Brief by Central Staff
Geography – August 2004 – Colorado Central Magazin
On a typical month, we receive two or three “Change of Address” notifications from the U.S. Postal Service. (Each one costs us 70ยข, so we encourage our subscribers to tell us their new address before they move.)
The notifications consist of a xerographic copy, on stiff paper, of the back of the magazine, with a label indicating the new address, as with the example here. (In respect for this subscriber’s privacy, the name and address have been “pixilated.”)
Note, though, the Postal Service spelling of the post office at 81236 as “ATHROP.” It’s either a misspelling that got into the postal computers, or a continuation of a long process of condensation for that place name.
It began in the 1860s as a gristmill and general store owned by pioneer Charles Nachtrieb, who was mysteriously murdered in his store in 1881. Local lore has it that the settlers then had trouble pronouncing the name, so the post office there was christened “Nathrop” rather than Nachtrieb. And now, Athrop? And is the A long or short?
