Want to Join a Club?

Taken from the Union Pacific Railroad's website:
Long an advocate for a rail line that would extend all the way to the Pacific, former railroad attorney and now President Abraham Lincoln realized his dream when he signed the Pacific Railway Act of 1862.

The Central Pacific Railroad of California, which had been chartered in 1861, was authorized to build a line east from Sacramento. At the same time, the Act chartered The Union Pacific Railroad Company to build west from the Missouri River. The original legislation granted each railroad 6,400 acres and up to $48,000 in government bonds for each mile it completed. The UP deadline for completion: July 1, 1874. The Corporate Headquarters for the Union Pacific Railroad is in Omaha, Nebraska. probably not very far from where this picture was taken.

The writer of the post card is inviting himself to join a club in which they trade post cards with each other. The other person, Miss Nellie Valentine, lives in Michigan. He lives in Omaha, thus the nature of the post card.

Look, Ma! No hands!!

OK Get a load of this caption on the back of the post card: "Gravity Car of Mill Valley and Mt. Tamalpais Railway descending Mt. Tamalpais from Muir Woods, California." What a wild ride that could be... although it does look like the person in the front left of the car has his hand on a braking mechanism of some sort. Mount Tampalpais used to have a hotel, tavern at the top. During its time a trip on the Mount Tamalpais Scenic Railroad was a favorite city getaway for San Franciscans. The railway was an immediate success when it opened for business in 1896 and was dubbed by locals as the “Crookedest Railroad in the World” because of its 281 curves in just over eight miles of track, which were depicted in the company’s logo, seen left. Imagine the feeling of excitement and anticipation people must have felt as they ferried across the bay to Sausalito. At the nearby Mill Valley train depot a sleek Heisler or Shay steam engine’s whistle signaled the beginning of the train ride to the top of Mount Tamalpais. Passengers breathed the fresh mountain air from open cars as the train climbed to an elevation of 2,500 feet at a speed of 10 miles per hour. At the summit people marveled at views of the entire San Francisco Bay Area. Locomotives were positioned on the downhill end of the train and pushed the passenger cars uphill, allowing for unobstructed vistas. Watching the engines push from below was an added spectacle for riders, who could see the train’s gears and engineer at work. Ridership declined in later years. By 1920, automobiles could drive to the mountain summit on twisty roads. A fire on Mount Tamalpais in 1929 left many of the rail ties damaged or destroyed. Rail managers lost hope for profitability and abandoned reconstruction efforts. The last train traveled up the mountain on October 31, 1929. Tracks were pulled up in 1930, signaling the end of travel to Muir Woods on the Mount Tamalpais Scenic Railway.

The writer of this post card is telling Miss Alice Lazarus that they are going camping in Yosemite National Park for two weeks. They even have tents and utensils. The writer tells us that Ted looks fine [I presume that Ted is her husband] and the letter that Alice sent arrived on "my anniversary, May 3" So, I don't know if Ted is her husband.... Why else would she have an anniversary? AND the writer does not sign the post card with a name.

The Back Says 1911 but the Front Says 1902

The front of this post card shows a section of track leading to a tunnel in the Eagle River Canyon on the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad. That is what the caption at the bottom left of the picture says. The copyright on the bottom right says that the picture was taken in 1898. That doesn't mean that the post card is that old; or at least I cannot prove that it is that old. More on the age of the card at the end of this post.

The following information was taken from: www.drgw.net/info/TennesseePass

The first part of the Denver & Rio Grande line from Salida, CO, up to Malta was constructed as part of the narrow gauge extension of the Royal Gorge Route route in 1880. From Malta, what would become the Blue River Branch was run up to Leadville, and then up and over Fremont Pass at 11,330 feet. The branch then worked down the north/east side of the pass as far as Robinson. Another branch was extended north to charcoal ovens at Crane's Park, near the south side of today's Tennessee Pass. The objective was not to cross the Divide and reach points west (that goal having already been accomplished via Marshall Pass), but rather to tap the mining boom under way in Leadville.

