Tomorrow, April 27th in Train and Post Card History

The picture on the front of this post card is of a train crossing a river near Riverside, California. The train belongs to the Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad (the LA & SL).

The LA & SL was a railroad company that completed and operated a railway line between its namesake cities, via Las Vegas, Nevada. Incorporated in Utah in 1901 as the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad, the line was largely the brainchild of William Andrews Clark, a Montana mining baron and United States Senator. Clark enlisted the help of Utah's Senator Thomas Kearns, mining magnate and newspaper man, to ensure the success of the line through Utah. Construction of the railroad's main line was completed in 1905. Company shareholders adopted the LA&SL name in 1916 after San Pedro had become part of Los Angeles. As you can see in the title of this post card, the railroad was also known by its official nickname, "The Salt Lake Route."

The railroad began in 1871 when the Utah Southern Railroad began laying track southward from Salt Lake City. The Utah Southern, controlled by the much larger Union Pacific Railroad (UP), built a line to a station known as Juab, Utah in 1879. Over time, the Union Pacific Railroad either extended lines, built new tracks, or purchased existing tracks and companies. Another player entered the scene in 1900, however, when Mr. Clark acquired the struggling Los Angeles Terminal Railway with an eye to extending the line northeast to Salt Lake. After “railroad war” a settlement was reached whereby Mr. Clark would build his railroad and the UP would be half owner of his company.

The LA&SL operated independently until April 27, 1921 (93 years ago) when the Union Pacific agreed to acquire Clark's half of the railroad. After 1921 the LA&SL lines were operated as part of the UP system, although the LA&SL Corporation continued to exist on paper until January 1, 1988.

The information above was mostly taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_and_Salt_Lake_Railroad

The information that follows below was mostly taken from Jeff, a dedicated collector and admirer of Edward H. Mitchell. His website can be found at: http://www.mitchellpostcards.com

I have also taken content from a great reference site for post cards: http://www.metropostcard.com/publishersm2.html

Edward H. Mitchell, one of the earliest and most prolific postcard publishers in the United States, was born on April 27, 1867 (147 years ago) in San Francisco.

Mitchell published very early cards – colored vignettes – that were printed in Germany. He was printing and publishing undivided back cards from 225 Post Street in The City before the earthquake and fire of 1906 destroyed his operation and much of San Francisco. He continued to work out of his home until he built a plant and warehouse on Army Street. His cards have great color for the time they were created. All postcards printed after 1908 proudly proclaim 'Printed in the United States' on their backside.

Most of his postcards are about the West. Mitchell rode the rails, which makes sense in his era. I am sure that he created many postcards about the railroads in exchange for discounted travel. I believe that is where the saying “The Road of a Thousand Wonders” which appears on many cards came from.He printed cards for himself and other publishers, most notably to promote the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition. Some of his postcards were being republished through other publishing companies that Mitchell owned or was a partner in such as the Pacific Novelty Co. and the Souvenir Publishing Co. He was known to have purchased the businesses of competitors.

Edward H. Mitchell gave up postcard publishing around 1923 to focus on his interests in the Oil Industry. He died in 1932.

"It Hasta be Shasta"

I have purchased many more post cards than I had time to catalogue into my albums. I resolved that I would not purchase any more train post cards until I had entered those sitting in the stack on my desk into albums and my spreadsheets. So, these last several posts have been the result of this process. I picked up the post card; did the research; blogged about the card; then, entered the post card into my album and spreadsheet. Thanks to this resolve, I have found out that this is post card number 2,900 that has been entered into my post card collection!

In the late 1800s and early 1900s people used to flock to a summer resort on the Sacrament River. They could get there easily via the Southern Pacific Railroad because the railroad built a station there. It was near the small town of Dunsmuir, California whose population came in at 1,650 in the 2010 census. Dunsmuir is where the Southern Pacific makes a couple of wicked hairpin turns to get up the river valley.

When I was growing up in Southern California I remember an advertising tag line that said, “It Hasta be Shasta. The springs on the resort property is where the water came from that was the primary ingredient in these drinks. They bottled the liquid right there.

The resort closed in the early 1950s when it was sold and continues to be owned by the Saint Germain Foundation, and is used as a major facility by that organization (you can look up this organization on Wikipedia). It is no longer open to the public and the lower part of the resort - the bottling plant, the train station, the incline railway, the kiosk and the fountains are all gone. The falls that were visible from the railroad tracks and what ruins are left of the lower part of the resort are all overgrown by blackberry bushes.

