Santa Claus

History

The community of Santa Claus was established in 1849. The story of how it received the name of Santa Claus has roots both in fact and legend. In January 1856, the town applied for a post office to be installed. They submitted their application under the name of Santa Fe. The application was returned to them with the message, "Choose some name other than Santa Fe." The process of settling upon the name of Santa Claus has been lost to legend. There are many different versions of the story and there were other choices as well that the town did not settle upon. What is known is that in 1856, the name of Santa Claus was accepted by the Post Office Department. On June 25, 1895, as part of a nationwide standardization for place names (see United States Board of Geographic Names), the post office name was changed to the one word Santaclaus. The town's unique name went largely unnoticed until the late 1920s, when Postmaster James Martin began promoting the Santa Claus postmark. The name was changed back to Santa Claus on February 17, 1928. It was then that the Post Office Department decided there would never be another Santa Claus Post Office in the United States, due to the influx of holiday mail and the staffing and logistical problems this caused. The growing volume of holiday mail became so substantial that it caught the attention of Robert Ripley in 1929, who featured the town's post office in his nationally syndicated Ripley's Believe It or Not! cartoon strip. The town's name also inspired Vincennes, Indiana entrepreneur Milt Harris to create Santa's Candy Castle, the first tourist attraction in Santa Claus, Indiana. Dedicated December 22, 1935 and sponsored by the Curtiss Candy Company, the red-brick Candy Castle is purported to be the first themed attraction in the…

Geography

According to the 2010 census, Santa Claus has a total area of , of which (or 93.86%) is land and (or 6.14%) is water.

Race & ethnicity

Largest nearby schools

• Heritage Hills High School
  High · Lincoln City · 642 students · 14.9:1 ratio
• Lincoln Trail Elementary School
  Elementary · Lamar · 385 students · 19.3:1 ratio
• David Turnham Education Center
  Elementary · Dale · 300 students · 16.7:1 ratio
• Heritage Hills Middle School
  Middle · Lincoln City · 299 students · 17.6:1 ratio
• Nancy Hanks Elementary School
  Elementary · Ferdinand · 271 students · 19.4:1 ratio
• Chrisney Elementary School
  Elementary · Chrisney · 221 students · 17:1 ratio