A Trip to Northern Arizona

As the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (Santa Fe) made its way west towards California from Chicago it had to cross through mountain passes and over canyons.

The picture on the front of this post card shows that the Santa Fe successfully made it over Canyon Diablo in northern Arizona. It is located 35 degrees north of the equator and 111 degrees west of the prime meridian. Edmonton, Alberta Canada is located 53 degrees north of the equator and 113 degrees west of the prime meridian; we are almost 1,200 kilometers straight north of this canyon.

The building of this bridge led to the development of a small city on the western edge of the canyon. Originally started by the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad, the bridge was put on hold for six months because the company had ordered a bridge of the wrong span length (the mistake was only discovered when the bridge arrived at the canyon) and a new one had to be ordered. However, the building of the railroad continued west while the railroad waited for the bridge. In 1880, a town called Canyon Diablo began as the central location for the railroad workers. The town was connected to Flagstaff, Arizona by stagecoach to facilitate growth and commerce. But, as fate would have it instead saloons, gambling halls, brothels and dance halls made this town their home. Eating establishments, grocery stores and other honest businesses also called Canyon Diablo home. While its residents were mainly employees of the A&P RR, outlaws, gamblers, and prostitutes made their way there, too.

This is from https://www.legendsofamerica.com/az-canyondiablo/: Within a short time the town had 2,000 residents. A regular stagecoach route from Flagstaff to Canyon Diablo began running and was often the victim of robberies. Within its first year, the town received its first marshal. He was sworn in at 3:00pm, and was being buried at 8:00pm that same night. Five more town marshals would follow, the longest lasting one month, and all were killed in the line of duty. A "Boot Hill" cemetery sprouted up at the end of town, which in less than a decade had 35 graves, all of whom had been killed by way of violent death. The 36th grave was that of former trading post owner Herman Wolfe, who died in 1899, the only one to have died a nonviolent death.

This is a picture of the bridge taken in 2005:

When the railroad bridge was completed, the town quickly died. The original railroad bridge was replaced in 1900 with a new bridge to carry heavier locomotives and cars. By 1903, the only thing remaining in the town was a Navajo trading post. A new double track railroad bridge was completed across the Canyon in 1947. What remains today at Canyon Diablo are a few building foundations, the grave marker and grave of Herman Wolfe, the ruins of the trading post, a railroad siding and a double track railroad bridge.

This is the back of the post card. This tells me that it was printed before March 1, 1907, when people were first allowed to add a message to the back of the post card. Prior to that, only the address could be on the back. If there was going to be a message, it had to be short enough to fit on the front without obstructing the beautiful scene on the front. In fact, I can tell you that this post card was published before 1904. The reason is included below. This post card was published by the Detroit Photographic Co. 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.