It was September 30, 1978 that the last operating railway post office boat route was run on New Hampshire's Lake Winnipesaukee. Of course, this doesn't mean that mail is not still carried on the lake. In fact, those who want to travel the postal route can, simply by buying a cruise ticket on the mail boat that delivers to denizens of the lake's islands. But if you want an RPO cancel on a cover you are out of luck.
Winnipesaukee had marked other postal milestones years earlier, but these had nothing to do with either boat or rail. In 1928 the first RFD (Rural Free Delivery) Airmail Star Route services were completed by aviator Lt. Robert S. Fogg flying the shores.
And while Charles Lindbergh made it successfully across the Atlantic in 1927, his aviation comrades from France, Charles Nungesser and Francois Coli, attempting the crossing from the other side, were not so lucky. They took off from Paris in L'Oiseau Blanc (The White Bird), May 8, 1927 and that was the last they were seen. One of the places they were thought to have gone down, obviously off-course, was in the environs of Lake Winnipesaukee. A commemorative stamp was issued for them by France in 1967.
Lake Winnipesaukee itself has never received postal commemoration. Doesn't it seem now would be a good the time? Even a block of four on mail boats, one featuring the Sophie C., said to be the oldest full service floating post office in the U.S. would be nice.
I suppose getting a commemorative isn't on the level of necessity of getting stamps to actually frank your mail. Consider other island residents, those of Pitcairn Island, who philosophically were aligned with the "Live Free Or Die" sentiments of New Hampshirites. Fletcher Christian and his Bounty mutineers' descendants didn't get their own stamps until 1940, almost 150 years after the island was settled. Hmmm, do you think Mother England was holding a grudge? (To be fair, England herself didn't have stamps until 1840's Penny Black.)
But for over 100 years mail was carried from Pitcairn catch as catch can, with a hand stamp noting that no stamps were available. For years ships carried mail that was eventually franked with stamps at the first port of call, often San Francisco. That ceased in 1927 when the island's first postal agency was created. But Pitcairn still didn't have its own stamps, as only those from New Zealand were used on outgoing mail.
So the folks on the Winnepasaukee islands, getting their mail delivered everyday, seasons permitting, have it pretty good after all. But will it take a collector's mutiny to get a stamp for the postally historic lake? Probably a nice letter to the Citizens Stamp Advisory Committee would be a better bet.