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Letterboxing is an outdoor hobby that combines elements of orienteering, art and problem-solving. The international orienteering symbol. ...
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Background Letterboxers hide small, weatherproof boxes in publicly-accessible places (like parks) and post clues to finding the box online on one of several Web sites (see below). However, clues to finding some of the most highly-sought boxes are passed around by word of mouth. Individual letterboxes usually contain a logbook, an often hand-carved ink stamp and an ink pad. Finders make an imprint of the letterbox's stamp on their personal logbook, and leave an impression of their personal stamp on the letterbox's logbook — as proof of having found the box. Many letterboxers keep careful track of their "find count".
Clues to their locations on Dartmoor, England, are traditionally distributed in print format in the Dartmoor 100 Club's regularly-updated catalogue; in the United States, clues are published on Letterboxing North America and other websites. Letterboxes are sited in other locations in England, the main areas being The New Forest, Hampshire, and The North York Moors, Yorkshire. Interest in letterboxing in the US is generally considered to have started with a feature article in the Smithsonian Magazine in April 1998. Dartmoor is a National Park in the centre of the English county of Devon. ...
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Bucklers Hard on the Beaulieu River The New Forest is an area of Hampshire in England which includes the largest remaining tracts of unenclosed pasture land, heathland and old-growth forest in the heavily-populated south east of England. ...
Hampshire (abbr. ...
North York Moors National Park is a National Park in the north of England. ...
The White Yorkshire rose. ...
1998 (MCMXCVIII) is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ...
History and origins Modern-day letterboxing's origins can be traced to Dartmoor in 1854, when hikers on the moors began to leave a letter or postcard inside a box along the trail (sometimes addressed to themselves, sometimes a friend or relative) — hence the name "letterboxing". The next person to discover the site would collect the postcards and mail them. The first Dartmoor letterboxes were so remote and well-hidden that only the most determined walkers ended up finding them, allowing weeks to pass before the letter made its way home. Increasingly, however, they have been located in relatively accessible sites. As a result, the tradition of leaving a letter or postcard in the box has been forgotten. 1854 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ...
Types of letterboxes In the US, letterboxes have developed new forms — there are now many different kinds of letterboxes, each with some specific distinction. These include: - Hitchhikers
- A traveling letterbox, it is placed in a traditional letterbox for another boxer to find, and when found, is stamped just like a traditional letterbox, but is then carried with the boxer to the next box they find — thus, hitchhiking.
- Cooties
- These are much like hitchhikers, except instead of traveling from letterbox to letterbox, they travel from letterBOXER to letterBOXER. Usually small, these little buggers are intentionally planted on letterboxers on the trails, at gatherings, or on unsuspecting, unattended letterboxer's bags. Most people are subtle about cooties — but not all)
- Virtuals
- Online letterboxes; actually a scavenger hunt of sorts through different websites, collecting answers to questions posted as the clues to the box. Answers sometimes are unscrambled or simply emailed to the creator, who sends them an image of the 'stamp' via email, or the final answer is put in a blank in a web address, which takes them to the image online)
- Mystery boxes
- These are usually traditional boxes, but these "mystery" boxes have either vague starting areas, NO starting areas, no descriptions, no clues… any number of things to make the box extremely hard to find)
- Postals (or PLBs)
- Boxes that are made just like traditional letterboxes, but instead of being planted in the wild, they are sent via postal mail to the people on signup lists for the box, or around a "ring" of people in a postal ring, which is usually focused on a theme of some sort. Postals are also very often very well designed and organized, as well as ornate. Since the box is very unlikely to be stolen, go missing, or be damaged, creators of PLBs tend to get quite… creative)
- Personal Travelers
- Much like a traditional box, but instead of being planted, the box is kept with the creator at all times, in case of a run-in with another boxer on the trails or at a gathering-this box is usually only attainable if the other letterboxer knows the password or passphrase… which is sometimes cryptic, sometimes straightforward, sometimes almost non-existant, and sometimes simply silly, for example: Celtic Quinn's PT "The Strawberry Prince", or Craftymouse's "The Penguin Flies At Midnight" for silly, or Music Woman's first PT for a cryptic one.
Letterboxers also organize events for their favorite hobby — usually called gatherings or meets, these events are usually at parks or places with enough space for a large group of letterboxers to meet up and do exchanges (exchanging of personal stamps and/or personal travelers), as well as talk, discuss box ideas, etc… at big gatherings, boxes are often created or donated to be planted nearby the gathering specifically for the gathering itself. Thereby, the attendees not only get a chance to get exchanges, but boxes, too. See also Hitch hike for other meanings Hitchhiker in Luxemburg (1977) Hitchhiking (also called lifting, thumbing or hitching, Thumb up a ride) is a form of transport, in which the traveller tries to get a lift (ride) from another traveller, usually a car or truck driver. ...
Cooties is an American and Canadian English slang term used especially by children to denote that someone has an unspecified infectious disease or condition—which is intended to promote serious or playful repulsion toward the designee. ...
Find counts or PFX counts are organized as thus… P stands for plants, boxes you've made and placed yourself. F stands for finds, other boxes that you've found in the wild. X stands for exchanges, and is the number of exchanges you have. Other more serious boxers list individual types of boxes in their PFX counts (eg: P12 F76 X45 E4 HH21 V4 would mean 12 plants, 76 finds, 45 exchanges, 4 events or event stamps, 21 hitchhikers, and 4 virtuals), but most just mush them together into one single PFX count, or don't bother to count them seriously at all.
See also A Geocache in Germany Geocaching is an outdoor activity that most often involves the use of a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver or traditional navigational techniques to find a geocache (or cache) placed anywhere in the world. ...
The international orienteering symbol. ...
A live puzzle game where teams compete to solve a series of puzzles in a site or multiple sites. ...
Further reading - Anne Swinscow has written several popular guide books on Dartmoor Letterboxing, e.g. Dartmoor Letterboxes ISBN 0950911429
- The Letterboxer's Companion by Randy Hall was published in 2003 and focuses on letterboxing in North America; ISBN 0762727942.
2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
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