Hunting the Elusive Red Mailbox

[shadowspar]

So, over the holidays, I was looking for a place to post my Christmas cards. Though I knew the location of a few mailboxen, and while I was sure that they are all over the place, I realized that I didn't pass one anywhere in my daily routine.

When I got a moment, I had a look on the Canada Post website, figuring they'd have a map or at least a list there. No such luck, which seems strange -- you would think for sure that they keep records of all of their mailboxes in some kind of GIS or other.

Happily, there is a collaborative Google Map where people can contribute in an attempt to enumerate all the mailboxes in Canada. For some reason, though, my additions didn't take -- maybe the map has hit the maximum number of placemarks or some such? Only one thing to do, of course -- make my own map of mailbox locations for Sault Ste Marie.

The Mailboxes...Where are they?

So, for the last week or two, I've been keeping an eye out for mailboxes in my daily travels, and adding them to the map as I notice them. There is a logic to where they're located, but it's definitely not the logic I'd initially thought. Here's a handy guide, sorted roughly in order of priority, that should let you too more easily track down the elusive Red Mailboxes.

1. Post offices and postal outlets. This seems patently obvious, but in addition to being able to hand over counter mail during their operating hours, they almost always have a mailbox outside you can use when they're closed.
2. Convenience stores; in fact, anywhere that sells stamps. Even if they're not a full-fledged postal outlet, there'll usually be a mailbox outside.
3. Anywhere people gather. Major retail centers, hospitals, community centers, even laundromats. Pedestrian-friendly downtown districts usually have a high concentration of mailboxes. Malls usually have a mailbox even if they don't have a postal outlet.
4. Anywhere a lot of people live. Apartment buildings, retirement homes, and the like. You'll often find these ones under the entranceway canopy, if there is one, so you can deposit your mail without getting rained on.
5. Brown Community Mailboxes -- the kind often used in rural and some suburban areas -- all have a red letter slot that serves as a mailbox so long as your items fit in it. You don't need one of the CMB keys to use it.
6. Finally, you can look near major intersections, though the box itself is often down a side street a bit, presumably for the safety of the person collecting it.

ETA: I'd initially made a mailbox map for Sault Ste Marie, MI as well, but I've since deleted it; the US, including the Sault, appears to be quite well covered by other sites already. For instance, you can get a nice gmap of mailbox locations from mailboxmap.com, or a text-only listing from the Payphone Project's mailboxes page.

Comments

[terriko]

Mailboxes, or rather the lack thereof, are one of the Things That Are Different About the US. Or at least this part of it. John had to explain to me that no, really, despite being in the city I was to send mail by leaving it in my own mailbox with the flag up. I admit I didn't really believe until it worked.

[pinesandmaples]

You mean that doesn't work in other countries? Because yeah, that's how rural and semi-rural users do it. (Says the girl who grew up in rural Mississippi.)

[shadowspar]

Yeah, I'm not sure if that's a thing anywhere in Canada, or if it has ever been a thing, and if so, at what point it may have stopped being a thing. My Gram lived just outside the tiny village of Searchmont, ON, and as far back as I can remember, she always had to pick up mail and post things at the General Store.

Canada Post has been reducing or eliminating door-to-door delivery in as many rural and suburban areas as it can for as long as I can recall. If you're out in the country or in a very small center, you're likely either picking things up at the post office or postal outlet if there is one, or using one of the brown CMBs, or one of the old green beasties if your community hasn't been changed over yet.

[highlyeccentric]

I love postal trivia!

[shadowspar]

Hee! Glad to know I'm not totally off-base with peoples' interests, then! ^_^;