To celebrate letterboxing history, feel free to bring some postcards to trade at this box, along with your personal journal or paper to stamp the letterbox stamp onto.
If you take a postcard, please leave one.
The letterbox stamp and ink pad are part of the box, so please don't take them!
This letterbox can be found at the posted coordinates.
Hike/Terrain: Hike from the trailhead (noted in the waypoints) to the cache is about 0.75 miles, or 1.5 miles roundtrip. The trail is moderate terrain with some ups-and-downs. This is not a park-and-grab. Map, information and driving directions can be found here.
History of Letterboxing
The hobby of Letterboxing was founded in 1854 in Dartmoor, England (now Dartmoor National Park). The first box was at Cranmere Pool, placed by a tour guide named James Perrott. Originally, he had the idea of trading calling cards, but it was later changed to exchanging letters and postcards.
How the letterbox worked is someone who found the box would leave a self-addressed envelope or postcard in the box. Then the next finder would write a letter about their adventure, where they are from, and maybe something interesting about themselves; and they would mail the letter and leave a new self-addressed envelope or postcard for the next finder - hence the name "Letterboxing."
The actual container was changed out over the years, but eventually a concrete structure with a metal box was constructed, which still stands today.
The world's first Letterbox, located at Cranmere Pool in Dartmoor National Park, England. It was placed in 1854 and still exists today.
In about 1907 the idea of a stamp in the box came about, which could be stamped onto the letters. This idea was based on the concept of postage cancellation stamps. This served as proof that the letter actually came from the letterbox. With more frequent visitors, the idea of self-addressed envelopes was shifted to a simple logbook in the box, where people could sign their names and write something about their adventure.
The first letterbox stamp from the Cranmere Pool letterbox
As the letterbox became popular, it expanded to other boxes around the moor. It then evolved to the more modern version, where people would carry their own personal logbook to collect images of stamps from the boxes around the moor as a souvenier of the visit. Another idea came along that visitors could carry their own signature stamp to put into the logbooks of the boxes.
The stamp in the Cranmere Pool letterbox has been changed out/replaced over the course of its lifetime. These are some of the stamps that have been used over the years.
Today there are over 3,000 letterboxes in Dartmoor National Park. It is one of the biggest attractions at the park, in addition to horse riding, hiking and camping. Every March, the park hosts a letterboxing event, which attracts hundreds of visitors from around the world (unfortunately, this has been cancelled in 2020 and 2021). Visitors can buy a national park map with all of the letterboxes marked on them. This follows the original style, where letterboxers used a map and compass to find the boxes.
The Cranmere Pool letterbox still exists and is a major attraction of the park. It is at N 50° 39.312 W 003° 58.650.
As the hobby expanded outside of Dartmoor, it became more common to use a written "clue" to lead people to the box rather than a map. Before the internet existed, people shared the clues through friends, at gatherings, through the mail, and sometimes posted them for example at cafe bulletin boards.
While Letterboxing expanded to other countries in the world, it didn't become widespread in the United States until 1998, when Smithsonian magazine published an article about the hobby. It quickly became a popular outdoor activity, and Letterboxing even became a merit badge for Girl Scouts. Around the same time, the website letterboxing.org was created. Nowadays, letterbox clues are almost exclusively published online, and there have since been a few different websites estabilished for letterboxing.
Letterbox Stamps
Most letterbox stamps are hand-carved on stamp rubber. As a result, letterboxing is an art hobby in addition to an outdoor hobby. Part of the enjoyment is to collect imprints of stamps made by other letterboxers. Sometimes letterboxers trade stamps so that different people's stamps get placed in letterboxes in different parts of the world.
Many hobby stores sell the rubber and carving tools. Sometimes stamps are carved on other material such as pencil erasers (which are cheaper) or wine corks (always good to recycle, right?).
Wood-block carving is also sometimes used. In fact, one of the most famous wood-block artists is German-American Gustave Baumann (1881-1971), who made his life here in New Mexico, in Santa Fe (although as far as I'm aware, he was not a letterboxer). The New Mexico Museum of Art has some of his work on display.
Some letterboxes do have store-bought stamps, but it is not generally as popular. Other letterboxes have custom-made stamps. Whether a box is hand-carved, custom-made, or store-bought is one of the attributes the websites include in boxes listings.
The stamp that the letterboxer stamps into the box's logbook upon visit is called the "Signature Stamp." My geocaching profile picture is my signature stamp. Some boxers have multiple signature stamps for different purposes. I, for example, have a big one, a medium sized one and a small one for micro-boxes.
Letterbox Clues
The majority of modern letterbox clues are simply written directions to the box, often with a parking area or trailhead as the starting point. The original Dartmoor-style map & compass clues are less common bust still occasionally used. There are also "Mystery Boxes" that don't list a specific starting point, just the town name or in some cases only the state is listed. Like with Mystery Caches, the Mystery Boxes usually involve some sort of puzzle to solve to find out the box location. Some clues are embedded into a poem or anecdote. Some Mystery Boxes show a photo of the final location, and finders need to figure out where it is based on hints in the photgraph. Some mysteries are deliberately very vague.
