2/27/2026 - Santa Cruz Valley National Heritage Area - The Postal History Foundation

 

2/27/2026 - My mom and me went to a new museum that we have never even heard of before.  It's located at 920 N. 1st Ave near the University of Arizona campus, and it is also a small mail center.  The place is called Postal History Foundation.  They have an exhibit of some things that the post office and carriers would uses in the late 1800's to the 1960's.

The first Post Office in Naco, Arizona was near the Mexico border.  They used different kind of tools that the mail employees used.  They used train, horses, mules, donkey in the earlier years and they did by walk or car.

Here is a wall that have stories from mail employees and artifacts that they used.

These were stamp vending machines that you bought with a few cents and get one stamp.  There were different kinds to choose from.

This was a Paymaster that was used in the Post Office.  This was for money orders.

Here are some of the badges that the mail employees wore for work.

Here is the outside of the building.  It's open Mon to Friday 8:30-2:30.  They have volunteers there looking through old stamps that have been used and collected over the years.

The other reason we went there is you can get the Santa Cruz Valley NHA stamp for your National Park Passport.  This stamp is only located in Southern Arizona.

Here are some websites for you to look at to get more information.

Santa Cruz Valley National Heritage Area (U.S. National Park Service)

Postal History Foundation – Connecting people to postal history, philately, & the world of stamps to inspire curiosity & encourage life-long learning

Go check it out.  It was cool to see and learn.