Smart Mailbox "Archive" issue.

I understand Smart Mailboxes are essentially an alias to mail in the Inbox. HOWEVER, I have two mailboxes for archived messages, 2008 and 2009. Somehow, and I will never remember how, I have the appropriate emails in the smart mailbox, but hey have been removed from the Inbox. This goes against everything I read about how SM's work.

I would like to recreate this scenario for other "archives" but there doesn't seem to be a way to do it again. Like I said, not sure how I got there, but would love to repeat. Any ideas? Anyone else been able to make this happen?

Thanks,
Bruce

Your description is impossible. Smart mailboxes are not mailboxes at all; they are conditional searches ("show me all email dated between 1-1-09 and 12-31-09"). Everything "inside" a smart mailbox is a pointer to the real file which is located elsewhere.