New Hope museum to celebrate rural mail history

A collection of rural mail carrier historical artifacts will be unveiled in its new home next month in Hope.

In 1896, Hope was one of two locations in the country to test the then-new idea of using mail routes to provide mail to rural homes, rather than just allowing mail to be picked up in town at the post office. The Hope experiment started 127 years ago on Oct. 15th and is the longest continuing location for rural mail delivery in the country.

Previously, Hope had a small building on the Town Square that served as a home for the artifacts but that was torn down in 2015 to make way for improvements on the Town Square. The artifacts eventually passed to the Yellow Trail Museum, which has acquired a neighboring building for the items to be displayed on the northwest corner of the square.

The Rural Letter Carriers Museum will be holding a grand opening on Sunday Oct. 16th from 2 to 6 p.m. in the afternoon. Events will include an open house, ice cream social, ribbon cutting and a meal at Willow Leaves of Hope.

If you plan to attend the meal, you must RSVP. The cost will be $18. For more information you can call 812-344-4737.