Barefoot mailman

The term barefoot mailman refers to the carriers on the first U.S. Mail route (1885-1892) between Palm Beach and the settlements around the body of water known as Lake Worth on the north, and Miami, Coconut Grove, and Lemon City to the south. The mailmen had to walk and travel by boat because there was no road connecting the 68-mile route from Palm Beach to Miami. Approximately 28 miles of the one way trip was by rowing different boats, and the rest by walking along the firmer sand along the beach. The route was a Star route, with the carriers contracting with the Post Office. The route was originally called the "barefoot route" and the carriers were called "beach walkists" or "beach walkers". It was not until around 1940 that the term "barefoot mailman" came into use.

In the early 1880s the communities around Lake Worth were at the end of the mail routes. The mail was carried by a series of Star routes from Titusville to Palm Beach. There was no mail delivery south of Palm Beach. To the south, Miami and the communities around Biscayne Bay received mail by a weekly schooner from Key West.

A Star route to carry mail between Lake Worth and Biscayne Bay was established in 1885. The route involved a round trip of 136 miles from Palm Beach to Miami and back, and took six days. The carrier would leave Palm Beach on Monday morning, traveling by boat to the southern end of the Lake Worth Lagoon. He would then cross over to the beach and walk down to the Orange Grove House of Refuge in what is now Delray Beach, where he would spend the night. The next day (Tuesday) he would continue walking down the beach to the Fort Lauderdale House of Refuge, where he would spend that night. On Wednesday the carrier traveled by boat down the New River to its inlet, and then would walk down the beach to Baker's Haulover at the north end of Biscayne Bay. Finally, he would travel down Biscayne Bay by boat to Miami. On Thursday he would start the return trip, arriving in Palm Beach on Saturday. By an alternate account, the route to Miami originally started from Jupiter, but was shortened in 1887, when a new Star route was established from Jupiter to Hypoluxo (south of Palm Beach), with the shortened route running from Hypoluxo to Miami for the rest of its existence.

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