WAVERLEY: As Waverley prepares to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Gold Rush Days this week, a small but meaningful piece of the community’s history is finding its way onto envelopes, postcards and other commemorative mail.
Hugh and Jane Rathbun have put their creative touch on a new pictorial stamp cancel marking the milestone anniversary, a design that captures both the spirit of the annual celebration and Waverley’s deep connection to its gold mining past.
For Hugh, who has a personal interest in postmarks, the anniversary presented the perfect opportunity.
“When the 50th anniversary of Waverley Gold Rush Days came up, it seemed to be a perfect opportunity to get a pictorial postmark for that event,” he said.
The design itself was based on an image created by the Waverley Gold Rush Committee, with Hugh and Jane adapting it into the format required for a Canada Post pictorial postmark.
The finished design includes the commemorative image along with text recognizing the 50th anniversary of Waverley Gold Rush Days.
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The response so far has been encouraging, something Hugh says reflects the community’s appreciation for its own history.
“People in Waverley are quite interested in local history,” Rathbun said.
And there is certainly plenty of history to celebrate.
Waverley’s gold mining heritage runs deep, with remnants of that era still visible in parts of the community.
Rathbun recalled taking part in a tour of some of the former gold mining sites and seeing firsthand what remains of that chapter in Waverley’s past.
“It was very, very interesting to see the remnants of what’s still around,” he said, adding that there were many others on the tour who shared the same interest in learning about the community’s history.
While the pictorial cancel is a small item, it is another way for Waverley residents to celebrate a major community milestone, and to literally put a piece of that celebration into the hands of people near and far.
The new cancel has officially been in use since Aug. 4 and will remain available at the Waverley Post Office through the end of the year.
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Waverley Postmaster Sarah Marchildon said the post office is fortunate to have community members willing to lend their talents to projects such as this one.
“We here at the Post Office are very lucky to have such dedicated community members helping us contribute to the community spirit!” Marchildon said.
She is encouraging anyone interested to stop by the post office before the end of the year to have their mail — or anything commemorative — stamped with the special pictorial cancel.
The project is also a reminder of the many people who work behind the scenes to keep Waverley’s community spirit strong.
For Hugh, Gold Rush Days is also simply something to look forward to.
“Oh, yes,” he said. “It’s always a fun time.”
As Waverley celebrates five decades of Gold Rush Days, the special postmark offers residents a unique way to remember the occasion, one small stamp at a time
