9319 East Anne Place

Just next door to last week's "Golfbox" (you can see it closer in the entry 9311 East Anne Place) is this wild-looking box that David Aber named "Snakebox.

Below is a closeup of the head.

9311 East Anne Place

For obvious reasons, David Aber named this "Golfbox". It has been modified to resemble a golf bag and clubs. He sent it on February 27th.

I've zoomed in for more detail:

(There's another unique mailbox next door. It'll be online next week.) Much appreciated, Dave.

1934 South Avenita Planeta (is this a manufactured mailbox?)

David Aber finds phenomenal mailboxes. Even by his usual standard, this one (a castle on top of a dragon?!) seemed too good to be handmade (which is one of the criteria for showing a box here). I'm sure there was no hint of that commercialization; if there were, he wouldn't have sent the photo. Still, I wondered: Was this mailbox really handmade?

You may not be aware of the online search services that will find similar images. For instance, you can go to one of those services, upload a photo of the mailbox in someone's front yard, and see whether the service (for example, Google Images) finds a photo of a similar mailbox somewhere else in the world. That kind of capability is used for businesses to find you, via one of their “security” cameras, in an aisle, shopping for some item, and add to your customer profile that you’re (for example) interested in baby toys.

I decided to try searching for this amazing mailbox: Is there a photo of a similar mailbox somewhere online? If I didn't find a similar photo, that doesn't mean the mailbox wasn't mass-produced, but it cuts the chances. Because the vegetation, concrete, rocks, and house number probably won't be in other photos of the same mass-produced mailbox, I used my favorite free photo editor, GIMP, to remove all of those things from the photo Dave sent. This photo is what I sent to Google, Bing, and a couple of other image-search sites. (I used the “Intelligent Scissors” tool to remove the background and the Clone Stamp tool to replace the house number with the white areas of the sign.)

I didn't find a mailbox like this anywhere else. Even if it is mass-produced, it's pretty incredible, isn't it?

Thanks, Dave, for the fun and for the puzzle.

7440 North Benet Drive

Driving along Silverbell on February 2nd, I ended up taking a wrong turn and winding along a road between a bland-looking subdivision and some land that was much less developed. As I was about to turn around, I spotted this mailbox. It was for a home back in the less-developed land. (The development had honeycombed stacks of plain Postal Service mailboxes.)

Next, I'll zoom in to just the south and west sides of the box. I like the eagle carrying an envelope across the mailbox end:

319 West Pennsylvania Drive

David Aber calls this mailbox “Pony Express” after the long-ago service that delivered mail and etc.

He emailed the photo September 25, 2018, after a nice talk with the homeowner. The mailbox was made by the previous homeowner while he recovered from a stroke!

Next, a closer view:

Bucking Betty coming soon to a home near you?

I found Bucking Betty out in the desert earlier this month. There was no sight of her owner. The steel sculpture artist Pat Frederick might know something about where she is by the time you see this. Pat hopes Betty can find a new home…

(Pat is one of my favorite Tucson sculptors. I was short of mailbox photos to post online, so I asked if I could show the photo here. Maybe you'll see Betty along Pima County roads sometime soon?)

2525 East Helen Street

David Aber found another in his series of “Butterflyboxes” September 17, 2018.

Let's look a bit closer:

8005 East Speedway Boulevard

On August 9th, David Aber stopped by the Mesquite Valley Growers Nursery — where he spotted this mailbox in the midst of a bunch of other greenery.

The other side has the same box and post design
but also has a flag

.
Thanks, David, for this lush treat!

5000 East Grant Road #126

This mailbox extravaganza is inside the Far Horizons Co-Op Estates, a mobile home facility for ages 55+. There's not a "No Tresspassing" sign, and it's a nice and inviting place, but I'm guessing that residents wouldn't appreciate a parade of mailbox-lovers. (This one is close to the entrance from Grant Road, at least…)

I found it after I visited a friend in another home on July 26, 2018.

3142 East 25th Street

Mmmmm…

Cherries, anyone? I spotted this juicy box on July 20, 2018.