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Turn Your Day Trip into a Treasure Hunt
Letterboxing:  A Treasure Hunt for the Entire Family
By Carla Cosner

Are you looking for a creative way to break away from everyday routines this summer?  Letterboxing is a treasure hunt game for the entire family that takes you on adventures to many new places.  Letterboxing combines navigation, treasure hunting, and exploring.  The purpose is to find small boxes which have been hidden in public areas (there are approximately 20,000 boxes across America).  The creators of the letterboxes posts clues online so others can find them. 

AtlasQuest.com and Letterboxing.org are two letterboxing community sites where letterboxes are registered.  Each box is a waterproof container with a unique stamp and a log book inside.  Finders use posted clues/directions to find letterboxes.  Finders bring their own stamp and log book/journal, as well as an ink pad and a pen or marker.  When a letterbox is found, the finder uses the stamp from the letterbox to stamp their journal as a record of the find.  The letterbox stamp is often a handmade stamp to represent the location or adventure.  Clues are sometimes educational or contain history about the location.  The finder can also write notes in their own journal about the letterbox adventure (date, name of letterbox, general location, etc…) 

The finder then stamps their own stamp into the letterbox log book and writes the date, trail name or group name, and town/state they are from.  The finder can also look through the logbook to see who else found the letterbox, where they were from, and read any comments that were written.  Before leaving the site of the letterbox find, place all contents back into the waterproof container, rehide the letterbox in its same location for the next finder. 

Once home, register your find at one of the Letterbox community websites and print the clue for your next adventure.     

Good luck and enjoy!
Letterboxing:  10 Tips for Getting Started

Be sure there are no onlookers when you find and hide the Letterbox. It is recommended by Letterboxing.org to move away from the hiding place when stamping the logbook and your own journal, as to not give away its location.  Others may not respect the letterboxing adventure and may move, remove, or destroy the letterbox - making it very disappointing for the next finder.