Welcome to Letterboxing... Mattke family style

find out all about this fascinating sport game pasttime ... activity.

Not only can you learn what it is, but once you know, you'll find clues to letterboxes in the Central Texas area... and beyond.

Letterboxing is known as a "Stashing Game". Yeah, that probably doesn't help much, I know. Basically, folks who participate in the hobby go out and find containers that other letterboxers have hidden all over the world.

Part of the hobby is the fun of solving clues, riddles and puzzles to identify where the boxes are. Then the next part is the activity of getting out there and hunting them down. Many boxes require you to do some puzzle solving along the way. Some are harder to find than others, but most are located in beautiful surroundings so even an unfruitful search can be just as enjoyable.

When you find the letterbox you've been looking for, you take out your personal stamp (an image of ours is shown below) and stamp the letterbox's log book. You can flip through and see who else has discovered the box ahead of you, check out their stamps and read comments they often scribble into the log.

You also add the letterbox's stamp to your own personal log. We discovered ours at a hobby shop and couldn't resist picking it up. It's made up of hand-crafted paper and has a very rustic, warm appearance and feel to it. We have stamps from all over Texas so far, and will be adding stamps from other parts of the US as well as when we make our regular visits to Great Britain.

Like many other parts of this site still under construction, we plan to include a virtual logbook where you will be able to leaf through the finds we've collected as well as see notes and images we took during the finds.

When we find a letterbox, we stamp this on a page in the log and write in the date we found it. We'll often jot down a few things if we really like the site, the clues or the theme of the letterbox.
The images are all of us, including Rodin our ever-eager Blue Heeler and Cezanne, our Blue-and-Gold Macaw who often accompanies us on the hunt.
Those not familiar with the odd-looking lines below the dog and boot prints have no doubt never seen a parrot's footprint...