Bison Becomes the First National Mammal

Postcard US-3939822 to Lithuania shows a herd of bison. The fuzzy, horned giant becomes a national symbol after President Obama signed the National Bison Legacy Act into law early today making it the national mammal of the United States.

Early American settlers mistakenly called bison “buffalo” due to the similar appearance between the two animals. However, the two main buffalo species only reside in Africa and Asia, while the American bison (Bison bison) lives only in North America,

The bison nearly went extinction during the westward expansion of the United States in the early 1800s, resulting from a deliberate policy of depriving Native Americans of a significant source of food, clothing and shelter. Its population recovered only after a concerted effort by conservationists in the early 20th century.

The bison is also the state mammal in Kansas, Oklahoma and Wyoming.

Rufous Hummingbird and Rocky Mountain Beeplant

Postcard US-2996988 to Florida was a maxi card of a Rufous hummingbird feeding on flowers of Rocky Mountain Beeplant on Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge in western Sweetwater County, Wyoming. The stamp was a USPS 34-cent Hummingbird stamp with a first-day-of-issue postmark dated February 7, 2014 in Kansas City, Missouri. Photo from the USFWS Mountain Prairie collection by Tom Koerner/USFWS; used under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0.

Love is a Force of Nature

I got this Brokeback Mountain movie promotional card during its Ft. Lauderdale International Film Festival premiere at Cinema Paradiso in 2005. The movie told a powerful story of two young men, a ranch hand and a rodeo cowboy, who sheepherded in the Wyoming mountains in the summer of 1963 and formed a life-long bond with love and conflicts.

Sixteen years ago today on October 6, 1998, Matthew Shepard, a student at the University of Wyoming, was beaten, tortured and left to die near Laramie, Wyoming. He was targeted and attacked by two men because he was gay. His death from severe head injuries six days later brought national and international attention to hate crime legislation. However, it wasn't until October 2009 that the United States Congress passed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act. President Barack Obama signed the "Matthew Shepard Act" into law on October 28, 2009.

Today on October 6, 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review those cases where state laws banning same-sex marriage were overturned by federal appeals courts, which resulted immediate recognition of same-sex marriage in Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin. Wyoming could see same-sex marriages recognized by the end of this year as it was covered by the same circuit appeals courts as Utah and Oklahoma. Five additional states: North Carolina, South Carolina, West Virginia, Colorado, and Kansas, are also covered.

The card was sent in to obtain a first-day-of-issue postmark on a Harvey Milk Forever Stamp on July 21, 2014, along with other first-day-of-issue postmark and digital color postmarks. It took two months for the fulfilled order to be returned on September 23, 2014.