Part of the Whole

This post card is a depiction of a passenger train passing through the state of Nevada. The route was known as the Overland Express. This route was part of the first Transcontinental Railroad, of which the last spike was driven on May 10, 1869 at Promontory Point in Utah.

Here it is west of Promontory Point, passing a water tower in Palisade Canyon in Nevada. The river to which it is running parallel is the Humbolt River. This river is interesting in as much as it doesn’t flow to anywhere. It actually evaporates before it can get to the ocean.

This is a map to give you an idea of where the Palisade Canyon is on the river.

The post card was published by the Newman Post Card Company out of Los Angeles, California. It was a publisher and printer of lithographic postcards, mostly views of southern California, with some cards of Hawaii and Nevada and the 1915 Panama Pacific Exposition.

They were related to the O. Newman Company. Founded by Oscar Newman, this company published postcards in hand colored collotype and tinted halftones, consisting mostly of holiday cards and views of southern California. They also published a set on the San Francisco earthquake and the 1915 Panama Pacific Exposition. Some of their cards were printed with the Newman Post Card Co. logo on them.

This section of the back of the post card indicates that it came from the Newman Post Card Company.
In the 1960s, the Newman Post Card Company was acquired by H.S. Crocker.

The post card itself, is from the Divided Back Era so it was printed and published between 1907 and 1915.