Letterbox Types
In addition to traditional boxes, other types of boxes include "hitchhikers" that, like with geocaching travel bugs, move from box to box. There are also bonus boxes with the clue inside another box, and there are even "cuckoo clues" where the clue moves from box to box like a hitchhiker while the box to which the clue leads is in a fixed location. Another type is a "flea," which is a stamp (with or without a logbook) that you try to sneak onto someone else, for example by slipping it into an open backpack or into a bag when the person isn't looking.
While most letterboxes have a logbook, it is not a requirement (unlike geocaching, which always requires a logbook except for virtual caches). Occasionally a letterbox is only a stamp hidden somewhere. This is particularly useful in urban areas where a Lock & Lock type of box would be really difficult to safely hide. An example could be a stamp glued to a magnet, placed under a railing or behind a guardrail. Because the stamp is unique to the letterbox, stamping it into your own personal logbook is considered sufficient evidence that you found it.
There are still some "word-of-mouth" boxes not published online, and there are also limited time event boxes.
National Parks Passport
Although Letterboxes (and Geocaches) are forbidden in U.S. National Parks, there is a very similar concept, the "National Parks Passport." Every National Park visitor center has a stamp you can ask for to put into your passport. Many National Monuments have them as well. Some people make it a goal to visit every national park in the country and fill their passport.
Benchmarks
Occasionally, surveying benchmarks are used as reference points for letterbox clues. Some people therefore combine letterboxing with the hobby of benchmarking, just as some geocaches are sometimes combined with benchmarks. There are even some three-way benchmark/letterbox/geocache hybrids, such as this one (cross-listed here).
Geocache Hybrids
Geocaching is a much newer hobby than Letterboxing, and it was founded in 2000 (GPS satellites, of course, didn't exist in the 1800s. They existed a while before 2000, but they were only available to the military). It is unclear whether Geocaching was deliberately intended to be a modernized form of letterboxing, or if it simply started as a game for GPS enthusiasts. Either way, because the hobbies are so similar and many people do both hobbies, the Letterbox Hybrid was one of the original cache types after Traditional, Multi, and Mystery caches.
The first published Letterbox Hybrid cache was GC190, here in New Mexico, right here at this same spot. It was also the first geocache in the state of New Mexico. I thought it would be nice to honor letterbox hybrids here, with this box and hand-carved stamp suited for it.
Cache Details
This cache is a 30 caliber ammo can, which, at the time of hiding, had a yellow RITR Geocaching Logbook, a pen, the letterbox stamp, an inkpad, a white letterboxing logbook, several postcards to trade, a few additional little swag items and a couple of travel bugs.
If you take a postcard, please leave one in order to pass the tradition along to others. If you open the ink pad, please make sure it's closed when you're done and put the rubber band back around it, to prevent it from drying out. Please keep the letterboxing logbook, ink pad and stamp in the small inside letterbox container.
If you're interested in the traditional letterbox idea of sending letters along, then feel free to self-address and stamp the postcard before setting out, and then stamp the postcard with the letterbox's stamp. Otherwise you can simply trade a blank postcard.
I have stamped some stickers with the letterbox's stamp. Feel free to take one (while supplies last).
This box is is at the published coordinates. Thus, it can be found just like a traditional geocache, rather than with a clue or map. If, however, you are interested in finding the cache via a classic letterbox clue, it is cross-listed on letterboxing.org, here.
This is not a Park & Grab. It requires a moderate hike across mixed desert terrain at high altitude. Plan accordingly for a couple miles of hiking, or more if you plan to find other caches on the same outing.
This is a typical habitat for rattlesnakes, so be cautious when looking under rocks for boxes.
Mountain bikes, horses, and dogs are allowed.
If the Letterbox stamp goes missing, please do not replace it. If you notice the stamp is gone, or is damaged, please message me or report needs maintenance on the cache, and I will replace it. I hand-carved this stamp specifically for this cache. Letterbox stamps are a form of artwork, and letterboxes are a way of the box owner sharing his/her work with the world. In the letterboxing community, replacing the handmade stamp with a different one is not considered good etiquette, as it is a misrepresentation of the owner's artwork.
If the ink pad runs dry, no need to write a maintenance log, but you can mention it in your log. Letterboxers are expected to carry their own ink with them, and there is no expectation or requirement to have an ink pad in the box. An ink pad is sometimes included, although in dry climates like NM, they have a tendency to run dry in a box placed outdoors.
Logging and Photos
Please sign and date the big yellow Geocaching logbook with your geocaching name. If you have a letterboxing signature stamp, you are welcome to stamp it into the letterboxing logbook. It is always fun to see the stamps of visitors. In letterboxing, it's common to write where you are from in addition to your name, date and signature stamp.
I always welcome photos and logs of people's experiences.
I support the "honor system" of logs, trusting that if you log online, you have hiked to the location and signed and/or stamped the log.
Happy caching!
Background image and images of Cranmere Pool letterbox are from Dartmoor National Park's website.