History of the Dakota Postal History Society

The Dakota Postal History Society was formed in November of 1982 as the N.D. Postal History Society with the following officers elected at this meeting:

Don Schiele, Grand Forks ND as President

Murray Pierce , Bismarck ND as Vice President

Gordon Twedt, Maddock ND as Secretary-Treasurer

The aim of the Society in 1982 was to create a new interest in the postal history of North Dakota, especially now when so many communites and areas of the state are celebrating their centennials. At the organizational meeting the following categories of History were established:

1. Material of the Dakota Territory Period.

2. Early Statehood (Pre 1920)

3. Late Statehood (Pre Zip Code)

4. Zip Code Era

Other phases would be RPO, Machine, Flag, RFD, Doane Cancels, First Flights, First Day Covers cancelled in North Dakota, Train Wreck or Plane Crash Covers, etc.

The Societies first Bulletin was only two pages and layed out this groundwork. At some point not too far after this Bulletin the North Dakota County Series was started. The First Dakota Collectors only showed the postmarks of the post offices and noted which ones had no known cancels. As technology and computers evolved so did the Dakota Collector. Eventually the full covers were shown. The front and back covers of many later issues were in color. As the Society moved along South Dakota Collectors started to show an interest and there were a number of articles on South Dakota Counties and other aspects of South Dakota Postal History. The name eventually evolved to become the Dakota Postal History Society and the Dakota Collector became a Research Journal of North and South Dakota Postal History.

This page was last updated 01 Jan 2021

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