The Fraser Canyon in British Columbia, Canada

The Fraser Canyon is the gorge in the Rocky Mountains through which the Fraser River Flows. During the early 1880s, construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) began in order to connect British Columbia to the rest of Canada. With the completion of the CPR in 1886, rail transport followed the north side of the Fraser River for 84 kilometers. Heading westward, the Canadian Pacific Railway trains first pick up the Fraser River near Lytton, where the Thompson River joins the Fraser River. The tracks follow the canyon all way to where it broadens into the Fraser Valley at Hope.

This post card was published by Warwick Bros. & Rutter.

The firm of Warwick Bros & Rutter published over 7,024 picture postcards during what is now called “The Golden Age of Postcards” (1901-1913). In 1847 William Warwick left Montreal for Woodstock, Ontario, where he opened a small book and stationary shop. In the 1850s he added a bookbinding facility and began to manufacture and publish schoolbooks and others. In the 1860s he developed his wholesale business, but finding Woodstock a limited market, moved his business to Toronto in 1868. In 1880, while driving through The Exhibition grounds in Toronto, Warwick had an accident in which he was thrown from his carriage and injured so severely that he died within a few weeks. The loss of the head of the business was a serious blow. But, Mr. Warwick had surrounded himself with able and loyal associates, and these people took up where he left off. Mrs. Rosina Warwick, who had proven herself a worthy and capable assistant to her husband became the head of the business assisted by the eldest son, Guy F. Warwick. Arthur F. Rutter, who had joined the staff as a lad in 1873, assumed charge of the manufacturing departments. Following William Warwick’s death, the name of the business was changed to “Wm. Warwick & Son”, the firm consisting of Mrs. Warwick and eldest son Guy. In 1885, when the second son, George R. Warwick was admitted to the partnership, Mrs. Warwick retired and the firm name became “Warwick & Sons”. Arthur F. Rutter was taken into the partnership in 1886 and Charles E. Warwick, the youngest son, was also made a member of the firm. In 1893 the firm name was changed from “Warwick & Sons” to “Warwick Bros. & Rutter”. “For some years, the firm made a specialty of the production of picture post cards. It was the first Canadian firm to enter the field with “Made in Canada” coloured cards, leading the way in three color and four color printing processes and making available the highest class of color printing at a popular price.” Warwick Brothers & Rutter was one of many companies in the stationery and printing industries affected by the Toronto fire of 1904. The firm, located at 68-70 Front Street West was the Ontario Government printer, and copies of many older government documents were lost in the fire. After the fire, the company built a new facility at King Street and Spadina Avenue; today, it is a Youth Hostel.

The Middle of Nowhere?

I have heard many places being referred to as being "in the middle of nowhere". The picture of the canyon on the front of this post card looks like it could easily join the "middle of nowhere" group of locations. Fortunately, the caption on the post card saves the day.

It isn't in the middle of nowhere; it is in Rainbow Canyon, Nevada. Unfortunately, the picture does not seem to do the beauty of the canyon justice. I looked up Rainbow Canyon on the internet and the website "Exploring Nevada" was able to provide this information:

The Rainbow Canyon Scenic Drive is a relaxing and enjoyable ride on a paved road through Rainbow Canyon, a deep canyon located just south of the town of Caliente, Nevada on State Highway 317. Rainbow Canyon lies between the Delamar Mountains to the west and the Clover Mountains to the east. The canyon is quite deep and steep, with the canyon lying three thousand feet below the higher peaks of the mountains. Yet what makes Rainbow Canyon an enjoyable drive isn’t tall mountains, but instead the colored rock and interesting rock formations along the road. Throughout the drive, the traveler will see large formations of red rock and rock formations that defy easy description. Additionally, and in contrast to the surrounding mountains, the traveler will come across many cottonwood trees. The reason for all the cottonwood trees is because the drive follows a wash, called the Meadow Valley Wash, for its entire length. This wash usually has no more than a trickle of water in it, but collects enough water during heavy rain events to allow cottonwood trees to grow along its banks. The Rainbow Canyon Scenic Drive closely follows the main line of the Union Pacific Railroad for its entire length. This stretch of the Union Pacific is extremely busy, sometimes averaging one train every twenty minutes or so. There are also numerous railroad tunnels and deep cuts along the railroad, providing the rail fan with excellent train watching and photography.

The railroad referred to on the front of the post card is the Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad. Wikipedia provides this information: Reporting mark SLR the Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad was a rail 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 U.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. The railway was also known by its official nickname, "The Salt Lake Route".

The railroad had a run in with the Union Pacific Railroad early in its building. Luckily, they came to an amicable agreement about operations. The result of the relationship with the Union Pacific Railroad is evident in the paragraph above that says that only the Union Pacific Railroad is running trains in the canyon today.

The post card was printed by M. Reider Publishing Company out of Los Angeles California with connections to printing presses in Dresden, Germany. This company printed and published view-cards of the West and of Native Americans. The cards were printed in Germany except those contracted out to Edward H. Mitchell in the United States. The company existed from 1901 to 1915. I am dating this particular post card as being from prior to the March 1, 1907 era. There is no room on the back for a message.

