The State College area has a new monument coming its way to commemorate some heroes whom its residents may not have even known they had.

The American Philatelic Society has acquired a 2,800-pound granite memorial to honor pioneer airmail pilots.

The statue, which cost more than $2,000, has been donated by Paul Mulvehill of Ebensburg, so it can be displayed in Centre County at an undetermined location.

Kim Kowalczyk, director of education at the American Philatelic Society, said that the organization is hoping to have the memorial ready by June 26.

Between 1919 and 1927, 34 pilots lost their lives in the Allegheny Mountains in and around Bellefonte, which was a treacherous region of air that was later dubbed "Hell's Stretch."

With limited navigational tools, open cockpits and fragile planes, World War I veterans took to the air to deliver mail over the 2,666-mile coast-to-coast route. In that first decade of airborne delivery, 55 pilots crashed.

Their deaths went unnoticed, wedged as they were between two world wars, but they paved the way for the modern era of postal service, Kowalczyk said.

Though the Allegheny Mountains may pale in comparison to the Rockies, their altitude caused significant trouble for these pilots, especially at night, Mulvehill said.

Hazardous weather conditions, fatigue, mechanical fires and low-hanging wires were all factors that contributed to fatalities in the early days of airmail.

"Some of these mountains are over 2,900 feet," Mulvehill said. "The pilots used to have icing on their wings, and sometimes, they'd have fires in their cockpits."

The initial flights went from College Park, Md., to Philadelphia, and then on to New York.

"They did not even deliver mail as fast as the trains back then. They were just trying to get things underway for their eventual goal of cross-country mail service," said Cathy Allen, Maryland's College Park museum director.

Mulvehill, a retired Navy pilot who fought in World War II, Korea and Vietnam, has been the driving force behind this belated memorial.

"I started way back in 2002, working with people in D.C. I am a historian buff, and I just got wrapped up in it. I always thought they should be recognized," Mulvehill said.

Although several potential sponsors turned him down during his two-year mission to find a resting place for the monument, Mulvehill's personal project has come a long way.

Kowalczyk said the memorial is six feet tall, four feet wide, eight inches thick, and will have an inscription reading, "Dedicated to the memory of the U.S. Airmail Pioneers 1918-1927."

She added that the society plans on providing a plaque with a picture as well.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.