Logging Train - a Common Sight! (1 of 5)

The picture on the front of this post card takes me back to my youth in northern Arizona. For two weeks each year we would live at the family summer cabin in Oak Creek. In my memory, every morning we would drive toward Flagstaff and wait for the logging train to cross the highway with its consist of empty logging cars. Then, again in my memory, each afternoon we would watch as the train brought its treasure to the sawmill just outside town. The locomotive on this post card looks nothing like the one we saw; it is much larger and more powerful.

It is a 2-6-6-2 T locomotive built by Baldwin Locomotive Works. The "T" in the configuration tells me that this steam locomotive is carrying its own water in one or more on-board water tanks instead of in a tender. This locomotive is owned by the Bloedel Donovan Lumber Mills. Julius Harold Bloedel (March 4, 1864 – September 21, 1957) was an American businessman and entrepreneur who operated primarily in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States and Canada. Born in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, Bloedel moved from Wisconsin to Fairhaven, Washington (later Bellingham) in 1890, where he became president of Fairhaven National Bank. He engaged in several frontier business ventures, including the Samish Lake Lumber and Mill Company, Blue Canyon Coal Mines, and, as mentioned, the Fairhaven National Bank. He partnered and worked closely with the Bellingham pioneers. Although many of these operations folded eventually, Bloedel's financial know-how managed to keep him afloat through a series of boom-and-bust economic trials. In August 1898, he founded the Whatcom Logging Company with fellow frontier businessmen John Joseph Donovan and Peter Larson, which would later become known as the Bloedel-Donovan Lumber Mills. During their time on the Olympic Peninsula, Bloedel Donovan operated the Sappho, Hoko, Beaver, and Calawah Camps, logged several thousands of acres of timber, including federal forest timber, constructed over a hundred miles of rail lines, and were known to operate more than 9 sides at once to get the logs for their mills. Today, there is hardly anything left, except for some rails here and there, and other stuff if you know what you're looking for. A park with this name exists today in Bellingham, which sits on the site of Bloedel's first lumber mill, which he dedicated as a park in 1946. The photograph of the locomotive was taken by Darious Kinsey. It is part of a series of post cards that are in my collection called, "Kinsey's Locomotives". Darius Kinsey (1869–1945) was a photographer active in western Washington State from 1890 to 1940. He is best known for his large-format images of loggers and phases of the region's lumber industry. He also photographed locomotives and landscapes and (especially early in his career) did studio work. Kinsey, born in Maryville, Missouri, moved to Snoqualmie, Washington, where he took up photography in 1890. He worked as an itinerant photographer for several years, until meeting Tabitha May Pritts at Nooksack, Washington. The couple married in 1896. The following year, they set up a photo studio in Sedro-Woolley, Washington. In 1906, the couple moved to Seattle. Darius gave up studio work and focused instead on the lumber industry and scenic photography. Tabitha developed the negatives and made the prints, which were sent back to the logging camps and sold to the loggers. Darius used an 11" X 14" Empire State view camera with a custom made tripod that could extend twelve feet high. He used glass plates until 1914, when he switched to film. The major collection of his work is held by the Whatcom Museum in Bellingham, Washington. The University of Washington Libraries also has a collection of his work.

The post card was published and distributed by the company, Pomegranate. Wikipedia tells us that Pomegranate Communications is a publishing and printing company formerly based in Petaluma, California, having moved to Portland, Oregon in 2013. The company, founded by Thomas F. Burke, began by publishing works of psychedelic art from San Francisco in 1968 under the name ThoFra Distributors. It distributed posters for concerts at Avalon Ballroom and The Fillmore. Anchored in visual arts, Pomegranate was active in book publishing in the past as well, especially during the 1990s. Adjustments in that sector caused it to reduce involvement accordingly. Currently calendars - long a mainstay - remain a strong part of their catalog, along with coloring books for all ages, nature books and puzzles. In its current form, Pomegranate is best described as a museum publisher, collaborating with institutions such as the National Gallery of Art, the Library of Congress, the British Library, the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, the Sierra Club, the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. It is the licensee for artists M. C. Escher, Edward Gorey, Charley Harper, Wolf Kahn, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Gustave Baumann. Pomegranate’s own website tells us this: Our Mission Art is an essential part of the human experience, and sharing knowledge is crucial in strengthening community. Pomegranate publishes images and concepts that enrich the human spirit of creativity and connection. Who We Are Founded in 1968, Pomegranate is an award-winning independent publisher based in Portland, Oregon, where we handle all editing, design, and distribution of our publications. What We Do We publish books, calendars, puzzles, games, and stationery that bring art, culture, and new experiences to people of all ages. Our products focus on art, nature, history, science, and popular culture. Why We Do lt At Pomegranate, one of our core values is to make art accessible to everyone. To achieve this, we partner with museums, artists, and writers to integrate their works into illuminating products that art lovers, travel enthusiasts, and avid learners are excited to share with others.

