USPS Office of Inspector General

"Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds"

Many Americans consider that phrase to be the motto of the U.S. Postal Service, showing the dedication of not only carriers, but the entire postal network to operate during the worst of weather disruptions. Though the Postal Service actually has no motto (those words are chiseled into the entrance over the Farley Post Office in New York City), it strives to be prepared to function during any type of extreme weather.

Whether you live in a bustling city like New York City or Los Angeles, a rural area in the Midwest or Great Plains, or somewhere in between, we all have one thing in common — we’re still using the mail in some way.

A local sportsman by the name of L.L. Bean started his business in September 1912 in Freeport, ME, by mailing out 1,000 three-page flyers advertising his distinctive rubber-bottomed boots to out-of-state sportsmen applying for hunting licenses in Maine.