Page 59 - Demo

December 19, 1951%u2014%u2014Wabash%u2014%u2014Granger FieldUnknown number of pieces cancelled.Addressee, philatelist George Daniel Austed, advertised in The Airpost Journal in the 1950s. Austed return address on reverse. No backstamp. however, an airport almost 80 miles away from Wabash%u2014near Granger, Indiana. It was called Foos Field, but didn%u2019t fit with the cover I had obtained.I began to suspect that neither cover was authentic, so I sent scans to Don Lussky, a noted airmail collector I%u2019d communicated with who lived near Chicago. Don had been interested in airmail for more than 60 years, and said it was unlikely that anyone would have had a dedication ceremony in December, the middle of winter. But he added that the addressee on both covers, George Austed, had been a very reputable airmail collector. Don had no comment as to the authenticity of my two covers, but I was able to find that I had another cover addressed to George Austed (for the Greencastle Airport Dedication) that had the words %u201cAirport Dedication%u201d rubber-stamped on the cover in the very same script as the Lincoln Field and Granger Field covers. The typewriter font on the two covers was also similar. These facts implied that Austed likely believed there was a dedication at both Lincoln Field and Granger Field, even though there may not have actually been one at either location. Living in California, he probably didn%u2019t have a great deal of knowledge about Indiana airports, so where he got his information about two dedications near Wabash, Indiana is anyone%u2019s guess.I have kept both covers in this collection, even though I have serious doubts about either%u2019s authenticity. I consider such ambiguity a part of collecting%u2014and because these two covers have survived for several decades in the hands of various people, I wouldn%u2019t want to be the one to throw them in the trash.