock Creek can be re-established..

I did not find any follow-up to this story. Obviously the country was so pre-occupied with World War I that a minor issue such as ranchers not having any mail delivery was a moot point.