You’ve probably heard what you think of as the U.S. Postal worker’s creed: “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.” While it’s inscribed on the exterior of the James Farley Post Office in New York, it’s not actually an official motto of the Post Office. The Post Office’s mission statement is:

“The Postal Service shall have as its basic function the obligation to provide postal services to bind the Nation together through the personal, educational, literary, and business correspondence of the people. It shall provide prompt, reliable, and efficient services to patrons in all areas and shall render postal services to all communities.”

While it’s not quite as poetic as “gloom of night,” the U.S. Post Office is remarkably effective at shuttling written communication all over the country – even when that communication is almost impossible to decode. There’s a place in Utah that’s a vital part of the Post Office’s mission. Read on to find out more!

Not so long ago, people wrote every bit of correspondence by hand. Before the era of the telephone, writing loved ones letters was the only way to keep in touch.
Niels/flickr
Today, email communication replaces much of the written communication that was once necessary. But even with constant emails, chats, and texts, the U.S. Post office still handles 146.4 billion pieces of mail annually.
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Mail carriers deliver mail on 231,843 postal routes across the country, and work in almost all weather conditions. But while they're very good at getting mail from one place to another, it's not always an easy process.
Luciano Zanardo/flickr

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Sometimes the address on a letter is illegible; other times the envelope or label is damaged. It may have an incorrect ZIP code or street address. When the postal sorter can't figure out where a piece of mail should go, it gets sent to the USPS Remote Encoding Facility.
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This nondescript beige building is located at 1275 S. 4800 W., Salt Lake City, UT 84104, and most Utahns don't even know it exists. This is the country's only postal facility for handling dead letters, and the 1,200 or so employees who work here are nothing short of magical.
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Employees sit at their computer screens eight hours a day, and the facility runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Workers have 10 seconds to see each image on their screen and quickly decipher it; more than 4.4 images of mail are processed here every 24 hours.
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The next time your mail carrier delivers a hand-written card from your elderly Aunt Ida and you see one of the post office's address labels covering her chicken scratch, remember that one of your fellow Utahns made that delivery possible.
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The USPS Remote Encoding Facility isn't open for visitors. It is often hiring, however! Visit the U.S. Postal Service's careers page to see openings.

Do you know anyone who works for the USPS Remote Encoding Facility, or has in the past? Tag them in the comments!

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1275 S. 4800 W., Salt Lake City, UT 84104