The next year, 1881, was more of the same. The branch from Malta to Cranes Park was extended over the Divide at Tennessee Pass, and then down the Eagle River valley/canyon

to Red Cliff to serve a new pocket of silver mining. 1882 brought two more miles from Red Cliff to Rock Creek. Aside from more spurs around Leadville, the line over Tennessee essentially stayed the same until 1887.

Only just shy of a year after the Union Pacific-Southern Pacific merger, on 23-Aug-1997, the last through revenue train went over the pass. The train was OMIGV-19, a westbound unit taconite train with two units on the front and three in the middle. It departed Pueblo at 1125h and pulled into Minturn at 2005h. The last train over the top of the pass is questionable, but Denver Rio Grande Western 3075 went over the top from the west side on 23 Dec 1997 with two gondolas for Malta, running back light. The Malta Local continued to run from Pueblo-Malta until 9-Mar-1999, and beyond that only a few work trains have plied the east side of the pass.

Now about the age of the post card. This is one of my favorite post cards. I love and respect all post cards that are from the era when the only thing allowed on the back of the post card was the address. The sender had to be creative if s/he wanted to send a message and not just a picture. You can see at the bottom on the front of the card, John has written "On DRG Train May 8 - 06" So this post card is guaranteed to be 112 years old today. But keep reading; it may be older. It wasn't mailed until three days later in Spokane, Washington.

The printer of the card was the Detroit Photographic 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. In addition they would also distributed Swiss made prints for Fussli in America. When the well known Western photographer William Henry Jackson joined the company as a partner, he added his thousands of negatives to Livingstone’s collection of Great Lakes imagery and Husher’s photos of California. All this provided a strong foundation to start publishing postcards. Jackson traveled around the United States taking many additional pictures until 1903 when he took over the management of Detroit’s factory. 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. Many of their views found on postcards were also produced as larger sized prints. Detroit went into receivership in 1924 but printed contract cards until 1932. The look of these cards changed over the years as the phostint technique was secretly perfected. All their cards were printed in Detroit except for a rare few from Austria and Switzerland.

The company kept very good records of their printing history and so I know that this particular card was printed in 1902 because it is numbered between 6000 and 6999.

Dizzying Heights 108 Years Ago

The Mount Lowe Railway was the third in a series of scenic mountain railroads in America created as a tourist attraction on Echo Mountain and Mount Lowe, north of Los Angeles, California. The railway, originally incorporated by Professor Thaddeus S. C. Lowe as the Pasadena & Mt. Wilson Railroad Co. existed from 1893 until its official abandonment in 1938, and had the distinction of being the only scenic mountain, electric traction (overhead electric trolley) railroad ever built in the United States. Lowe’s partner and engineer was David J. Macpherson, a civil engineer graduate of Cornell University. The Mount Lowe Railway was a fulfillment of 19th century Pasadenans to have a scenic mountain railroad to the crest of the San Gabriel Mountains. The Railway opened on the 4th of July 1893.

What you see here is the second phase of three train trips that the tourists took to get to the Alpine Tavern at the top of the mountain. If it looks like the people are posing for a picture, that is because they are. Mr. Lowe hired a photographer to take pictures of the people after they got onto the cable car. Then, of course, the tourists could purchase the pictures once they were developed.

After having their pictures taken, they were taken up the mountain. That building is NOT the Alpine Tavern. The tourists disembarked at the top and transferred to a trolley that took them farther up the mountain into the wooded part. That is where they could find the Alpine Tavern and a friendly "pet bear".

The post card was mailed on May 2, 1910 - one hundred and eight years ago today. The writing is very small because she has a lot to say in a very small space. Basically, she is saying that she hasn't heard from her aunt and uncle, the recipients, [and she hopes it is not because they have been ill] and she wants to stay with them while she is in their area. She has been to California to recover from an illness, herself. She is on her way back home feeling better but without any more pounds on her frame. I know it is a she because she signs it your affectionate niece.... but her name is obscured by the top post mark.