Hacker News Reader

Comment by anotha1 | Hacker News Reader

It's quite amazing to see that people still living so remotely, in 2021. I wonder what most of them are accomplishing by using the mail. Do they have family they communicate with? Maybe children that have grownup and relocated?

View on HN

You don't have to that far. In Mexico there are plenty of remote communities as well. They don't get their mail delivered though.

Alaska has lots of places that are only reachable by air or by extremely difficult overland routes that may only be passable during certain times of year.

Supai, Arizona [0] is only accessible by helicopter or an 8-mile hike from the nearest road.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supai,_Arizona

And it's worth every bit of the journey to see the waterfalls.

https://fernweh.photo/2016/11/19/supai-arizona/

The helicopter "pad" and the hiking trailhead are themselves many miles from the nearest town. Supai is often claimed to be the most remote town in the 48 contiguous states.

They are all quite accessible via roads, but there are places in SE Oregon and northern Nevada that are very far from anything. ~2 hours to get to a town with a supermarket and medical center.

Even whole regions of the world like Zomia function without national governance. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southeast_Asian_Massif#Zomia

yes, the exodus of young people is a big issue. also, communications are very limited and wireless / mobile broadband is excruciatingly slow.

> wireless / mobile broadband is excruciatingly slow.

Maybe that's why they all look so happy.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com