Mail has been delivered ever since people could write and wanted to communicate with others. If you go back far enough, you find that in Egypt around 2400 BCE, the Pharaohs used couriers to send out their decrees! The first regular courier service was established by the Persian Empire between 559 and 530 BCE.
Looking ahead about 2,500 years, you have the Pony Express in 1860, which I mentioned last year when I was writing about the speed of mail delivery ...
What I did not realize, however, is that in principle it continues in this country to this very day.
In the current issue of the Atlantic Magazine is an article by Sarah Yager with photographs by Elliot Ross (unless otherwise indicated). It explains that the challenge of universal mail service in this country is with one place which cannot be reached by any ground vehicle, and by helicopter only when the weather and wind are right. That is the town of Supai in the Grand Canyon. Why is there a town at the bottom of the Grand Canyon? Well, because it is part of the Havasupai Indian Reservation.
In 1882, the U.S. Government restricted the Havasupai tribe to just 518 acres of their former wide-ranging hunting grounds on the South rim of the Grand Canyon, in order to create what would become the Grand Canyon National Park. In a 1975 act of Congress, 188,077 acres were returned to the tribe. Though their reservation remains within the National Park, the Havasupai have retained their sovereign rights, and they are considered guardians of the Canyon.
According to the 2010 census the town of Supai had 208 inhabitants. Although the 2020 census recorded zero, the population is currently estimated to be growing. In truth there are about 500 of the 770 registered in the Tribe supported on agriculture and tourism. Of the tens of thousands of tourists every year at the Grand Canyon a few intrepid visitors reserve a stay on the tribal lands. You have to book months ahead and hike down to the lodge or camping grounds. Your stay is limited to 3 days during which you can hike, swim and visit the village to learn about their tribal culture.
Getting back to the mail, like the Pony Express, the current system relies on animals, but with mule trains rather than horse relays, to carry the packages which include food, medicines and anything that is needed for the one village store. From the Atlantic article, “The mule train, which makes the 16-mile, six-hour loop up and down the canyon five days a week, is perhaps the most extreme manifestation of the USPS mandate to “render postal services to all communities.”
Being the mailman is not for the faint of heart. Nate Chamberlain, married to a member of the tribe, did it for 25 years without a vacation and then handed it over to his nephew. The path is narrow, and one slip can be fatal for man or beast. Temperatures are extreme, and when the weather gets bad during the monsoon season, shelter must be found quickly as torrential rains wash down the canyon and there are rockslides.
"Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds," and, in the case of Supai, the old ways are the only ways!
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