In an age of one-hour deliveries and overnight shipping, one corner of the country still gets its mail by mule.
That’s right. For a small group of people who live in the Grand Canyon, the mail arrives via hoofed carriers who walk hours into the canyon to deliver packages, six days a week.
It’s the last official mule mail route in the country and probably one of the last in the world, according to Daniel Piazza, chief curator of philately (the study of stamps) at the Smithsonian National Postal Museum. the route is featured in the postal museum’s new exhibit “pioneers: 100 years of our national parks,” which explores the connection between two seemingly unrelated national services: recreation and the mail.
In the Grand Canyon, we don’t know how long mail has been traveling on mules, but when museum photographs documented the route in 1938, it was a well-established method for deliveries.
For decades, and possibly centuries, mules have carried mail to the Havasupai people, a tribe of American Indians who live in the Grand Canyon village of Supai, but outside the national park’s jurisdiction. Another unofficial route takes the mail to a tourist lodge called Ghost Ranch. It is not through a US mail. uu. postal service contract, but the mail that comes and goes as a courtesy to guests has a special mark indicating that it was “sent by mule”.
These areas are not accessible by road. There are only three ways to get there: walking (optional mule) through the canyon, rafting down the Colorado River, or by helicopter.
so the mail arrives by mule. for the havasupai route, it’s three hours down, but five hours back. at least two mule trains are on the route each day, so mules and riders don’t have to make the round trip without an overnight stop in town.
Unlike your mailbox, most deliveries are not magazines. With no nearby supermarkets or shops of any kind, the post has a different purpose.
“Most mail is not mail at all,” says piazza. “it’s food.”
The post office provides the Havasupai people with a host of modern conveniences, from packaged food to medicine to small appliances. the town could not sustain itself without the post.
one of the mule train’s last stops before the canyon is in peach springs, arizona. is the only post office in the country with a cold room to keep frozen food as cold as possible before the next leg of its journey.
From there, a contractor picks up the mail and drives it for an hour up a bumpy road to the top of the canyon. it is then turned over to the mule team, which is also a long-standing operation. Piazza says that the same person has had the contract with the postal service for more than 25 years, and it is very likely that his son will inherit it when he retires; there aren’t many people clamoring to manage mule mail.
when piazza saw the unusual operation in person, he photographed the series of packages lined up for shipment. dish soap pharmaceuticals a box of amazon prime.
these are all loaded onto the mules, up to 200 pounds per mule at a time.
It’s quite a scene. for piazza, the research of books and documents cannot replace being in the field. “You really just have to go see it and photograph it. There’s no other way to do it other than visit it,” she says.
It is also an opportunity to collect objects for the museum, such as the saddle that is now part of the exhibition. in person, his size is conspicuous, and he doubles as the big animal making the downward march in all that mail. get closer and you can see how the saddle molded to its rider’s legs.
The mule mail contractor offered to donate a new saddle to the museum, but this well-worn and frequently repaired saddle speaks of a long and rugged life on the postal route.
however, be glad you didn’t smell the smell that piazza described as “wet mule” when he arrived at the museum. since then, it has been packed in charcoal for a while to reduce the aroma, before being displayed at the exhibition.
The saddle and the mule mail route it traversed are just one part of a larger story about the mail and our national parks. supai village is an extreme case, but many people live in the parks, especially in the west, where the nearest town can be a 45-minute drive away. those rangers and workers need supplies, and the postal service lives up to its commitment to deliver where there are people.
“mail goes everywhere,” says piazza.
“Trailblazing: 100 years of our national parks” is on view at the Smithsonian National Postal Museum through March 25, 2018.