This exhibit gets the stamp of approval

Dig through your keepsake boxes, pull out some old letters and come to the opening reception for "Postage, People and Place: How the U.S. Postal Service Shaped North Lincoln Communities” this Thursday, April 3, in Lincoln City.

The reception for the exhibit, on display at the North Lincoln County Historical Museum through February 2026, is also a Letter Night event, where letters from the museum’s collection

will be read aloud along with any letters that visitors are willing to share with the audience.

When you learn the stories about how towns like Rose Lodge, Taft, Oceanlake and Cutler City came to be, the post office plays a central role. In the early 1900s, there were only two methods of communicating long distance: by telegraph and the US Postal Service. When rural townsites had enough residents, they would petition their congressperson to establish a postal route in their community. Once approved, they would open a post office. It took more time for home delivery to reach rural residents of North Lincoln County, making the post office an important community hub. People would make their daily trek to check their mail and catch up with their neighbors, fostering a strong sense of community identity.

The museum's exhibit will walk visitors through the history of the postal service in North Lincoln County, with a look at the lives of rural mail carriers like Archie Stephens, who traversed mud, sand, forests and rivers, usually in the rain, to keep residents connected with family and friends from near and far. The exhibit will contain some of the letters that people wrote, showing examples of how people communicated before text messages and phones. It also explores how towns from Depoe Bay to Otis and Rose Lodge got their post offices and sometimes their names.

As part of the exhibit, the museum will be partnering with the Dear Stranger program, a recurring letter-exchange project that connects Oregonians through the mail to share experiences, beliefs and ideas. There will be prompts, letter writing supplies and a drop box available throughout the year.

Thursday’s opening reception will run from 5 to 7 pm at North Lincoln County Historical Museum, located at 4907 SW Hwy 101 in Lincoln City. The museum is open Wednesday through Saturday from 11 am to 4 pm. For more information, go to nlchm.org or call 541-996-6614.