Going, going, GONE!

The message on the back of this post card tells Robert Base that Donald Slick is in Rochester, New York in order to ride on “the Rochester Subway Trolley Line which makes its final run Saturday night.” The post card is dated Friday, June 29, 1956.

I found this a rather odd message (like one that I would write – being the train-a-holic that I am) so I thought that I should follow it up with some investigation. Following is the information that I found. It is taken in its entirety from this website:

http://www.rochestersubway.com/rochester_subway_history.php

The Erie Canal, responsible for much of upstate New York's economic growth, was considered an obsolete eyesore by the turn of the century. The state legislature allocated money for relocation of the canal, and the last boat traveled through the city locks in 1919. After much debate about what to do with the abandoned canal bed, the city of Rochester then purchased the land for construction of a trolley subway that would greatly reduce the amount of surface traffic in the populous city. Eight years after the last canal boat was piloted through the city, the Rochester Industrial & Rapid Transit Railway was opened to the public in December 1927. Known to most simply as the "Subway," it was built to serve as a freight interchange for the five railroads that served the city. Running from the General Motors Rochester Products plant southeasterly through Rochester, and southeast to Rowlands, the Subway was not more than ten miles long. See where the subway took passengers in 1928.
From its opening date, the Subway was never utilized to its full potential. The exception was the World War II era when the Subway ran four-car trains at the height of rush hour. Public outcry for Subway service improvements and extensions fell on deaf ears. Eventually, against public statements to the contrary, the city council voted in secret to discontinue subway passenger service after 1955, and construct the Eastern Expressway (I-490) in its place. The last passenger run on the Subway was Saturday, June 30, 1956.
Today, few traces of the subway survive. The western section that was filled in remained undeveloped, and can be traced nearly uninterrupted all the way out to the former General Motors plant. The only remaining Subway car (Car 60) is in the custody of the Rochester Chapter NRHS, at the Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum. The subway car is in the middle of a multi-year fundraising and restoration effort. Ruins of the Subway exist downtown, partially obscured by the I-490 that succeeded it. The two-mile tunnel under Broad Street is in need of serious repairs, and there has been heated debate over the idea of filling the man-made cavern under the city. The two stations that were in the tunnel, West Main Street and City Hall, have remained hidden from the public for over forty years, with little remaining to indicate they were ever there.

It is very sad to me that a city would treat a mass transit system like this.

The post card was published by the Manson News Agency of Rochester.

I found several other post cards published by these people on the internet. Not one had a date on it. Because of the linen-like texture of this post card, I assume that they were around in the 1930s. We know that their cards were still being sold in the 1950s, because Donald Slick purchased one.

It was printed by the Metropolitan Company out of Everett, Massachusetts.

They were a major printer of linen and photochrome postcards which covered a variety of subjects. They also printed postcards for many other publishers, like the Manson News Agency from which this post card is published. A good number of Metrocraft’s early photochrome postcards retained the use of re-touchers that had worked on their linens. These cards have a very distinct look before they went over to a completely uniform photographic means of natural color reproduction. This information is from the Metropolitan Postcard Club in New York.

A Sweet Deal

From Wikipedia: The San Diego and Arizona Railway (reporting mark SDA) was a short line U.S. railroad founded by entrepreneur John D. Spreckels - of the Spreckels Sugar empire - (The entrepreneur's many business ventures included the Hotel del Coronado and the San Diego and Arizona

Railway, both of which are credited with helping San Diego develop into a major commercial center) and dubbed "The Impossible Railroad" by engineers of its day due to the immense logistical challenges involved. Established in part to provide San Diego with a direct transcontinental rail link to the east by connecting with the Southern Pacific Railroad (which secretly provided the funding for the endeavor) lines in El Centro, California,

the 148-mile (238 km) route of the SD&A originated in San Diego, California and terminated in El Centro, California.

The company charter was executed on December 14, 1906, and the groundbreaking ceremony was held the following September. Numerous delays (including government intervention during World War I) delayed the completion of the line to November 15, 1919. Damage to the lines from both

natural disasters and sabotage exerted great financial pressure on the company, and in 1932 Spreckels' heirs sold their interests in the railroad to the Southern Pacific, which was named the San Diego & Arizona Eastern Railway (SD&AE).

These three postcards show two locations on the Railroad about half way between El Centro and San Diego, California. The first two post cards are published by the M. Kashower company out of Los Angeles, California from 1914 to 1934. The company focused mostly on the southern California area; this post card is an example of that. If you look in the bottom right hand corner of the post card, you can see a number. It doesn't show up well on the scans above so here is a close-up:

If you look very carefully, you can make out a 23404 among the rocks. The bottom image, above, is a copy of this post card, but by a different publisher: H. L. Christiance out of San Diego, California. The number is missing in the bottom right. I did some research trying to find out how long this company was around. All I could find were images of a book they published in 1915.
The M. Kashower company has a great logo:

They want you to know that they are from California, the Bear State. This is a depiction of a grizzly bear between the company's two letters of its name.