The first post office in Mancos was established on what was then the McIntyre place west of town by the river and is where Nodie and Betty Alexander now live. The mail was brought by a mail carrier on horseback from Parrot City three times a week. There must be lost harrowing stories of trying to bring the mail in during the winter months.

In 1878, Andy Menefee moved the post office to his place east of town. (It was Andy's place that George Bauer stopped at and was told to move on when Menefee discovered he had jugs of alcohol to sell.) Menefee continued as postmaster until 1884. In 1883, Charles Roessler carried the mail from Parrot City to Mancos and then on to Dolores the next day. He always arranged his schedule so that he rested on Sunday.

Bauer made the post office part of his general merchandise store in late 1884. He found it much easier to be postmaster when the Rio Grande Southern Railroad was completed through Mancos in 1891. (No doubt he had some negative feelings about the smoke and noise of the trains going just to the north of his brick three-story home he had completed just the year before.) Bauer continued as postmaster until 1894. (It was 1894 that the town was incorporated and George Bauer became mayor. That may have had some influence on his no longer being postmaster.)

A post office was established at Golconda in 1893 and remained in operation for three years. (In 1894 at Golconda, a miner was wrongfully shot twice with a double- barrel shotgun by his boss, whose son-in-law was the postmaster.)

In 1895 to 1898, J. H. Burghardt made the post office part of his store on Grand Avenue. From 1899 to 1904, Dr. N. R. Hutchinson had the post office as the back part of Hallford's Barber Shop.

W. A. Martin became postmaster while he was the station agent for the Rio Grande Southern Railroad from 1905 to 1914. James Brown became the postmaster in 1914 and continued as such for 36 years. Gertrude Noland was then postmaster for 27 years. James (Jimmy) Barrett followed her.

The Rural Route Mail Delivery Service was established in February 1906. It ran from town to Wattles southwest of town and back up to the Webber Road and down Webber then back to town. E. C. Mallett, John Decker and my wife's father, John Elliss, are names I remember as being rural mail carriers.