GEOGRAPHY Lessons today!

The title of this post card, in typical V. O. Hammon sytle of small red block lettering, is: LOADED ORE TRAINS LEAVING MAHONING MINE, HIBBING, MINN (LARGEST OPEN PIT MINE IN THE WORLD).

Today the Hull-Rust-Mahoning Mine in Hibbing, Minnesota, United States, is one of the largest open pit iron mines in the world, with a 1.5 by 3.5 mile footprint and depths up to 600 feet. The mine, located in the Mesabi Range, supplied as much as one-fourth of all the iron ore mined in the United States during its peak production during World War I and World War II.
This area of the Mesabi Range was explored in 1893–1894, shortly after the Mountain Iron mine was established in 1892. It began as an underground mine, but open pit mining soon proved to be a better choice because of the shallow nature of the ore deposits. The many smaller open pit mines developed in the area soon merged into one large mine. The growth of the mine even resulted in the town of Hibbing being relocated to accommodate expansion. The move started in 1919 and took two years to complete at a cost of $16,000,000. 185 houses and 20 businesses were moved, and some of the larger buildings had to be cut in half for the move. Only a few uninhabited remnants of the original townsite are left near an observational lookout at the edge of the mine.

Hibbing was founded in 1893 by the town's namesake, Frank Hibbing.[8] Hibbing was born in Hannover, Germany on December 1, 1856 and was christened Frans Dietrich von Ahlen. His mother died when he was still in infancy and it was her name, Hibbing, which he assumed when he set out to seek his fortune in the New World. He first settled in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin where he worked on a farm and in a shingle mill. After deciding he was not familiar enough with the English language to make a legal career possible, he turned to timber cruising.
In 1887, Mr. Hibbing settled in Duluth where he established a real estate business and began explorations on the Vermilion Range. In 1892, he headed a party of thirty men at Mountain Iron and cut a road through the wilderness to Section 22, 58-20. An expert iron ore prospector, he soon discovered the surface indication which led him to believe in the existence of extensive ore deposits.

In July 1893, the townsite of Hibbing was laid out and named in honor of him. Feeling personally responsible as Hibbing's creator, he took the deepest pride in its development and, by his generous aid, made its progress possible. He used his personal means to provide a water plant, electric light plant, the first roads, hotel, sawmill, and bank building. For the last ten years of his life, Mr. Hibbing made his home in Duluth where many of his business interests were centered. He retained close contact with the community which bore his name, until he died of appendicitis on July 30, 1897 at age forty.

The post card is being sent from Duluth, Minnesota to a friend who lives in Lynndyl, Utah. The writer tells his friend that "I just lit here and I don't know how long I will stay."
Lynndyl Utah is a town of about 3 and a half square miles in area located in northeast Millard County. This puts in close to, but not very near to the geographical center of the state. Lynndyl got its beginning, like many towns, as a railroad town in1907. Farming in the area began around the year 1912. Its greatest population was achieved in 1930 with 495 people living in Lynndyl; the lowest population was in 1980 at 90 people. Today there are just over 100 people there.
At the turn of the 21st Century, according to the 2000 census, there were 134 people, 45 households, and 39 families residing in the town. There were 55 housing units there and the racial makeup was 89.55% White, 2.24% Native American, 5.97% from other races, and 2.24% from a mixed race household. Hispanic households were13.43% of the population.
The age spread was that there were 32.8% under the age of 18, 4.5% from 18 to 24, 23.9% from 25 to 44, 22.4% from 45 to 64, and 16.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35 years old.
The median income for a household in the town was $35,625. Males had a median income of $31,250 versus $21,250 for females. 11.1% of families and 7.5% of the population were living below the poverty line, including 13.0% of people under the age of eighteen.

The post card was printed and published by V.O. Hammon Publishing Company out of Chicago. A major publisher of halftone lithographic view-cards of the Great Lakes region. They also published novelty cards. Most of their cards tend to have a distinct look as they were printed in crisp RGB colors with small red block lettering. The V.O. Hammon Publishing Company, publisher of pictorial postcards, is listed in the Minneapolis, Minnesota city directory from 1904 until 1923.

Crawford Notch, New Hamshire

This is a post card that posted to the mail on October 16, 1907. It is a picture of the Willey Brook Bridge in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. The bridge and the brook are named after the Willey family who perished in a landslide in August of 1826.

On the bridge is a Mountain Division of the Maine Central Railroad train approaching the Crawford Notch span of 400 feet long and 94 feet high, between Mount Willey and Mount Willard. Through the gorge below flows a considerable stream, with all the wildness that characterizes mountain waters. At the farther end of the bridge the huge bulwark of Mt. Willard seems an impassable barrier, yet the shelf cut for the passage of trains appears diverging to the right. This shelf is not at the bottom of the valley by any means, but well up its granite side. Just across is the picturesque home of the railroad men who patrol these mountain paths constantly, to prevent disaster. The house has received the title "John O'Groats." I have no idea who the woman on this side of the bridge is; but, I am sure it is not the person who wrote the message on the post card.

