15 Items That You're Absolutely Banned from Mailing in Idaho

Looking back at Idaho's history, you’ll find a lot of cool and quirky stories.

Like that time when Idaho Fish and Game tried to solve the beaver problem in McCall by throwing them out of planes in boxes outfitted with leftover WWII-era parachutes.

Or that time Wallace decided it was the Center of the Universe because you couldn't prove that it isn't. Wallace is probably the most fascinating small town in Idaho, so we won't argue with that logic.

But the one that comes to mind as we sit down to write this article is that time that some clever parents found a way to cheat the system and save some money by mailing their young daughter from Grangeville to her grandparent's home in Lewiston. They used the United States Post Office's parcel post service, which was just a little over a year old. The postage for the little girl was just 53 cents, cheaper than an actual train ticket. She traveled in a train's mail car like an unaccompanied minor may on a plane today.

The story was turned into a picture book named Mailing May written by Michael O. Turnell and also led to some obvious policy changes by USPS.

You can't mail people via USPS anymore, even though that's not one of the six domestically prohibited items listed on their Shipping Restrictions page. In addition to those six items, there are other items that have strict restrictions on them. That means if you’re just a run-of-the-mill Idahoan, you can't legally send them through the mail.

These are just a handful of items that you shouldn't even bother taking to a post office in Idaho. Some of these items may be shipped with private carriers like UPS or FedEx, but you should always check with your courier first.