It Must Have Been Exciting While It Lasted!

While the operation pictured on the front of this post card is technically not a train, it does employ what looks like train tracks. Therefore, I have included it in my collection. The operation using the train tracks is a funicular that takes one up to the top of a canyon which is the home of Seven Falls. This is in South Cheyenne Canyon, Colorado Springs, Colorado. It is just a few miles north of Vail, Colorado; or at least it was. The following description was taken from these two websites: https://springsmag.com/how-to-make-the-most-of-your-visit-to-seven-falls/ and

https://thelocaltourist.com/hiking-the-broadmoor-seven-falls/ Both the north and south sides of Cheyenne Cañon are deeply entwined in Colorado Springs history. Seven Falls first private owner was Nathaniel Colby who received the homestead patent in 1872. Neighboring homesteader James Hull bought the parcel in 1882, reportedly to protect the area from logging. