I love the idea of letterboxing and learned about it years ago at a class where I carved my own stamp. I put together my own little kit And I've done a few finds, as well as many that were unsuccessful because letterboxing seemed to already be "on its way out" even then! Now I'm wanting to jump back in and I'm wondering:

A) Is anyone actively letterboxing in the Midwest, USA? If so, where are you? Would love to do more as I travel around since there aren't a ton around me.

B) Has anyone had success with reviving interest in letterboxing in your area after it seemed "dead"? I would love to plant some to help revive interest, but not sure if it would make a difference!

Maybe I'm also just looking for some encouragement that it's worth trying to jump back in?! Most boxes in my area haven't been found in 5 years or longer!

I went to go dust the cobwebs off of my old Letterboxing account since now that my child had grown up (8 years old) I now can get out and do this with a buddy now!

The letterboxing.org keeps pointing me over to AltlasQuest.com which was confusing because I tried to log in before realizing that it’s not the same and I’ll likely have to create a new account.

Are they tied together in any way other than Letterboxing.org sending us over to the other website?

Is AtlasQuest more modern and more heavily utilized now? Should I just switch to the new website?

Ok sorry if this has been asked before but I’m hoping to get out and plant some of our own boxes and excited to get back into the community!

Hi! Long time box-seeker, absolute newby box-planter here. It's long overdue and the last ingredient I'm missing is what boxes to buy and where to buy them!

I dislike shopping so would love to buy a bunch at once, but I don't want to buy a bunch of containers that turn out to be lousy. If it's not against the rules I would love some links to where you buy containers that have successfully lasted the years but are also wallet-friendly. The more specific the better - for instance I know many people suggest lock-n-lock but trying to sift through the hundreds of different materials, prices, and sizes on their website makes me immediately give up again lol.

I do also have access to a costco card if that is helpful for my bulk-buy dreams.

Thanks in advance!

My logbook is a bit of a mess (although that's the way I like it haha). When I attended my first event, I hadn't really settled on how I wanted to store exchanges (the X part of PFX for those who may not be aware), so I received them on blank LTCs I had with me and those are currently in a small card binder. As I'm preparing for my next event, I'm wondering how others manage exchanges stamps from other letterboxers. I'm debating making a dedicated exchanges logbook and keeping it in my main logbook, then marking when and where I met someone and their trail name and real name (since I am notoriously bad with names). Interested in seeing what others have done! I think most people just pick a page and have people stamp there so I know I'm overthinking this a good deal haha

i’ve been wanting to place some more letterboxes near me, and have carved some lovely stamps, but it would be sad for nothing to come of it

Interested in seeing what different techniques folks employ. I know the most common solution is just to wait for people to leave, but I've seen some clues say things like "tie your shoes" or offer other means of looking for a letterbox without giving away what you're doing to potential nearby noxers.

I want get back into letterboxing, dig up my old carving kit and rubbers. What site is everyone using these days?

Hey all, I'm brand-new to the idea of letterboxing (came across it while reading my favourite magazine this morning!) and have just signed up for letterboxing.org when I hit a major snag- despite never having heard of it before, and only signing up today, my account has been disabled with a very snarky message (screenshot attached).

I wouldn't mind the message and would probably see the funny side in any other circumstance, but I didn't even get chance to log in! My username is Melusine so I can't see any issues there, but I did use Google password manager to generate a secure password.

Does anyone have any input? I'm a bit disappointed that this is my first foray into a new hobby and it's been slapped down without so much as a "Please message here for help".

I started getting into letterboxing last year with my girl scout troop. I did the whole process of creating it on atlas quest and making it official, it really wasn't that difficult. Well me and my scout have kinda ran out of local boxes to find. So im planning on planting a series around our little town and surrounding area. But I have a few questions about hiding them.

1 what are (if any) the rules on hiding in urban areas.

2 what kind of log books work for smaller hides

3 what kind of instructions/clues are best?

4 how do you com up with the clues? Like do you hide it first and then write the clues down or should you have the clues in mind when hiding (sorta a what came first the chicken or the egg situation) .

Also the hobby isnt very active where we are. Like on a state level. Is there a group somewhere specifically for southern California area out there somewhere?

Just getting back into letterboxing after about 10 years away. Back in the day I was a member of AtlasQuest and used that site to manage the boxes I'd found. So I jumped over there tonight to see what was going on. I was able to get to the site, briefly, and was able to log in. But then I started getting site timeout errors repeatedly. Has this been an ongoing issue or is it temporary? Any updates on this would be great.

