The feature stamp on this hand-drawn and hand painted --- and very likely, One-of-a-Kind --- all-over FDC, by Geri Pelton, is the PO's 1987 Author, Bret Harte high-denomination $5.00 stamps, Scott # 2196 . . . which has The distinction of being the highest face value stamp from the PO's approximately 63-stamp, Great Americans series, a series which spanned the years 1980 to 1999.

About the inspiration for the feature stamp and cachet : born in 1836 in Albany, New York, Bret, at the age of 18, moved out to California with his widowed mother, where he laid his "claim to fame" as an author (among many other talents). His popular short stories almost always were set in the mid-1800s' mining towns of the California Gold Rush. It was Harte 1868 story, The Luck of the Roaring Camp that ensured his success as a writer. It told the gut-wrenching story of a mining camp which consisted of just one woman, who died while giving birth to her son. Subsequently, the men in the camp vowed to group together an raise the child, As they did so, they saw that their lives, as miners, began to take root. Because of this newly found good fortune, they decided to nick-name their collective child Luck. But just when it seemed that they were "on top of the world," a devastating flash flood hit their camp, causing Luck's premature death . . . as well as the hopes and the dreams of the miners.

Other notable literary works which endeared him to the reading public were stories such as Cripple Creek, Harte's gripping tale about government agents sent out to California to capture crooked gold smugglers --- and Harte's 1869 story, The Outcasts of Poker Flats, the story of 4 people . . . a poker player, a saloon hall girl, a "madam," and the town drunk . . . who are kicked out of the town of Poker Flats and left to fend for themselves, with utterly disastrous results.     

About the hand drawn, hand painted cachet : on her superbly colored, hand painted cachet, Mrs. Pelton escorts us to an 1850s California mining camp where we see two of the miners digging for gold, while the other two miners are taking a brief break over a campfire, and all this in a setting of towering trees and their self-built cabin in the backdrop.

About the cancellation site : this cancel site is truly spot-on . . . the town of Twain Harte, California. The town was named for authors Bret Harte and Mark Twain who became friends when they actually met up in California.

About the Scarcity Factor : as noted above, this is most likely a One-of-a-Kind FDC.

All in all, this is Mrs. Pelton's philatelic shout-out to a gifted author who introduced the thrilling and dangerous, early California way of life to the American public. 

INTERESTING TIDBIT: Those who flooded into California in 1849 to search for gold were referred to as 49ers, the very name that was adopted by football's San Francisco 49ers when they began their gridiron franchise 97 years later, in 1946.