Barefoot Mailman Hike: Jan. 31-Feb. 1

Approximately 500 Boy Scouts will participate in a two-day, 35-mile hike from the Pompano Beach, FL, Pier to Miami Beach, FL, South Point Park this weekend to commemorate the “Barefoot Mailmen.” Participants must carry all food, shelter, clothing, cooking gear and any items they may use during their weekend excursion. They’ll also carry letters for the Postal Service to postmark with a commemorative cancellation stamp.

From 1885 through 1893, barefoot mailmen braved heat, thunderstorms, alligators, sharks and bears to carry mail back and forth between what is now Palm Beach County and Miami. Crossing inlets by rowboat and hiking along the beach, it took them six days to complete a round trip.

Thirty-year-old Ed Hamilton is the most well-known barefoot mailman who took over the route in 1887.  Hamilton, like the other mailmen, travelled the three inlets on his route — Hillsboro, Port Everglades and Haulover — in a rowboat which he hid in bushes along the shoreline until his return trip. When he failed to return after six days that October, search parties scoured the coastline. On the north bank of Hillsboro Inlet, they found Hamilton's knapsack containing mail and his clothes. Searchers speculated that someone had used Hamilton's boat to cross the inlet, and the mailman decided to swim over and retrieve it. He apparently never made it.