Like most of the city's enduring landmarks, Blackfoot’s post office has a long and rich history. However, the establishment uniquely features a past filled with changes and relocations. Though pieces of its story have inevitably been lost over more than a century, several clues remain to help document its charming legacy.

The tale of Blackfoot’s post office perhaps starts with the opening of Bingham County’s first location on March 27, 1873, known as Corbett Station. While it didn’t belong to Blackfoot, the station was opened to better accommodate the city’s growth. It closed on April 21, 1879, with Almira Corbett serving as postmaster, and the Central Ferry Post Office was established on December 10, 1878. Theodore T. Danilson was postmaster of this location, and the facility served as the first official post office in the Blackfoot area. It operated from a home near the river on Route 26, and though the date of its establishment is verifiable, the construction period is debated. Some believe it was built before 1860, while others insist it was later.

Regardless of the date, Central Ferry was built with sod and later covered in shiplap. The location carries historical clout as the site of Medora Trego Greene’s wedding in 1888. Flora Green Donahue, Medora’s daughter and niece to local news legend Byrd Trego, recalled the home as a popular social hub where dances and other amusements were hosted, though it later succumbed to the Teton Flood in 1976.

Despite the building’s significance for initiating the area’s postal service, it only did so for a little over three months. From then on, the post office was called “Blackfoot” and relocated closer to the heart of a still-growing community. The postmark was officially changed to Blackfoot on March 20, 1879, and Danilson remained in charge of the new location, which was dubbed “Tilford City” and doubled as a barn. Danilson departed in 1883, when Clarence E. Ash assumed the postmaster position. Ash served until 1884 when he was replaced by James McTucker, who then ceded the role to Robert H. Hopkins in December of that year. All that remains of Tilford City now is “Doud Street”, named for E. A. Doud, who’d built a home there.

Between 1885 and 1888, a man named Joseph Warren was postmaster until his wife took over in November and served until J. S. Beckwith replaced her in April 1889. The Warrens were an important couple in the development of Blackfoot’s postal service, as they are widely considered hosts of the city’s first official post office from their home during their tenure.

Several postmasters followed the foundational legacy of the Warrens, though it is unclear whether the couple’s house continued to be the office once their service ended. However, it is clear that by 1890, Fred A. Stevens was documented as postmaster, operating from a building on Bridge Street beside his candy store and a local meat market. The post office was housed in a structure owned by prominent resident John Guthrie Brown, who formerly resided in the mansion where the Bingham County Historical Museum now operates.

Despite the building’s local relevance, Blackfoot kept growing, and it was later torn down to make way for Pacific Street, where a new building was finished on December 7, 1935, and dedicated on January 4, 1936, because of holiday rush delays. This location continues to house the post office residents use today. It distinguished itself by featuring Arvene Boyle as the first postmaster who could work for a lifetime and an array of unique morals with Indigenous scenery painted by a Sioux man from Pine Ridge, South Dakota, named Andrew Standing Soldier.

Aside from its affiliation with prominent locals, Blackfoot’s postal service also has state and federal significance. It featured the state’s alleged first female carrier, Jane Sessions Nelson, and one of the very first rural delivery routes ever established in the United States.

Though some may consider Blackfoot small, and many might not think twice about its postal service or longstanding office, there is a lustrous history that exists not only between its walls but beyond them into Blackfoot’s landscape in places that have been changed and perhaps forgotten, yet still draw breath from a land filled with countless stories of lives past, just waiting to be collected and delivered.