And You Thought that the Yukon Was Cold

The caption on the back of this post card tells us that these are railway workers clearing snow in February of 1869. They are doing this at the Grand Trunk Railway’s station located in Levis, Quebec, Canada. You can see that it was quite the snow fall!! The men in the background are much higher than those standing in front of the 4 engines. It looks like all four of the locomotives are what the Whyte Notation of engines calls the American. The wheel configuration is 4 – 4 – 0.

The railroad on which they are working was not always the Grand Trunk Railway. It started out as the Intercolonial Railway in 1872 (the first run was in November of this year). Its purpose was to connect Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario. Although the plans for the railway existed since the 1830s, it was not until the confederation of Canada in 1867 that it actually began in earnest. Sandford Fleming issued his report on the best intercolonial rail routes. He proposed three lines, but argued for what he called the Chaleur Bay route. He argued that it would be the most economically viable. It would join the manufacturing centres of Montréal, Kingston and Toronto to maritime towns and ports, pass through New Brunswick lumber and fishing towns, and Nova Scotia coal mining and shipbuilding communities. In July of 1876, the railway was declared to be completed. This completed the line from Québec, through the rail hub at Moncton, to the Bay of Fundy and then through Truro to Halifax. The 1,100 km line was a technical marvel that used the latest technology and construction methods to keep the rail lines straight and level and with nearly all bridges made not of wood, as was the custom of the day, but the far safer and more durable iron. In 1919, the Intercolonial Railway was included in the amalgamation that developed into the Canadian National Railways Company. The station, which is not pictured on this post card; it is behind the photographer, is a two-storey, stone railway station building located on the east (town) side of CN railway tracks that historically ran along the east bank of the St. Lawrence River. The Lévis Railway Station (Intercolonial) was commemorated in 1976 as the effective terminus of the Intercolonial Railway from Halifax. The heritage value of this site resides in its association with the historic Intercolonial Railway illustrated by its physical survival from the nineteenth century. The Intercolonial Railway, originally built between Halifax and Rivière-du-Loup (1867), extended its main line to end at Lévis in 1879 by the purchase of the Charny/Rivière-du-Loup line constructed by the Grand Trunk Railway between 1854 and 1860. In 1884 the Intercolonial Railway extensively remodelled the Lauzon town hall/market (1864) in Lévis to serve as its station. In the years that followed, the Grand Trunk Railway and the Québec Central Railway also used terminal facilities in the building. Key elements that contribute to the heritage character of the site include: the rectangular massing of the two-storey building under a hipped roof with hipped roof dormers on either side; regularly spaced, segmentally arched windows; the station’s simple classical details; the few details of the original town hall/market building still visible on the ground floor (footprint, openings and their alignment), craftsmanship and materials of the original stone exterior walls; the siting, immediately beside the former tracks and set back from the public road by an open space; the date stone ''1864", originally positioned on the façade, mounted in a commemorative monument.

The post card was copyrighted in 1999 by Kindred Canada. I went onto the internet to see what I could find about Kindred Canada today. What I found was either Kindred Sinkware, which I figured was not the correct website, or Kindred Canada, which was announcing a deal about distributing canabis. Neither of these two fit the parameters I was looking for. Kindred Canada, evidently, WAS a company in Brooks, Alberta back then; it no longer exists. The publisher of the post card must have wrapped up business. However, on the bright side, the back of the post card does tell us that the photographer was Alexander Henderson and that the photo was provided to the printer by the National Archives of Canada.

Baby! It's Cold Outside

The following information was gleaned from: https://wpyr.com/history/ Researching the 19th century, one could conclude that it was the era of railroad building and an easier mode of transportation into the northern reaches of Northwest North America was of interest to everyone. Two men appeared on the scene with essentially the same idea: build a railroad through the White Pass. Sir Thomas Tancrede, representing investors in London, and Michael J. Heney, an experienced railroad contractor interested in finding new work for his talents, joined forces. Tancrede had doubts about building a railroad over the Coastal Mountains while Heney thought otherwise. “Give me enough dynamite and snooze (snuff)” he bragged, “and I’ll build a railroad to Hell.” They met by chance in Skagway, talked through the night and by dawn, the railroad project was no longer a dream but an accepted reality. It was a meeting of money, talent and vision. The White Pass & Yukon Railroad Company, organized in April 1898, paid George Brackett $110,000; $60k and $50k in two separate payments for the right-of-way to his road. In the fall of 1897, Brackett, a former construction engineer on the Northern Pacific Railroad, built a twelve mile toll road up the canyon of the White Pass. The toll gates were ignored by travelers and Brackett’s road was a failure. On May 28, 1898, construction began on the narrow gauge (3-foot) railroad. On April 12, 1898, E.C. Hawkins of Denver Colorado arrived in Skagway to take charge of the work. By May 27 construction had begun with the laying of rails at Skagway and by mid-July the first locomotive in Alaska, 2-6-0 No. 2 purchased from a Utah shortline, arrived on the scene.

