The Rural Areas Without a Zipcode


I live in rural America. And I love it here. I even most times love what I do not have because I choose to live outside cities. But some of the things I do not have cause problems defining where I live. I do not have a zip code. I borrow neighboring zip codes depending on who is asking.

In the United States of America a zip code is five or nine numbers that are added to a postal address to assist the sorting of mail. There are about 43,000 zip codes. They are attached to post offices which the USPS wants to reduce. Post Offices are attached largely to cities these days. Once Black Lake had a post office and our zip code I am told was 87734. But the USPS deleted that post office because there was no city but just a large rural area with farms and ranches and people like myself which loved living in rural areas. 

When the Black Lake post office was closed the zip code was moved to Ocate, NM which is over the mountain and through the canyon and most notably in an entire other county. I really physically live far closer to Angel Fire, NM which was not even a legitimate post office at the time but a branch off of the Eagle Nest post office 87718. When I first moved here I got a box at the Angel Fire post office. It cost me $8 a year because I was not a resident of Angel Fire. So I was paying for a service other people got for free. It was assumed at the time that the Angel Fire post office would run rural delivery routes to the areas south of them as the Eagle Nest post office ran mail delivery routes to the areas between them and Angel Fire.

That did not happen. Instead it was decided by someone in Washington, DC that since 87734 used to be our zip code the Ocate PO would be responsible for our rural delivery. Only three times a week but free. And as Angel Fire boxes for non-residents were up to $42 a year by then I switched. It meant I could walk up the hill to get my mail instead of plowing through the snow in winter to pick up mail five miles away. 

I am still happy with that arrangement except my address is in another county and I get called up for Mora jury duty from time to time. I have a file where I keep all the necessary documents needed to prove I do not live in Mora. UPS and FedEx package delivery was not as easy. They use the zip code to designate sorting stations. The Ocate zip puts my packages on the wrong side of the mountain for delivery. Both package companies get along better with the Angel Fire zip. That ended up being an extended education for them and me. And currently that seems resolved partly because Black Lake went from a scantly populated unincorporated area to almost a "bedroom community" of Angel Fire. That is a designation we in Black Lake resent btw. 

We want our own zip code because zip codes are not just about mail delivery now. Google Maps uses them. Mortgage companies use them. My insurance rates are based on my zip code. Home Depot uses them for deliveries. And the fact I use both 87734, and 87710, though I live in neither area causes chaos. Most recently with my new vacation rental listing with VRBO. I am having to pay lodging taxes to Angel Fire due to an ordnance passed by the village mandating taxes be collected and paid to them linked to their zip code. And Google Maps trying to sort all areas by zip code, and not it seems, by GPS location.

Should there be a grid developed that designates people and unincorporated areas by location and not what post office they use? Residents of Black Lake unite.


Note: Home Depot delivered my washer and dryer to Albuquerque because their auto ordering system auto corrected my address to that city. I had tried to not put in a zip code because I am a physical address and not a zip code. 

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