What a Difference Fourteen Years Can Make

This postcard is a picture of “The Portals in the Canyon of the Grand River”.

As you can see, it is aptly named: A portal is an entry point into something. In this case it is a canyon along the Grand River in Garfield County in the state of Colorado.

The picture was taken by William Henry Jackson who lived from 1843 to 1942. The picture show striated rock formations in the Glenwood Canyon formed by the Grand River. In the bottom left we can see some talus from the rock formations above this point. The train tracks we see belong to the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad; it is part of their Glenwood Extension.

If you went looking for this point using the title on the postcard, you would easily either get lost or never find it. This post card was published before March 1, 1907. At that time the river was called the Grand River; today it is known as the Colorado River. Fourteen years later, on July 25, 1921 Congress passed a bill authored by Ed Taylor to rename the Grand River to the Colorado River. It didn’t rename the entire river; it simply extended the name of the Colorado River up into the state to one of the sources of the river in Grand County. You can read the actual bill here: http://lib.colostate.edu/archives/water/grand.html

Because of the research I have done around this postcard I have had to rearrange my postcard collection. I have assumed that the Grand River referred to the river that goes through the Royal Gorge in Colorado – not so!

The postcard was published by Frank S. Thayer. Based in Denver, he published many books, several of which included beautiful scenery from the state of Colorado.

I can see how he might have extended the objects he published from books to postcards after looking at some of the books he published. In 1899 he published “Colorado in Color and Song” by J.W. Wright and Frank H. Mayer. He also formed a partnership with Charles Roscoe Savage a prolific photographer. In 1866, Savage photographed his 9000 mile tour of North America. Savage travelled extensively along the transcontinental railroad photographing its construction. He photographed the completion of the railroad at Promontory Point, Utah in 1869. Savage also produced scenic views of the West in cartes-de-visites form. In the 1880s, Savage formed a partnership with Frank S. Thayer, to produce a series of guidebooks to Utah.

This postcard also records a bit of history. On the back it reminds us that prior to March 1, 1907 only the address could be written on the back of a picture postcard. Then congress passed a bill that said that after March 1, 1907 the right side of a postcard back was to contain the address while the left side could hold a message from the sender to the receiver.

Pike's Peak or Bust

Summit of Pike’s Peak

Needless to say, Pike’s Peak was there long before Lieutenant Zebulon Pike first saw it in November of 1806. The resident Ute Indians were very familiar with the mountain as were the Spanish as they explored the area.

Pike’s Peak began its relationship with the railroads soon after its discovery. The founder of the Denver and Rio Grande Rail Road loved it so much he made his home near the mountain and promoted tourists to drop by and see the mountain as they travelled on his railroad. It became quite a popular tourist destination and people found many creative ways to get to the summit.

One of these tourists was the owner of the Simmons Mattress Company. He rode a mule for two days in order to reach the top of the mountain. When he returned the owner of the hotel in which he was staying planed the idea of a railroad eventually taking people to the summit. Agreeing that people needed to see the beauty, he began gathering the capital necessary to build that railroad. The Manitou and Pike’s Peak Railway Company was founded in 1889. On the afternoon of June 30th, 1891, a church choir from Denver, Colorado became the first passengers on the first train to make it to the summit.

Fifteen years later this post card depicting the summit of Pike’s Peak was mailed. It shows one of the steam engines from the Baldwin Locomotive Works used on the cog railroad that lifted passengers up to the top. The Summit House, which is also shown on the front of the post card, has undergone several metamorphoses.

The Summit House began as a signal station for the US Signal Services in 1873. This building was replaced by a larger one to accommodate the many tourists that were climbing to the summit. A homestead, consisting of one log cabin, was added to the peak in 1886. The signal station was closed in 1888, but tourists continued to use it for shelter. In 1892 the railroad received permission to reconstruct the signal house for the use of their customers; it could accommodate 15 guests, had a lunch counter and a gift shop. Around 1900 the summit house was enlarged and refitted. This is the one we see on the front of the post card.

The post card is from the Undivided Back Era, which ended on March 1, 1907. There are two postmarks on the card. The first one, July 26, 1906 is the date that it was sent from Burlington, Colorado at 5:00PM. The second one, July 27, 1906, is the date that it was received in Omaha, Nebraska at 10 AM.

The picture on the front of the post card is embossed. You can run your fingers over the card and feel the picture. I have several picture post cards of Pike’s Peak similar to this one. But, there is no indication of who the printer or the publisher are.