Leggett post office set to reopen June 15 after fire closure

Leggett residents will get their own post office back on June 15, when the building at 67672 Drive Thru Tree Road reopens with full retail counter and post office box service after more than two years of disruption.

The reopening restores a local service that disappeared after a March 1, 2024 fire tore through the post office. The U.S. Postal Service had shifted Leggett mail pickup to the Garberville Post Office at 368 Sprowl Creek Rd. beginning March 4, 2024, forcing customers to make the drive across the Humboldt County line for routine postal business.

For a tiny redwood community with only a few dozen residents, the detour turned an ordinary errand into a major trip. Local coverage at the time put the round trip at about 50 miles, a burden for anyone without easy transportation and a regular hassle for people running errands, businesses, or depending on timely mail service.

USPS said the reopened Leggett office will operate Monday through Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., with 24-hour lobby access for post office boxes. Residents will be able to pick up new box keys when the office opens later in the month.

The fire that closed the building began when lightning struck a redwood tree above the post office around 5:45 p.m., sending debris onto a power line and igniting the roof. The post office was destroyed, but the nearby grocery store remained standing, a reminder of how narrowly the fire missed other parts of the small Highway 271 corridor.

Leggett Postmaster Kristi Rico said USPS was “thrilled” to reopen the office and thanked customers for their patience. John Stephenson, a Leggett native and owner of the town’s drive-through tree, called the post office “the hub” and “the heart” of the community.

The reopening also restores a piece of rural infrastructure that has mattered beyond Leggett itself. A local fire district noted that after the Piercy Post Office burned in 2005, Piercy mail was routed through Leggett, underscoring how one small postal building can serve as a lifeline for several remote communities.