# What's up with the very small-sized rural post offices? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 6, 2010, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-the-very-small-sized-rural-post-offices/542176 "2010-06-06T16:05:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-the-very-small-sized-rural-post-offices/542176/21 "2010-06-07T14:32:10Z")
rural houses could be on named roads with an address. some homes could be on roads not given any name and might have a fire number if you had fire protection in your township. a fire number system would make sense to fire and law enforcement because they would have a map of them. USPS did use a system of Rural Route (composed of many roads) and roadside box numbers which made sense to the USPS, this worked for un-named roads. Both fire numbers and Rural Routes have been changed to named roads where populations were high enough to justify the costs from my knowledge . ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-the-very-small-sized-rural-post-offices/542176/22 "2010-06-07T15:03:37Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > **Qadgop** , your first zip code mapquests to a local airport. Maybe it’s a shipping depot of some sort. Interesting…I just looked up Hingham, WI on Google Maps; it’s really in BFE in eastern Wisconsin, near the booming metropolises 😉 of Oostburg and Waldo (I have relatives who live in both of those towns), and a few miles away from Sheboygan, which is a (relatively) big town. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-the-very-small-sized-rural-post-offices/542176/23 "2010-06-07T16:14:52Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Interesting…I just looked up Hingham, WI on Google Maps; it’s really in BFE in eastern Wisconsin, near the booming metropolises 😉 of Oostburg and Waldo (I have relatives who live in both of those towns), and a few miles away from Sheboygan, which is a (relatively) big town. So _that’s_ where Waldo is! ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-the-very-small-sized-rural-post-offices/542176/24 "2010-06-07T17:50:59Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > **Qadgop** , your first zip code mapquests to a local airport. Maybe it’s a shipping depot of some sort. It googles to the village of Hingham, for me. And I’ve been to Hingham and seen the P.O. up close. I just need to ask tougher questions there. Mapquest whiffed on that attempt to locate the zip code location, giving it to the county airport instead. Bing whiffed too, identifying Sheboygan Falls as Hingham. \<\\> **kenobi** , if you have relatives in Oostburg, we may well be related. Are you of dutch ancestry? ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-the-very-small-sized-rural-post-offices/542176/25 "2010-06-07T18:37:30Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > **kenobi** , if you have relatives in Oostburg, we may well be related. Are you of dutch ancestry? No; those are relatives on my mother’s side, which is English and Irish. My mom grew up in Port Washington (about 20-30 minutes south of Oostburg), as one of 11 kids. One of her brothers lives in Oostburg (or did, last time I checked), one of her sisters lived in Waldo until a few years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Downtown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mr\_Downtown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Downtown)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-the-very-small-sized-rural-post-offices/542176/26 "2010-06-08T03:31:25Z")
> [@johnpost](#): > > USPS did use a system of Rural Route (composed of many roads) and roadside box numbers which made sense to the USPS, this worked for un-named roads. This technique is pretty much extinct now because of the growth of 911 systems. Virtually all counties in the US now have rural addressing, assigning house numbers and road names to every dwelling. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-the-very-small-sized-rural-post-offices/542176.md?page=1)