What is letterboxing?
Letterboxing is an interesting outdoor activity, combining clues, orienteering, hiking, stamp carving, in a sort of treasure hunt format. It originated in England in 1854 when a Dartmoor National Park guide left a bottle by Cranmere Pool with his personal calling card in it. He also left a note asking those who found the bottle to add their calling cards. Sooner or later, visitors began searching for the bottle, and leaving post cards and notes in the jar, hoping for them to be returned by mail by the next visitor to the bottle. This is where the term “letterboxing” originated, since “letterbox” is another name for a mailbox.
This practice ended in time, and letterboxing as we now know it, is quite different.
Modern Letterboxing
Letterboxers hide small weatherproof boxes in parks, on trails, and sometimes indoors, and then they post clues to finding the box on the internet at one or more of several websites devoted to letterboxing. The boxes usually contain a log book, a rubber stamp (often hand-carved) and may contain an ink pad. Finders of the box stamp on their personal log book with the stamp found in the letterbox, and leave an imprint of their personal stamp on the letterbox's logbook. Many letterboxers are particular about keeping track of their “finds”, as well as how many boxes they have "placed".
The practice, as we now know it, caught on in 1998 after an article in Smithsonian magazine.
Finding boxes
Some boxes are more difficult to find than others. Clues vary, and while some will tell you the town, state, and directions to the box, others are a mystery. The fun of letterboxing is to figure out the clues and find the “treasure“, often through the use of a compass, counting one‘s “paces”, using landmarks, researching local history, or solving a puzzle. Some boxes have clues that are written in anagrams, poems, or in code. Often, letterboxes are designed around a theme such as historical information about the place in which they are hidden, about animals or plants found locally, or often in memory of someone special.
How to Get Started
To get started, you’ll need a “trail name” to identify you as a letterboxer, a personal rubber stamp, pencil or pen, small sketch book to use as your logbook, one or more ink pads , a compass, and some clues.
There are many websites where potential searchers can research boxes near them. Good starting places are the Letterboxing North America website at www.letterboxing.org/ or Atlas Quest at www.atlasquest.com/.
 |
