craigdailypress.com

Pam Vaughn faithfully visits a copper-headed cow several times a week. Usually she places wrapped parcels inside the belly of the beast.

Vaughn's visits are not spiritual in nature; she's just doing her job. Vaughn is a U.S. postal carrier and the cow, by artist Bernie Rose, is one of the unusual mailboxes she fills.

Another unique box on Vauhn's route is an old transmission with a Chevrolet hubcap for a door. Elwood Eisenhauer of Ike's Automatic Transmission Shop built it two years ago, just for the fun of it, he said.

"I always thought about it ... and one day finally did it," Eisenhauer said.

Vaughn said she enjoys seeing the unique boxes, but stressed the need for the boxes to be at a certain height so that carriers can reach the boxes from a car. During a 10-minute break at the Craig post office last Tuesday, other carriers chimed in. The consensus was the bigger the box, the better.

The transmission box is interesting, but because it tapers toward the back, Vaughn said it doesn't hold as much mail.

Another key to making life easier on carriers is to have a box that opens and closes easily, said Sue Sanders, another mail carrier. Many carriers have to open and close the boxes with one hand -- one hand that's full of mail, she said.

One measure of the carriers' performance is time -- hundredths of an hour, which is shorter than a minute. Each task a carrier has to complete has a designated time and every time carriers must struggle with a stuck door or stuff individual magazines through a small slot, they lose precious moments. It is for that reason that the U.S. Postal Service has regulations for mailbox size and height.

Residents in and around Craig have found many ways to be creative within official boundaries. From transforming the box itself to placing an ordinary box on an interesting post; or from buying special kits to building them from scratch, many Moffat County mailboxes say a little something about their owners.

The school bus in front of Jim and Ronnie Rogers' house recalls the 28 years Jim Rogers served as director of transportation for Moffat County schools. And while Sherry Hixson's cat box belies her fondness for felines, Dale Werner's basset hound mailbox reveals his love of the breed.

The covered wagon at Sue and Mike Garrett's house says little of old-fashioned vehicles and everything about Mike Garrett's artistic skill. The wagon is made completely out of scrap metal -- even the wheels were fabricated from scratch.

Patty Zulian's log cabin mailbox mimics her home -- and for good reason; her father built them both. When a snow plow ran over her mailbox years ago, Zulian said her dad surprised her with a new one to match her house.

Even though her father said it might be time to take it down, she said it remains very special to her.

Even the colors of the old tractor that supports Ken Martin's mailbox suggest to the passerby that a Bronco's fan dwells within.

But gleaning insight into a stranger's psyche from their unusual mailbox, might not be the best way to go about things. Oscar King's mailbox sits atop a plowshare. Even though he said it's a fun thing to have, a former owner actually intalled it. Others around Craig with boxes shaped like houses or barns or regular boxes sitting on antique creamers also admitted that previous owners had put them in. It just goes to show, you shouldn't judge a neighbor by his or her mailbox.