The 45th parallel series has letterboxes hidden all across the United States along the 45th parallel. The idea was inspired by Matt the Rat from Chicago. If you want to add some more boxes to this series, get ahold of him and he'll set you up with stamps and everything else you'll need for the box. They're pretty slick!
Legend has it that the town of Halfway, Oregon, was named that because it's halfway between the equator and the north pole. That's not entirely true since it's not RIGHT on the 45th parallel, but it's pretty darned close being about four miles away as the the crow flies from this famous, invisible line.
If you've heard of Halfway in the news within the last couple of years, it's probably because it was recently renamed Half.com, a publicity stunt (
https://www.wired.com/1999/12/welcome-to-half-com-oregon/) by the folks at Half.com that's probably exceeded their wildest expectations. Name a town after a dot com company and it makes news around the world, even if it only has 360 people.
Realizing I would be passing through Halfway--so close to the 45th parallel--I instantly decided I wanted to hide a box as part of this series. Fortunately, I had found a box of the 45th parallel a week or so earlier out in Montana, so I had a pretty good idea what the stamp and the box should probably look like to "fit in" with the series. The stamp I found in Montana was a custom-made stamp, which wasn't an option for me being as I didn't decide to hide a 45th parallel box until that very day I hid it, so I quickly carved one at pullout overlooking Hells Canyon, then finished the drive to Halfway where I started hunting for a place to hide this letterbox.
Halfway is also situated about 11 miles from Cornucopia, where a MapSurfer letterbox is located. I tried looking for it. I failed. The clues are extremely vague and difficult to follow, and there's a good possibility the box is missing completely, so don't feel too bad if you fail to find the box either.
Clue
The hard part is just getting to the town of Halfway! It's way off the beaten path, in the middle of Eastern Oregon, and may not even show up on many maps. However, once you've made it there, emptied your bladders and whatever else needs doing, head north on Main St. You'll follow the road for several miles, inching ever closer towards the invisible line called the 45th parallel. When the pavement ends, continue driving on the well-groomed gravel road until you reach mile marker 5. Stop. Get out of the car, and search for a severely decomposed stump in the grass on the left side of the road opposite the mile marker. The letterbox is hidden in the stump, under bark.
This letterbox isn't actually ON the 45th parallel, but it's nearly within spitting distance. If you'd like to "see" the real thing, continue driving up the gravel path towards Cornucopia, and keep your eyes open for a pullout on the left with a tree marked by red spray paint that says "1/2". THAT is the actual 45th parallel. If you've reached Cornucopia, you've gone too far. (But since you made it that far, feel free to look for the Cornucopia letterbox and let me know if you had better luck in finding that box than I did!)
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