Letterboxing hybrid history

Back in the early days of geocaching some people were already hiding boxes with a signature stamp in them, i.e. letterboxes and posting them on geocaching.com. I hid and posted our first letterbox in 2002. In my pursuit to learn more about the history of the letterbox hybrid on geocaching.com I stumbled upon an early (April 2003) forum post (Changing Letterbox/Hybrid to Stamp Hunting?) from the geocaching.com founder Jeremy Irish.

What I found most fascinating about his comments is he wanted to change the letterbox hybrid so that a unique  stamp would be a requirement i.e. "originals". Too bad that idea never developed. 6 years later (September 2009) I would lament on the forums about the lack of original hand carved stamps in letterboxes in my area (custom made stamps are good too - a stamp made from a design made especially for the letterbox - popular in England's form of letterboxing). It's great to know that Jeremy felt similarly.

Posted 28 April 2003 - 03:15 AM

Last summer at one of our Geocaching picnics, one of the park rangers was approached by a child to have his passport book stamped with the park's stamps.

So I thought, hey, since we already had a Letterbox/Hybrid idea, why not start including the park stamps as well? This is a great opportunity to extend the hunt out to the National Parks and other areas where a geocache may not necessarily be allowed.

There are many links online to get started, but a large list of these locations would be great for folks with kids. What do you think?

I figured we could change Letterboxing Hybrid to Stamp Hunting - This would also address the issue of folks not understanding that you shouldn't take the stamp.

Suggested rules for Stamp Hunting:

• All stamps should be originals (not store bought)
  
• Designs should be family friendly
  
• Logbooks are optional. Unlike Letterboxing you are not required to have your own stamp.
  
• Stamps are non-commercial (similar rules to geocaching)
  

Permission will still need to be obtained before placing one, but existing stamp locations are fine. Also, if it is located in a park it is fine to have an address or directions as an alternative to using a GPS.

Ultimately the goal to geocaching is to locate places you have never been, so it seems appropriate as a variation.

Thoughts?