Today is the last day of operation for the remote, mountain community’s post office, which according to local historian Kerry Moosman has operated in one Atlanta building or another since 1867.

“It’s the end of an era,” he said.

Larry Rexroad, the contract mail carrier who hauls the mail to Atlanta from Boise, said the office is closing because the woman who operated it, Linda Gill, is quitting.

Gill could not be reached for comment.

“She ran it for almost 12 years and chose to terminate her contract,” said Barbara Puckett, Idaho post office review coordinator. “She provided the electricity and heat and operated the service. No one else has been willing to take over the contract and do that.”

About 25 people live in Atlanta, Rexroad said.

Instead of a post office, postal patrons will now have mailboxes outside their homes.

“That’s not a big deal in the summertime, but in winter it could be a challenge because of the snowplow and sometimes four or more feet of snow,” Rexroad said. “It might take me another 30 to 45 minutes or more to deliver to the boxes. Who knows? I have to chain up all four tires on my truck sometimes in the winter, and it takes me six hours just to get there.”

Moosman says mailboxes could be problematic during typical Atlanta winters.

“We can have 5 feet on the level here,” he said. “Houses disappear. The postal service’s solution is that we put the boxes in cans and move them around.”

Moosman, who owns a number of historical buildings in the area, said he offered the postal service a building that could serve as a post office.

Puckett, however, said that “the facility is only part of what’s needed. Someone also would have to agree to be there more than 50 percent of the time to operate it. If someone was willing to do that, the decision to close it would be reviewed.”

Atlanta is northwest of Boise, on the Middle Fork of the Boise River and the edge of the Sawtooth Wilderness.

Most of the roads leading to it are closed in the winter.

Mail service via the Middle Fork Road operates six days a week in summer, three in winter.