Kindred Spirit Mailbox Letters

Kindred Spirit Mailbox Letters – Project 543 tells the story of unique places throughout North Carolina we hope turn out to be some of your favorite places. Why 543? Because it is the number of miles in the mountains, from Manteo to the coast, to Murphy, and is traditionally considered the breadth of our state. The entries in this project are in no particular order, and we’ll be adding them each week. Check in often to find inspiration for your next trip, or start planning today at VisitNC.com.

As many fans of Nicholas Sparks know, almost all of his books and movies are set in different parts of North Carolina; He also lives in New Bern, NC. Her 2018 book,

Kindred Spirit Mailbox Letters

Kindred Spirit Mailbox on Bird Island – a reserve near Sunset Beach on the island of Brunswick. Although the mailbox has weathered a few storms over its decades-long lifetime, both locals and visitors make sure it remains standing in its designated spot. Whether you want to write a letter to your unrequited love or have wisdom to share with those who come to you, the Kindred spirit mailbox serves as a symbol of hope and spirit on the tranquil beach where it resides. Over 100,000 people, hopeless romantics and outdoor enthusiasts alike, have visited it since its inception. Regulars recommend parking at 40th Street Public Beach Access (not far from the Sunset Beach Pier), then walking approximately 1.5 miles southwest to reach the Kindred Spirit mailbox. Editor’s Note: This is part of an ongoing series highlighting towns and communities in the Wilmington area. and the places within them that are revered and represent the “heart and soul” of that place.

Kindred Spirit Mailbox In Our State Magazine

Location: To reach Mailbox Start at Public Beach Access located at West 40th Street at Sunset Beach. It is the westernmost reach on the island. Go to the beach and head southwest away from any development. The walk along the beach is about 1.5 miles. Keep in mind that the mailbox is nestled in the middle of the dunes, so it can be easily missed if you’re not paying attention.

What Makes It a “Heart”: A visit to Kindred SpiritMailbox requires commitment. The mailbox is hidden in sand dunes on a secluded beach on Bird Island, a few thousand feet from the South Carolina state line.

Over the past 40 years, thousands of people have left messages in notebooks kept in mailboxes. Entries are extremely diverse. Some describe the beauty of the surrounding area but many are more personal. Loss, love, regret, pain, joy, awe and gratitude are some of the strong emotions found in many notebooks.

Mailbox has been a destination for both locals and tourists in Sunset Beach for over 40 years

Kindred Spirit Mailbox: North Carolina Hidden Treasure

Jacqueline DeGrote, a noted Sunset Beach writer, has been attached to Mailbox since moving to the island in the late ’90s. DeGroot appreciates how the entries are “written in a very heartfelt way” with “lots of ups and downs with the feelings of the characters.”

DeGroote was a good friend of Frank Nesmith, the man who has been credited over the years as co-founder of Mailbox with Claudia Sellar. Tragically, Nesmith passed away in July 2020.

Nesmith’s influence on the mailbox was instrumental in its popularity and longevity, but DeGroot says the original idea came from the sailor.

Claudia Sellar was a kindergarten teacher from New Hope, NC. DeGroot was friends with the sailor for several years until his passing in 2013. DeGroot said that over the years, the sailor had a vision, or as he called it, a “mirage” in his head to “Mailbox Up in Dune Lines.” She wasn’t sure where the beach was, but since she had been going to Sunset Beach for several years, she eventually chose this location for the mailbox.

Top Signs You’ve Found A Kindred Spirit

The first mailboxes were actually placed in the late 70s, near Tubbs Inlet, the inlet between Sunset Beach and Ocean Isle Beach. As the sailor was setting up the mailbox, Nesmith was walking along the beach and started a conversation. She helped him stabilize the mailbox and they quickly became friends.

After several years, the beach around the mailbox was being destroyed and it was moved to its current location on Bird Island, at the other end of Sunset Beach, in 1983. At that time, Bird Island was separated from Sunset Beach by Mad Inlet. People had to pass through a narrow entrance at low tide to reach the mailbox for the location. The inlet eventually closed for good after Hurricane Bonnie hit the area in 1999.