Built as the Portland & Ogdensburg Railroad before acquisition by the Maine Central Railroad the line initially provided transportation for summer visitors to grand Victorian hotels, including the Bay of Naples Inn in Naples (reached by connection with Sebago Lake steamboats), the Crawford House in Crawford Notch, and the Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods. Cool, clean air at Sebago Lake and the White Mountains provided a refreshing escape from the heat, humidity and smoke of 19th-century cities. Autumn foliage and winter skiing helped to extend the tourist season. The Flying Yankee train-set operated as the Mountaineer from Boston to Crawford Notch via Intervale Junction during World War II, but passenger service had been reduced to a single daily round-trip between Portland and St. Johnsbury by the 1930s. The train between Portland and St. Johnsbury usually consisted of a RPO-express car, a baggage car and a single coach after the 1920s; and substitution of a stainless steel combination for the coach and baggage car reduced the train to two cars for the last several years before the end of passenger service in 1958.

Today this rail and bridge are part of the Conway Scenic Railway. This is an excerpt from their website: ON THE NOTCH TRAIN, you’ll travel on what was once the Maine Central Railroad’s famed Mountain Division line, on tracks that were laid in the 1870s. Enjoy some of the most dramatic natural scenery in the East as you travel through spectacular Crawford Notch – past sheer bluffs, steep ravines, cascading brooks and streams, panoramic mountain vistas, across Frankenstein Trestle and Willey Brook Bridge – enroute to Crawford and Fabyan stations.

As you travel through this rugged terrain, you can begin to appreciate what a remarkable engineering achievement constructing this railroad was almost 140 years ago. Live commentary onboard includes history and folklore of the railroad and area, as well as points of interest.
Included in the excursion is a layover at Crawford Station, across from Saco Lake (a small pond from which the mighty Saco River originates), and adjacent to the AMC’s Highland Center. Passengers are encouraged to get off the train, stretch their legs, and explore their beautiful surroundings.

Coach seating and climate controlled First Class seating are available aboard the Notch Train. First Class options are the CP Reed or the Dome Car, Dorthea Mae, both originally built in the mid-fifties for transcontinental service in Canada and the United States, respectively. There are a total of 48 seats in the Dome Car: 24 in the Lower Dome, which is First Class seating, and 24 in the Dome itself, which is Premium seating.

I think we will have to add this to our bucket list!!

The post card is from a high school student to her grandmother. The message on the front side (above) is: “I have got a new fall hat it is real pretty. I don’t have much time to write am pretty busy most of the time but will write as often as I can. With love to all M. M.”

Remember that this post card was mailed about 6 months after they rescinded the rule that you could not write anything on the back of the post cards except the address. This young lady must have remembered her training well… Except, she also wrote on the back of the card! She tells her grandmother that she dropped Algebra and took up English History instead. She knows all the girls in the school now and they are awfully nice. She also went to a corn roast and had an awfully nice time.

The post card was printed in Germany for The Hugh C. Leighton Company out of Portland, Maine. This company only existed from 1906 to 1909; so we would have a good idea of the age of the post card without the postmark. They were a printer and major publisher of national view-cards, especially scenes of New England.

They printed most of their post cards in four distinct styles employing halftone lithography. Most used a simple soft yet highly recognizable RGB pallet. While some post cards were printed at their plant in the U.S. most were manufactured in Frankfort, Germany. Almost all their post cards were numbered. This post card is number 4 and it was printed in Frankfort, Germany. They merged with Valentine & Sons in 1909.

Life Before the Dam

American Falls:
The picture on the front of this post card is of the American Falls, a landmark waterfall on the Snake River, named after a party of American trappers whose boat went over the falls. The Wilson Price Hunt expedition in 1811 camped at the falls one night and the expedition of John C. Frémont was here in 1843. The Oregon Trail passed north of town, through the present-day reservoir. Power plants first sprang up at the falls in 1901.

American Falls was the first town in the U.S. to be entirely relocated; it was moved in 1925 to facilitate construction of the nearby American Falls Dam. The old town site sits at the bottom of the reservoir, northeast of the present city. A larger dam was completed in 1978, downstream from the deteriorating 1927 structure, which was later demolished. The first dam, designed by Frank A. Banks, at American Falls was begun in 1925 by the Bureau of Reclamation and was completed in 1927. The river was temporarily impounded while the new concrete structure was put in place.

The Oregon Short Line Railroad:
The railroad bridge, pictured in this post card travelling over the river, had to be raised to allow for crossing the new reservoir of water that would build up behind the dam. It belonged to the Oregon Short Line Railroad.

