Life after Retirement

The locomotive on the front of this post card belonged to the Northern Pacific Railway. It is seen here at Spokane, Washington waiting to have some maintenance done. It is a 4-4-0 ("American type”) locomotive.

Washington railroads date back to 1851 when the Cascade Portage Railway opened six miles of railroad between Hamilton Island and Stevenson, Washington (the railroad operated until 1907). By 1883 the first of the “Hill” lines reached the Puget Sound with the Northern Pacific Railway opening its main line between Minneapolis and Seattle that year. By: Adam Burns from the website www.american-rails.com The Northern Pacific Railway (NP) is often overshadowed by the Transcontinental Railroad. The latter was completed by the Union Pacific (UP) and Central Pacific (CP) in 1869, running the 42nd parallel between Omaha, Nebraska Territory and Sacramento, California. It offered the West its first efficient means of transportation for greater economic opportunities. For all the Transcontinental Railroad's accolades, the NP carried its own great story. It undertook a similar endeavor to reach the Pacific Northwest but did so without the aid of federal loans. At first, it appeared the railroad would be built without difficulty as noted banker Jay Cooke secured several million dollars in financing. However, fortunes soon turned and the NP slipped into bankruptcy. As Northern Pacific languished it seemed unlikely the project would ever be finished. In time, several individuals stepped forward and oversaw its completion, thus establishing the first through route to the Puget Sound. After 1900, fabled tycoon James J. Hill gained control and the NP joined his so-called "Hill Lines" which included the Great Northern; Chicago, Burlington & Quincy; and subsidiary Spokane, Portland & Seattle. After numerous attempts the four became one in 1970 when Burlington Northern, Inc. (BNI) was formed.

The post card was published by Railcards.com. I know nothing about the publisher.

Peek - A - Boo !!!

The caption on this post card tells us that the locomotive is on the north bank of the Columbia River. That puts it in the state of Washington. "The Great Northern Railway and Northern Pacific Railroad, competitors in the transcontinental business, launched the Spokane, Portland & Seattle Railway in 1905 and built a line along the north side of the Columbia River. This line was known as "The North Bank Road", "The North Bank Railroad", "Columbia River Scenic Route", and "The Northwests Own Railway". The tracks were started in October 1905 and completed in February 1908, with a celebration being held on March 11th at Sheridan Point upstream of the Fort Rains Blockhouse location. On March 19th, regular passenger service between Vancouver and Pasco was begun. The journey took eight hours." This website tells us a bit about both the origin of the train line we see on the post card (information quoted above) and the outcropping of rock, known as Cape Horn. http://columbiariverimages.com/ Cape Horn is a massive basalt cliff outcrop located on the Washington side of the Columbia River at River Mile (RM) 132, approximately 10 miles upriver from Washougal, Washington. The website notes that Lewis and Clark passed by Cape Horn on November 2, 1805. Here is a quote from Clark's notebook: "... S. 47° W. 12 miles to a Stard. point of rocks of a high clift of black rocks ..." [Clark, November 2, 1805, first draft] Today there is a six-mile long hiking trail in the area that is not for the casual hiker. I noticed that there is a seasonal closure on the lower loop of the trail from February 1st to July 15th to protect the local peregrine falcon nesting habitat.

The post card was published by Lipschuetz & Katz of Portland, Oregon. It was printed by the American Art Post Card Company. Oregon’s biggest event happened just as Post Cards began to boom in popularity. The Lewis & Clark Exposition opened in 1905 as Portland took center stage in its own World’s Fair. This event was single-handedly responsible for the production of 450 different post cards. Beautiful European-produced lithographs made up the bulk of these post cards. Also produced at the fair were leather, wood, copper and aluminum post cards. Several Portland post card publishers got their start at the Lewis & Clark Expo: B.B. Rich and D.M. Averill, as well as E.P. Charlton. Lipschuetz & Katz started publishing post cards in the years after the Expo.