The Strangest ZIP Codes in America

## Oddities of the System

The ZIP code system was designed for efficiency, but decades of growth, politics, and special cases have created some truly unusual codes.

## Santa Claus, Indiana (47579)

The town of Santa Claus, Indiana receives over **500,000 letters addressed to Santa Claus** each holiday season. Local volunteers and postal workers respond to thousands of them. The town embraces its name with a theme park (Holiday World), Santa Claus Museum, and streets named Christmas Boulevard and Candy Cane Lane.

## The Empire State Building (10118)

New York's Empire State Building has its own unique ZIP code — 10118. The building receives enough mail to justify its own sorting. Its 102 floors contain over 1,000 businesses.

Other buildings with unique ZIPs:

| Building | ZIP |
|----------|-----|
| Empire State Building | 10118 |
| Sears/Willis Tower | 60606 (shared) |
| Pentagon | 20301 |
| United Nations | 10017 |

## The Lowest and Highest

| Record | ZIP | Location |
|--------|-----|----------|
| Lowest | 00501 | IRS, Holtsville, NY |
| Lowest standard | 00601 | Adjuntas, PR |
| Highest | 99950 | Ketchikan, AK |

## Ghost ZIPs

Some ZIP codes have been retired but live on in databases:

- **10048** — World Trade Center (retired after 9/11)
- Various ZIPs in depopulated areas of Detroit, Gary, and other shrinking cities have been consolidated

## Floating ZIP Codes

Aircraft carriers and other Navy ships have FPO ZIP codes that literally float around the ocean. The USS Nimitz, for example, has been assigned FPO AP 96620 regardless of whether it's in the Pacific, Indian Ocean, or Persian Gulf.

## The Two-State ZIP

ZIP code 42223 covers Fort Campbell, a military base that straddles the Kentucky-Tennessee border. Residents on the Kentucky side and Tennessee side share the same ZIP but file taxes in different states, vote in different elections, and follow different laws.

## The Non-Contiguous ZIP

Some ZIPs consist of multiple disconnected pieces. This happens when USPS routing makes it more efficient to assign a pocket of addresses to a non-adjacent ZIP code. The result looks like islands on a map.