The post card was published by the Newman Post Card Company out of Los Angeles.

The card itself was printed in Germany. It is from the Divided Back Era (1907 – 1915). The Newman Post Card Company existed for a very long time. It began in 1907. 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.

In the 1960s the company was acquired by H.S. Crocker. This is taken from the H.S. Crocker Company website: “The first offset-lithographic press manufactured in America was purchased and used by H.S. Crocker Company and later donated to the Smithsonian Museum.” As was this: “Since 1856, H.S. Crocker Printing & Packaging has provided it’s customers with quality and excellence in Customer Service.”

This reminds me of the Lucky Strike cigarette commercials when they said, “Lucky Strike tastes like a cigarette should.” If they had used proper English grammar the saying would have been, “Lucky Strike tastes as a cigarette should.” Someone complained so the next commercial said, “What do you want, good grammar or good taste.” I guess that in case the H.S. Crocker Company would say the same thing about the way they spelled “it’s”, above.

It’s is a contraction for it is.
Its is the third person possessive for a pronoun.

On Top of the World

This post card is a picture of one of the cog trains arriving at the top of Pikes Peak, Colorado. You can easily see the cog track in the middle of the other two tracks.

The building is the train terminal (can’t go any higher than the 14,109 feet elevation) and guest house with an observation tower (cost 25 cents to go up). It was built around the turn of the century (1800s to 1900s). The post card is from the Divided Back Era (1907 – 1915) so this is still a relatively new building. The back of the card tells us that Pikes Peak is “the highest mountain on the continent reached by a railroad.”

The post card was published by H. R. Schmidt & Co.

Henry Schmidt was born in 1880 in Kansas. He loved photography and travelled by train around the western states near Kansas taking pictures, publishing his photographs and turning some of them into immensely popular post cards. By the age of 30 he was running a successful business in Wichita and in the 1910s he opened a branch in Denver.

Mr. Schmidt would spend several days in one location in order to get the best pictures; sometimes he would return to capture special events in the town or city. He sent some of his photographs to Germany to have them transferred to lithographed post cards. These he would sell to the local businesses to distribute as they saw fit.

How to Avoid Asphyxiation

The Michigan Central Railway Tunnel is an international tunnel that connects Detroit, Michigan with Windsor, Ontario. It is an international tunnel because it connects two countries by railroad and because it was built for owned or leased by companies on both sides of the border. The Detroit River Tunnel Company (also very international – read below) built it in 1910 for the Canada Southern Railway; it was leased by the Michigan Central Railroad and it was owned by the New York Central Railroad. Are you confused yet?

It was built to give the Canada Southern Railway and the Michigan Central Railroad a competitive chance at business. In 1891 the Grand Trunk Railway opened the St. Clair Tunnel at Port Huron, giving it the business advantage.

When the Michigan and Canada Bridge and Tunnel Company and the Canada and Michigan Bridge and Tunnel Company from Canada merged on August 15, 1905, the Detroit River Tunnel Company was formed. This company began construction of the tunnel in October of 1906 under the engineering supervision of The New York Central Railway's engineering vice president, William J. Wilgus. The $8.5 million Michigan Central Railway Tunnel opened for passenger service July 26, 1910. Freight service began September 15th and on October 16th all rail traffic began using the tunnel. It is one and three eighths miles long and it is still in use today.

The above information was abridged from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan_Central_Railway_Tunnel

The picture on the post card shows how the coal or wood burning steam engines could go under such a long tunnel without asphyxiating the crew or passengers. They used an electric engine.

Looking at the back of the post card we see that it was published by the Wolverine News Company out of Detroit, Michigan. The information is down the left-hand side of the post card.

There is not a lot of information to be found on the internet about this company.

I did see that they printed baseball cards. One website had a picture of a 1907 Ty Cobb baseball card; the owner wanted to know how much it was worth. Another showed a series of post cards from Ann Arbor printed in 1908. I also found a detailed, official atlas of Wayne County, compiled and drawn from authentic records and private surveys by Sauer Brothers. It was printed by Wolverine News Co., c1915. Finally, I also found a 192 page book written by the Hearne Brothers and printed by the Wolverine News Company in 1936.

The post card comes from the Divided Back Era; the Address Side is clearly labelled but it is taken for granted that the other side is the Message Side. I just noticed that under the T and above the R in POST CARD there is a logo that tells us that Curt Otto Teich printed this post card. The number at the bottom of the card (A-17410) then tells us that this was printed between 1908 and 1910.