Supai (Havasupai: Havasuuw) is a census-designated place (CDP) in Coconino County, Arizona, United States, within the Grand Canyon.
[3] The capital of the Havasupai Indian Reservation, Supai is the only place in the United States where mail is still carried in and out by mules.
[4] Supai has been referred to as "the most remote community" in the contiguous United States by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
[8] Tourists and some residents were evacuated from Supai and surrounding area on August 17 and 18, 2008,[9] due to flooding of Havasu Creek complicated by the failure of the earthen Redlands Dam (subsequent to the main flooding event[10][11]) after a night of heavy rainfall.
[12] More heavy rains were expected and a flash flood warning was put into effect, necessitating the evacuation, according to the National Park Service.
[17][18] Located within the Grand Canyon, Supai is accessible only by foot, pack animal or helicopter.
[19][20] According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 1.7 square miles (4.4 km2), all land.
Supai is located inside the Grand Canyon on tribal lands outside of national park jurisdiction and is governed by the tribe.
Perishable goods are, as of 2016, stored in a walk-in freezer at the Peach Springs, Arizona, post office while they await being loaded onto mules.
[19] A contractor, who as of 2016 had held the contract with the post office for 25 years, picks up the mail and drives it an hour to the trailhead, where it's loaded onto mules for the journey down the canyon.
[27] Hualapai Hilltop, the trailhead for Havasupai Trail, is located about 70 miles (110 km) from the community of Peach Springs, along paved BIA Road 18.
[37] Reggae music is popular in the Supai community; according to Afropop, the residents feel "a kinship with the Rastafarian faith".
[40] Tyrone Downie and Cedelia Booker learned of the popularity of the music after Chris Blackwell encountered several Supai residents in a Las Vegas record store buying reggae and helicoptered into Supai in 1982 with a grand piano and played a concert.