Using clues posted on the internet, people travel to a specific location (often a field or wooded area, but sometimes a bar, restaurant, or even underwater!) using these clues to pinpoint the exact location of the letterbox. Within the box is a rubber stamp, so you can prove that you've been there, and a notebook for you to sign and, if you have one, mark with your own personal stamp. Some of these stamps are simply cut from a piece of rubber, while others are professionally produced and works of art. No matter how simple or artistic these stamps appear, they are all of equal value to the letterboxer. Sometimes there are clues to further boxes.

The boxes come in all shapes and sizes, the most common being a Tupperware container. There are many different types, the majority being in the same hiding place all of the time. However, some boxes move around to different areas.

Letterboxing first started in the 1800s, when a small jar containing a business card was placed underneath a heap of stones at Cranmere Pool, England by James Perrot in 1854, for visitors to prove that they had been to this inaccessible place. The number of boxes over the next few decades grew to five.

However, the hobby caught on in Dartmoor, England over the last twenty years, where there are now over 22,000 letterboxes in Dartmoor alone. The craze is now sweeping the globe. There are also hundreds of boxes in the United States (letterboxing caught on here due, in large part, to an article in Smithsonian Magazine). These can be found at Letterboxing North America (www.letterboxing.org).

There is an excellent "Frequently Asked Questions" page at Letterboxing North America that you may wish to visit.

Geocaching is similar to Letterboxing; GPS coordinates are used in place of written clues. And, instead of collecting rubber stamps, the caches contain a logbook to record your visit, and you exchange the prize in the box with the prize that you brought along for the trip (this can be something as trivial as a state quarter, stickers, a dollar bill, or for more difficult-to-find caches, a compact disc, videotape, book, etc). For more information, visit www.geocaching.com.

And now, the fine print: Waiver of Responsibility and Disclaimer: Letterboxing, like any outdoor sport, carries the risk of various and unforseen hazards (including, but not limited to, deer ticks and poison ivy). The Perfect Circle Letterboxing Guild support a policy of not knowingly placing letterboxes in areas that will create undue risk to the letterbox hunter. However, as conditions may vary, it is the responsibility of the letterbox searcher to become thoroughly familiar with the conditions in the area to be searched, to adequately prepare for those conditions, and to conduct oneself safely and responsibly with respect to those conditions and with respect to his or her personal abilities and limitations. The Perfect Circle Letterboxing Guild and the individual letterbox sponsors assume no liability for events which may occur related directly or indirectly to one's searching for a letterbox. Do not let children hunt for letterboxes unsupervised. By reading and utilizing this letterbox clue, you acknowledge the above conditions, and accept responsibility for your own actions, and agree to hold non-liable the clubs and clue writers/box sponsors, and further, agree to provide this disclaimer to any person with whom you share these letterbox clues.