The Oregon Short Line Railroad was a railroad in the states of Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, Montana and Oregon. The line was organized as the Oregon Short Line Railway on April 14, 1881 as a subsidiary of Union Pacific Railway. Union Pacific intended the line to be the shortest route ("the short line") from Wyoming to Oregon. In 1889 the line merged with the Utah & Northern Railway and 6 other small railroads to become the Oregon Short Line and Utah Northern Railway. Following the bankruptcy of Union Pacific, the line was taken into receivership and reorganized as the Oregon Short Line Railroad.

The Oregon Short Line was independent for a short period of time until October 1898 when the newly reformed Union Pacific Railroad took control of a majority of the board of directors. In 1938, Union Pacific began consolidating operations and leased for operation a number of its subsidiaries including the Oregon Short Line. The railroad operated under the lease until December 30, 1987, when the OSL was fully merged into the Union Pacific Railroad.

This post card was printed by Curt Otto Teich’s company using the C. T. American Art name of the printing process. The number on the card (R-88257) indicates (using a bit of mathematical interpolation) that the year of publication is 1922. This is good news, because the company that published the card:

Gray News Company was only in operation from 1906 to 1922. They were centered in Salt Lake City, Utah. They were known as a publisher and distributor of regional lithographic view-cards. So in my catalogue I have put the date of this post card at 1922.

Who is Fred Harvey and Why is He at the Cajon Pass?

The number in the bottom left corner of this post card is H-2066. That gave me a hint that this might be a Fred Harvey post card printed by a third party. The name of the copyright holder in the bottom right corner confirmed that it was, indeed, a Fred Harvey post card.

Harvey began a business venture of setting up restaurants along the Kansas Pacific Railroad with Jeff Rice in 1873. It didn’t survive; but, Fred realized that this was to be his life’s work. 1876 he struck a deal with an acquaintance, Charles Morse. Harvey opened eating houses rent free along the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad – of which Mr. Morse was the superintendent. The deal was sealed only with a handshake, but it would have huge ramifications for both parties. At its peak, there were 84 Harvey Houses, all of which catered to wealthy and middle-class visitors alike and Harvey became known as "the Civilizer of the West." They continued to be built and operated into the 1960s. Harvey was the head of the Fred Harvey Company, which operated the hotel and restaurant chain under the leadership of his sons and grandsons until 1965. When Fred Harvey died there were 47 Harvey House restaurants, 15 hotels, and 30 dining cars operating on the Santa Fe Railway.
Fred Harvey was also a postcard publisher, touted as "the best way to promote your Hotel or Restaurant." Most postcards were published in co-operation with the Detroit Publishing Company.
The title of the post card is “CAJON PASS AT THE SUMMIT OF THE COAST RANGE, CALIFORNIA” Cajon Pass is a mountain pass between the San Bernardino Mountains and the San Gabriel Mountains in Southern California in the United States. It was created by the movements of the San Andreas Fault. In 1851, a group of Mormon settlers led by Amasa M. Lyman and Charles C. Rich traveled through the Cajon Pass in covered wagons on their way from Salt Lake City to southern California.
The California Southern Railroad, a subsidiary of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, was the first railroad to use the Cajon Pass as a route through the mountains. The rail line through the pass was built in the early 1880s as part of a connection between the present day cities of Barstow and San Diego. Today the Union Pacific Railroad and BNSF Railway (the successor to the Santa Fe) use the pass to reach Los Angeles and San Bernardino. Due to the many trains, noteworthy scenery and easy access, it is a popular location for railfans, and numerous photographs of trains on Cajon Pass appear in books and magazines about trains. The current Amtrak Chicago-Los Angeles Southwest Chief passenger train travels through the pass.

The post card was printed for Fred Harvey by the Detroit Publishing Company. Originally a printer of religious books and calendars, the Detroit Photographic Company Ltd. shifted production in 1897 when owners William A. Livingstone and Edwin H. Husher saw the potential in postcards. After negotiations with Orell Fussli, Detroit became the sole American company to license the Swiss photochrom process, which they would eventually register in 1907 under the name Phostint. Series H1199 to H4160 were contract cards printed from 1901-1932 for Fred Harvey. By 1904 as postcards sales increased to 7 million per year they changed their name to the Detroit Publishing Company. They produced postcards on a great variety of subjects but they are best known for their view-cards. The quality of their cards are considered some of the finest produced in America. They also printed many contract cards whose numbers increased as ordinary sales began to fall. Detroit went into receivership in 1924 but printed contract cards until 1932.
The fact that is was printed by the Detroit Publishing not the Detroit Photographic Company tells us that this card is from after 1904; but, the white border tells us that it is from after 1915. Unfortunately, someone removed the stamp, which took the year of the cancellation with it.