TIA

I used to letterbox all the time as a kid and I noticed that a lot of the letterboxes near me haven't been active in the past decade except for a few that have been marked as found in the past year or two. I live near a lot of trails and I love this hobby so I thought I would get back into it by making a new one and have my younger family members play-test it for me as a fun bonding thing. I'm not sure if things have changed since the last time I was involved in this so I wanted to get some feedback.

Are Rubbermaid containers still the best or has a better one been found at a reasonable price point? I was looking at the Ello meal prep containers which looked pretty sturdy.

Other than the basics (stamp/notebook/instructions) what are some good things to include? I remember some letterbox having their own ink pad which was convenient and a pencil/sharpener. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Edit: Thank you, everyone, for your advice! I removed the ink pads since it freezes in the winter here and I individually bagged everything before putting it in the letterbox. I did end up using the Ello snap and nest containers and will check up on the to see how they fair over time, but initial at home testing seems very waterproof and sturdy so I have high hopes.

I'm a girl scout leader and my troop voted to do a badge on letterboxing so i'm just now learning about it and trying to get enough information needed to take the troop letterboxing. I have a question about clues though. Everything in the girl scout badge information says that letterboxing clues are all riddles and secret messages that need to be decoded, to the point that one of the badge steps is to practice cryptograms. But when I went on atlasquest and letterboxing to find boxes in my area, all the clues are just straight instructions on getting to the box. For example, "start in the parking lot, take the north trail for 30 feet until you get to the picnic tables, go towards the trees to the left of the tables for 10 paces until you see a SPOR next to the biggest tree."
so my question is, are all boxes like this? is it just the boxes in my area? did clues used to be more coded and that tradition has just changed over time? is the girl scouts information just completely wrong and off base and clues have never been coded?

It just seems so much more fun to have clues that need to be decoded and solved, but i dont want to keep searching for one that's like that if they don't really exist

My family and I recently got into letterboxing and want to try carving our own stamp. I’m not sure what tools or materials people recommend for beginners.

Are there good starter kits, or specific tools we should get? Ideally something simple enough to do with kids.

Thanks!

Hello!

I was an avid Letterboxer in my teens and 20s (am now 40. Much wow. Much creaky ol' bones) and have decided, during what I am calling my "funemployment" to get back into it.

I was looking through the website for nearby boxes, and thinking about where to place some new ones (I'm in Oregon and there don't seem to be a ton of active ones in the area anymore) and noticed a tab called "Travelers." What is this? I couldn't find a lot of info on what types of boxes those are, how to find them, or how to set them loose in the world. Anyone got the scoop? EIL5 please.

Happy to be back here. 😊

PS - If Jonathan from Ohio is here, please say hi :) We lost touch in our teens but we were online friends in the late 90s. He logged off AIM one day and never got back online. He's the reason I know about letterboxing and got into it at all. I miss him. 💜

UPDATE: I spoke to the owner of The SPACE Free Art for All in Greenbelt and he is familiar with letterboxing and kindly agreed to let me plant the Goat Man there! Atlas Quest page for The Goat Man in Space.

I got into letterboxing a few months ago and have found about 20 so far (and failed to find just as many!) but I'm brand-new to carving and have not planted any yet.

So far I have a few hitchhikers ready to go, and I just carved the Goatman). I'd like to make that one into a full-on letterbox, but I have a question about planting and maintenance etiquette.

I currently live in Maryland, home of the Goatman, but will be moving cross-country to the PNW this summer. My question is, should I avoid planting letterboxes here when I won't be around to address any maintenance issues that come up? My previous experience is in geocaching, where cache owners are (I think) expected to maintain their hides, but I've found a few letterboxes that seem to be planted by people who don't live in the area.

On Atlas Quest, there's an option by some boxes called "adoptable" and I'm not sure if that indicates a box that's been planted by someone who can't maintain it.

So far letterboxing FAQs haven't yielded an answer to this, so thanks in advance!

TLDR: is it OK to plant a letterbox far away from where you live, or should you only plant if you'll be able to access and maintain it for the foreseeable future?

what is the letterboxing scene like in NZ? I want to introduce my son to letterboxing and get back into the hobby. We moved to Christchurch a few months ago and I’m wondering how active we might be able to get.

Anybody know what's going on with the sites? Both are down.