The mailbox is now as popular as ever, with many learning about it from the 2018 novel “Every Breath” by Nicholas Sparks. Although it is a mile and a half from the nearest access area, the mailbox can sometimes have a line at the beach during peak season.

Leslie Woodin is one of three caretakers who currently look after mailboxes. She has been a volunteer for the past four years and says, “We are doing our best to continue the legacy.” Every day of them pays a visit to make sure there are enough notebooks and pens. They also collect any loose letters, pictures or mementos left in the mailbox. When notebooks are full, they take them and replace them with new notebooks. For the past several years, the notebooks have been donated and stored at UNCW’s Randall Library.

The Kindred Spirit Mailbox: A Journey Of Hope |

Woodin understands the importance of mailboxes as an outlet for people to express their most personal feelings in a safe way. “In this day and age of social media, it gives people the opportunity to put their thoughts and feelings down without worrying about commenting or criticizing them, so that’s really cool.”

Barbara Alexander was out on the box on a recent Monday afternoon. She is a native of Whiteville who now lives in Durham but has been taking family trips to Sunset Beach for several years. Her mother died earlier this year at the age of 96 and Alexander became emotional as she sat on a nearby bench trying to figure out how to write about her loss. “People put their heart and soul into it and it’s a very special place.”

Quoteable: Frank Nesmith told StarNews during a 2008 interview that “people think there’s someone with a kindred spirit,” he said, pointing to the sky. “But I think the people who come here are kind souls. If you weren’t a kind soul you wouldn’t have walked that far.”

What’s next: Not much will change! It is expected that the mailbox will remain exactly where it is for the foreseeable future.

Kindred Spirit Mailbox, Sunset Beach, Nc

Every Wednesday until Labor Day, Bird Island Stewards offer a free tour of Bird Island that ends at Mailbox. The tour begins at 8:30 a.m. on the 40th Streetwalkway. You don’t need a forever ticket. Your computer won’t ring “You’ve got mail.” In fact, those who send and receive letters from this location must channel their internal postal worker and use wind, rain, snow (sometimes called snails) to reach mailboxes hidden behind dunes on the beach at Bird Island. ) and must have covered 1½ miles through the sand. The Kindred Spirit Mailbox, located in a bird sanctuary in North Carolina, has become a meeting place for locals, friends, strangers, and families staying and visiting Sunset Beach. Mailbox was started over 30 years ago by a visionary as a simple idea—literally!

“… I walked to the tide line of Bird Island. In the distance – at the low tide line – I saw the silhouette of a rural mailbox. However, I could never reach it – because it was a mirage. The very next week’s Finally, I “Putted” the Original Kindred Spirit Mailbox

Who was the original kindred spirit? It’s unknown, sort of. Like many people who pen messages in mailboxes, they prefer anonymity.

You have to wonder whether this man, who dug a deep pit in the sand to keep the original post that stood the test of time, realized how precious the art of letter writing would become? Did he imagine that thousands of people could walk for miles to connect with people they might never meet? Did they believe it would become a tradition and a respite from the fast-paced, always-on, hyper-shared world that exists beyond the bridge you have to cross to get from the mainland to the island? ?

Kindred Spirit Mailbox, North Carolina Editorial Stock Image

For decades, visitors have written millions of words in notebooks left in mailboxes, revealing fragments of his life. They have shared desires and dreams, renounced pain and addictions, bid farewell. So many notebooks have been filled that a special collection is kept in the William Madison Randall Library at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

This tradition and mailbox have endured the passage of time and the winds of the storm. The original mailbox was blown up in Hurricane Irene. The flag pole, which stood so long to mark the spot for seekers of the Kindred spirit, is now lying in the sand blown away by the same storm. But a new mailbox has arrived, and with it the letter:

Every year, weather passes through these barrier islands, sometimes taking down mailboxes with it. but no