Mail by mule

A mule wrangler, as they are called, is contracted by the U.S. Postal Service to deliver mail and other items to the village of Supai deep below the south rim of the Grand Canyon in Arizona

Indians living in Grand Canyon depend on Postal Service lifeline for all their supplies

SUPAI, Arizona (CNN) -- The village of Supai -- accessible only by foot, horseback or helicopter -- is home to more than 600 Havasupai Indians who live on a reservation deep below the south rim of the Grand Canyon in northern Arizona. Remote? Yes. Isolated? No. The U.S. Postal Service delivers mail and supplies to the Havasupai the same way it's been done for more than a century -- by mule train.

Meat, fresh fruit, eggs and Christmas trees are just some of the many items mailed here, all at the standard Postal Service rate. Usually, a crate of letters and magazines gets in the daily load, too.

VIDEO Take the mule train into the Grand Canyon, with CNN's Larry Woods Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)

"It's amazing what people can do when they put their minds to it. They can pack things you never would have thought," says Charlie Chamberlain, a Postal Service contractor, who counts a disassembled washing machine among his most unusual deliveries.

Items destined for the Havasupai arrive first at the post office in Peach Springs, Arizona, about 70 miles from the reservation. From there, delivery trucks bring the goods the rest of the way -- except for the final eight miles.

Packages are carefully loaded onto mules and horses for the torturous trek down Grand Canyon switchbacks -- a trip that takes 2-3 hours.

USPS - The United States Postal Service (Postal Service, Post Office)
Havasupai Indian Reservation

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