Audience Participation

The train in the photograph on the front of this post card was so regularly run on its route that one could know exactly where it could be. It did this so often that one could see it in various locations over time. Coal is a major export from the area around the Crowsnest Pass in southern Alberta and British Columbia. Sparwood, British Columbia hosts a huge coal mine and railcar loading system. That is probably where this train originated. The train was so regular that the publisher and distributer of this post card decided to take

advantage of it and make it an audience participation event. In the upper left hand corner of the back of the post card there is a little map of the train route. To the right, there is a list of locations at which you could see the train as it passes by. The afore mentioned Sparwood is the first name on the list. The post card was printed by Alex Wilson Publications out of Dryden, Ontario.

My search on the internet did not turn up any good news about the business, so I will leave it alone. I tried to find the publisher, Kenneth R. Bell; that was fruitless. But, when I tried to find the Trading Post that distributed the post card I hit the jackpot. I found a picture of it. I looked in the business yellow pages on line for The Golden Eagle Trading Post in Radium Hot Springs, but found nothing. At least you can enjoy what the trading post used to look like.