Letterboxing

Letterboxing, a British pastime, dates back to 1854 in an out-of-the-way part of Dartmoor. Starting out as a form of message-in-a-bottle, individuals left a calling card, and perhaps a self-addressed postcard, in a hidden spot. The finder would leave his or her card, and take the postcard to message the original 'boxer' that their bottle had been found.

The pastime faded, and then resurfaced as a form of orienteering with lots of hiking and fiddling with compasses. Instead of calling cards, a rubber stamp and visitors booklet are left in the hidden bottle. Letterboxers carry their own personal booklet and stamp with them. When they find a letterbox (actually a plastic pharmacy bottle), they leave their mark in the book in the bottle, and they use the stamp in the bottle to mark their own books, as evidence of their find. There have been stamps that commemorate local farmers, stamps of local birds. A snowman. A smuggler. There are hand-crafted stamps. Some enthusiasts have found and collected thousands of stamps.

Members of letterboxer clubs meet at pubs to exchange 'clue sheets'. The participant uses the clue sheet to start the search for a specific letterbox. Clues include landmarks, and compass measurements. (From the certain spot where you can see a cairn at 107 degrees, and an old trail at 96 degrees, note the crevice in a large boulder.)

Letterboxers look to be rugged and healthy from all the trampling around, and are self-described as 'the greatest eccentrics of all'.

The above information about this custom was gleaned from the April 1998 issue of Smithsonian. The article,'They Live and Breathe Letterboxing', is by Chris Granstrom with photos by Patrick Ward.