by Sandra Merville Hart Delivering the mail to isolated areas has been a challenge over the years for the Post Office. In 1845, a new service called Star Routes began. Private letter carriers were hired to deliver the mail these areas, allowing the person to decide the best way to …
Sandy Hart 
Wind Cave National Park
Over 600,000 people visit Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota every year. Strong winds at the cave’s entrance gave the park its name. In fact, according to legend, wind blew the hat off one of the Bingham brothers who discovered the cave when he stood at the mouth of …
Neither Snow nor Rain
by Sandra Merville Hart “Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night, stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.” Many people believe that this quote, which means that postal workers will deliver the mail regardless of the weather, is the official motto of the …
Petrified Forest National Park
Over 600,000 tourists visit the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona every year. They find the amazing sight of trees that lived long ago turned to stone. Not a normal forest When we think of a forest, we usually think of a variety of tall trees growing close together. …
Passenger Pigeons
by Sandra Merville Hart Passenger pigeons were once so numerous in the United States that they made up 25% to 40% of all the birds in our country. There are estimates that between 3 billion and 5 billion passenger pigeons were here around the time of Christopher Columbus. Sadly, these …