Hi, Annette,

I talked to SW Montana's Gallatin National Forest people about letterboxing a couple years ago. I just called up the offices and asked for an appointment. I took in a copy of the Smithsonian article and some print-outs of Letterboxing.org Web pages, along with descriptions of the places where I wanted to put the boxes. They were very receptive. The analogy they seemed best able to relate to (here in the Rockies) was summit logs, those metal boxes that are put into cairns (piles of rocks) at the tops of mountains. You climb the mountain, dig the box out from under the rocks, sign in leaving a quote from Sir Edmund Hillary, W.E. Henley, John Gillespie Magee, Jr., or someone, and then put the box back. I've even seen an official Forest Service box, with embossed seal and everything, for this purpose.

Depending on the mission of the park (and how it's interpreted) you can expect varying degrees of sympathy and cooperation.

As to when you should bother, I think it makes sense to look at both the biological and the political (or social) sensitivity of the landscape. If you're talking about backcountry boulderfields, there's not much need to worry. If it's a manicured suburban park, it makes more sense to consider impacts carefully and then ask for permission, presenting a sensible plan to keep impact negligible.

If it's a national park (as we think of them in the U.S.) IMHO you shouldn't even consider it. Too touchy. Most of the non-urban national parks have lovely public land (state and national forests, BLM) surrounding them -- letterboxing can be a good way to unload demand from the poor, trampled, overused national park and get people into nearby, less-used, often equally beautiful public spaces.

One man's view.

-Mark





At 12:01 PM 5/21/2002 EDT, you wrote:
>Anybody have hints on how to begin a discussion with park folks (or anyone)
>about how to make sure its okay to drop letterboxes in their park (etc)?
>When would you do this and when would you not bother? Anybody have
>experience with this?
>
>Thanks,
>Annette (aka A.Rose)
>
>
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on 5/21/02 9:01 AM, ARoseLB@aol.com at ARoseLB@aol.com wrote:

> Anybody have hints on how to begin a discussion with park folks (or anyone)
> about how to make sure its okay to drop letterboxes in their park (etc)?
> When would you do this and when would you not bother? Anybody have
> experience with this?

My experience with asking permission is limited to the Nature Park where we
had the Earth Day L-box event here in Oregon. I actually presented the idea
as a class to Park officials. I taught one class and hid the first 4 boxes
there. They really liked the idea after seeing how the boxes were hidden.
Maybe it was just the act of asking before I hid the boxes that made the
difference, but I REALLY REALLY think that we need to organize ourselves to
approach the public entities and inform them before they continue the witch
hunt that has begun.

Thanks Mark!

I added your suggestion to my email. I hope it works!

In a message dated 5/21/2002 9:28:17 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
sheehan@alumni.indiana.edu writes:

<< I talked to SW Montana's Gallatin National Forest people about
letterboxing a couple years ago. I just called up the offices and asked for
an appointment. I took in a copy of the Smithsonian article and some
print-outs of Letterboxing.org Web pages, along with descriptions of the
places where I wanted to put the boxes. They were very receptive. The analogy
they seemed best able to relate to (here in the Rockies) was summit logs,
those metal boxes that are put into cairns (piles of rocks) at the tops of
mountains. You climb the mountain, dig the box out from under the rocks, sign
in leaving a quote from Sir Edmund Hillary, W.E. Henley, John Gillespie
Magee, Jr., or someone, and then put the box back. I've even seen an official
Forest Service box, with embossed seal and everything, for this purpose. >>