The vanishing post office
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Plenty of Minnesota post offices are on the list of 3,700 locations around the country which may be closed. Only in the postal service can a list of possibly doomed post offices and retail sites be called an "expanded service list."
The Minnesota list reads like a who's who of towns few people have heard of before. Darfur, for example: Population 108. Popular lore says the town was named when two Scandinavian railroad men questioned, "why you stop dar fur?" Viewed from Google Earth, Darfur looks like a hundred other small town in Minnesota: A grain elevator, a couple of buildings, one of which is a post office.
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Post offices can be more of a social center in small towns, rather than a desperately needed communication tool. When one closes, it's also a signal to a small town that it's time is up.
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The irony is the post office is being killed by the Internet, but most of the towns which may lose their post office have little to no decent Internet service.
Here's the Minnesota list of communities whose post offices/retail locations are threatened:
Alberta
Alpha
Arco
Avoca
Beaver Creek
Bigelow
Borup
Brooks
Burtrum
Clontarf
Comstock
Conger
Correll
Danvers
Donaldson
Dumont
Darfur
Freeborn
Granada
Hardwick
Hayward
Iona
Magnolia
Millville
North Mankato
Ormsby
Pemberton
Peterson
Twin Lakes
Waltham
Kilkenny
Mendota
Riverview (Saint Paul)
Seeger Square Finance (Saint Paul)
Butler Quarter (Minneapolis)
Commerce (Minneapolis)
Lowry Avenue (Minneapolis)
Euclid
Georgetown
Hanley Falls
Hendrum
Hitterdal
Holloway
Kent
Lake Bronson
Lengby
Marietta
Naytahwaush
New Auburn
Nielsville
Norcross
Odessa
Perley
Ponemah
Ponsford
Porter
Shelly
Strathcona
Sunburg
Vining
Wanda
Wannaska
Waskish
Watson
Wolverton
Aldrich
Birchdale
Bock
Brimson
Brookston
Bruno
Calumet
Civic Center (Duluth)
Flensburg
Fort Ripley
Grandy
Hines
Kerrick
Lake George
Lakeside (Duluth)
Makinen
McGrath
Mizpah
Squaw Lake
Taconite
West Duluth
Wright