The picture on the front of this post card was taken very early in the history of the railway. It shows a train stopped on a steel cantilever bridge near the White Pass Summit in Alaska. At no time during the construction period were fewer than a thousand men employed, and the figure often reached 1,800 to 2,000. They worked in relays through the summer when daylight lasts virtually around the clock. The workers reached the Summit of White Pass on February 20, 1899. While construction crews battled their way north laying rail, another crew came from the north heading south and together they met in Carcross on July 29, 1900, where a ceremonial golden spike was driven by Samuel H. Graves, the president of the railroad. For decades, the WP&YR carried significant amounts of ore and concentrates to Skagway to be loaded upon ore ships. During World War II, the railroad was the chief supplier for the US Army’s Alaska Highway construction project. The railroad was operated by steam until 1954, when the transition came to diesel-electric motive power. White Pass matured into a fully-integrated transportation company operating docks, trains, stage coaches, sleighs, buses, paddle wheelers, trucks, ships, airplanes, hotels and pipelines. World metal prices plummeted in 1982, mines closed and the WP&YR suspended operations. In 1988, WP&YR reinvented itself as a tourist attraction. The line reopened in 1988 to operate as a narrow gauge excursion railroad between Skagway and White Pass Summit. The active line was later extended to Bennett in the 1990s and to Carcross in 2007.

The post card was published by Wolf Creek Books out of Whitehorse, Yukon Territory in Canada. Here is everything that I know about them: They still exist today; and Wolf Creek Books is a Printing, Publishing and Allied Industries company located at Whitehorse, Yukon Territory Canada. Their address is 2066 2nd Ave, Whitehorse Y1A 1A9 YT, Canada. You can contact Wolf Creek Books by phone 867-668-4260

Not the Original Picture, but Good Enough

The informaiton below was gleaned from this webiste: https://www.westland.net/venicehistory/articles/rail.htm Venice, California (a beach resort town founded in 1905) was built on 3 kilometers of coast land west of Los Angeles. It was the result of the vision of Abbot Kinney, a millionaire who made his fortune in the tobacco trade. Ironically, he died on November 4, 1920 of lung cancer. Part of his vision included a transportation system based on a narrow gauge, miniature railway.

Mr. Kinney hired John Coit to oversee the construction and management of the mile and three quarter long railroad. The purpose of the railway was to take passengers from the Windward Avenue business district on a loop across canal bridges then return via a loop up Washington Boulevard, past the Lake Avenue maintenance yard and back to the Windward station along Mildred Avenue. Coit ordered a Prairie 2-6-2 oil burning engine at a cost of $4,510 from the Johnson Machine Works in Los Angeles. The locomotive was finished in black with brass rails and silver lettering. The first set of five, 12 passenger cars was painted royal blue, while the second set ordered later was painted cherry red. The Venice Miniature Railroad remained a popular ride and had run of weekend for twenty years. The train was opposed by merchants along its route on Washington Boulevard. Since the city of Venice planned an ordinance that would prohibit miniature railroads from operating on streets, Thornton Kinney closed it on February 13, 1925. They sold it to a man in Denver in 1928 who said he was moving it to Spokane Washington. However, the locomotives all ended up at scrap yards in northern California. One of the engines was placed on display at the scrap yard and, after several years it was purchased for use in Southern California again. Fortunately the railroad was acquired by Don McCoy, who, with his two sons, then spent three years restoring the train from the ground up. The train then began operation in 1972 at Legg Lake at the Whittier Narrows Recreational Area. It operated on its one mile long loop until 1978 when vandalism became a problem.

The post card was published by Olde Tyme Photo Cards, Bicentennial Station out of Los Angeles, California. A search on the internet did not come up with any information about the company, so I presume that it has ceased business. The post card in my collection is a sepia reproduction of an actual coloured post card from the early 1900s. The post card in my collection was printed after 1963; I know this because there is a zip code in the company's address on the back of the card.