The Crevice in the Royal Gorge

Of these three cards that look similar, the top one is probably the oldest. It is printed and published by the Detroit Publishing Company using their exclusive "PHOSTINT" process. A bit of history: Two partners, William A. Livingstone, Jr., a publisher and Edwin H. Husher a photographer, started the Detroit Photographic Company in, of all places, Detroit, Michigan. They purchased the exclusive rights in the United States to a Swiss method of turning black and white photographs into colour prints. The company expanded and changed its name from Detroit Photographic to Detroit Publishing. Unfortunately, the company went into receivership in 1924. This means that this post card is from between March 1, 1907 (beginning of the divided back era) and 1924. If you look at their catalogue of prints and interpolate the number on this card: 12338 you can assume that this card was printed around 1908 or 1909. The bottom two cards are from the same printer: HH Tammen (I've talked about them in some recent posts). This will explain why the pictures look so similar and have the same numbering and titles.

And, even though the publishers on the side of back of the cards have different names, they are the same company. The Van Noy-Interstate Company canged its name to just the Interstate Company in 1926 (two years after Detroit Publishing went under). The company began operations in 1914 and after some mergers and purchasing of other businesses became the Van Noy-Interstate in 1917. It became the Interstate Company in 1926. These cards are good examples of the White Border era. It lasted from about 1915 to 1930.