Still in Arizona with Steam Locomotives

This post card is an image of a locomotive cruising on the main line of the railroad through Crozier Canyon in northwestern Arizona.

Today, you can still take pictures similar to this one (without the steam locomotive, of course). The canyon is still accessible from Route 66. The website: http://www.northamericanrails.com/bnsf_transcon_across_az_seligman_sub/bnsf_-_seligman_sub_-_crozier_area gives you directions of how to get close to the old Santa Fe, now Burlington Northern Santa Fe, main line to take great pictures of trains.

The post card was published by Fred Harvey. He didn't usually print his own cards, but contracted with someone else to do the printing and he distributed them.

In 1878 Fred Harvey was the first to established a chain of restaurants then hotels across the Southwest that provided quality service. Much was done to market the region including publishing large series of postcards depicting Native Americans and local scenery. In 1897 Harvey took over the news stands for the A.T.&S.F. Railroad and began distributing postcards. The Santa Fe Railroad also did a great deal to publicize its Route to the Grand Canyon. A large amount of postcards were produced depicting the canyon and the Railroad’s hotel interests within the National Park. Fred Harvey himself provided some of the images for these cards until his death in 1901. Between 1901 and 1932 the Company contracted all their cards with the Detroit Publishing Company. These cards have an H prefix before their identification number, but in addition Detroit published many of Harvey’s images on their own. After Detroit closed, many of Harvey’s cards were contracted out to Curt Teich among others.

This is the description of what is on the front of the post card, as found at the back-left-top corner of the card. It mentions that the picture was taken at Crozier Canyon in Arizona and we can see that the railway was owned by the Santa Fe by then. It mentions that the canyon lies between Hackberry and Peach Springs.
This is a part of the post card description that I noticed, that got my

hackles up. Then I realized that this post card was from the early twentieth century and decided to use it as a learning experience for myself, and perhaps for you, too. It is the part about "made over into educated citizens" that go to me. It reminds me of a conversation I had with someone who said, basically, that "they deserved to lose the land because they didn't do anything with it."
These people lived in the area for thousands of years in harmony with the land, the climate, the weather, the animals, etc. Look at the names they have given to themselves: The Havasupai people are an American Indian tribe who have lived in the Grand Canyon for at least the past 800 years. Havasu means "blue-green water" and pai "people". The name Hualapai, meaning "people of the tall pines", is derived from hwa:l, the word for ponderosa pine and pai "people". Their traditional territory is a 108-mile (174 km) stretch along the pine-clad southern side of the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River with the tribal capital at Peach Springs. Both groups of people lived in such a way on the land that we should have learned from them how to live there, rather than us teaching them how to become "civilized" peoples.

I'm done. I will get off my soap box now.