Unusual Postal Service

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31551, 13 December 1967, Page 9

Unusual Postal Service

(N.Z.P. A.-Reuter) RATTLESNAKE ISLAND (Ohio). International stamp collectors have turned the spotlight on this single - family island since it established its own postal service last own set of postage stamps.

Situated in Lake Erie, just one and a half miles northwest of the resort island of Put-in-Bay, Rattlesnake Island was able to establish its own postal service under a Federal law, passed in 1865, which permits the operation of a local postal service where a regular United States postal service is not provided. The island is not on a regular postal route. Even so, all has not been plain sailing. The local postal service was suspended at the beginning of the year on the ground that at least one of the stamps could, the General

Counsel’s office in Washington said, be mistaken for an United States postage stamp. Finally, it was agreed that the island stamp would be accepted again if It were printed in a triangular frame. United States stamps are all rectangular. There are three stamps in the island’s set. One shows a map of Lake Erie islands in red and grey, another a Ford 3-engine “Tin Goose” aircraft landing on the island, and the third showing an island scene in blue and black.

Reliable, all-the-year-round postal services can only be maintained by air. The service is made by Island Airlines, on what is said to be the shortest air route in the world. The airline’s longest flight is about four miles, and the Shortest runway on Rattlesnake Island is only about 1700 feet long. The whole island, which is wooded, is only three-quarters of a mile long and quarter of a mile wide. It is about 85 acres in area.

It is mainly used by business executives as a hunting and fishing retreat Only two people, Mr and

Mrs Charles Busch, live on Rattlesnake Island all through the year. Mrs Busch acts as postmistress, as well as chef and hostess to visitors sent by the company which owns and operates the island. Mr Busch serves as a caretaker and a guide to the visitors.

The stamp issue has given Mr and Mrs Busch a new and varied contact with the outside world. Some 27,000 requests for stamps have reached the island from collectors in all parts of the United States and from every major foreign country, except Italy, since the set was issued.

These requests have initiated Mr and Mrs Busch into some of the intricacies of foreign exchange. Stamp collectors in communist countries, for instance, are not permitted to send money out of their countries. So they choose stamps which they know to be of value to other stamp collectors, and send them in exchange for the island stamps. Funds accruing from the sale of the stamps are used to pay for the air service to the island made by the aircraft of Island Airlines.