The "grateful heart" arts of the thank you note, friendly letter, holiday greetings, and Letter to Santa are practiced so successfully in Grand Marais that Cook County is becoming a culture of correspondents.  

Residents and visitors will have a chance to expand this reputation on Saturday, Dec. 13, from 11-3 p.m. at Lake Superior Trading Post when Letteracy Deck offers more free holiday card writing opportunities, including providing 50 John Beargrease “Trail Mail” stationery sets free of charge. Trail Mail will be delivered by dogsled at the end of the January 25, 2026, John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon. 

Consider some of the community's recent postal achievements: 

* A Letteracy Deck pop-up Dec. 6 indoors at Lake Superior Trading Post hosted a free Letters to Santa and holiday greetings card-writing session where dedicated correspondents nudged Letteracy Deck's 2025 season total over 9,000--more than doubling the previous record of 4,000 in a single season. 

 Letteracy Deck pop-up at the Trading Post

* Great Expectations Charter School students, staff, friends, and families handwrote, drew, and mailed more than 150 thank you letters in the "Gratitude Challenge" sponsored by Minnesota Children's Press and its Letteracy Deck applied literacy project during GES' annual Fun Run fundraiser. By surpassing the 100-card mark, they unlocked a $500 donation from MCP to their school's field trip fund. The $500 was a surprise, anonymous donation to Letteracy Deck that MCP passed on in the spirit of generosity and belief in the educational value of field trips. 

 GES group

* 4th graders at Sawtooth Elementary School teamed up with Care Partners of Cook County this fall to become pen pals with seniors. Now, nearly 40 students and elders are writing to each other. 

* John Bear Grease Trail Mail stationery --delivered by dog sled in late  January--is available for in-house writing and drawing free of charge  Saturday Dec. 13, from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. at the Letteracy Deck pop-up indoors at  Lake Superior Trading Post.

Typically, each branded, commemorative envelope and stationery sheet costs $3, plus postage. Thanks to generous donors, Letteracy Deck is offering up to 50 Trail Mail stamped envelopes and stationery sheet free of charge, to be written and mailed at Letteracy Deck on Dec. 13.  

Each envelope is stamped with a label that reads "Carried by," where the musher who is sworn in as a mail carrier signs it on race day. 

Trail Mail is a fundraiser for the John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon, which is scheduled to run its 41st season on January 25, 2026, from Duluth to  Grand Portage. Mushers are sworn in as official mail carriers to honor the  Ojibwe mail carrier John Beargrease, for whom the race is named. 

Beargrease Background 

With his brothers, John Beargrease kept the North Shore connected to the larger world by delivering mail and parcels via his sled dog mail trail runs  beginning in 1879. 

In the modern running of his rugged North Shore route, mushers reach  Grand Portage and turn their mail bags of Trail Mail over to the U.S. Postal Service. 

Officials there send the Trail Mail letters out as regular 1st class mail from  Grand Portage after receiving a special cancellation stamp that says  "Carried by dog sled." 

Trail Mail letters will likely reach their recipients in late January-early February 2026.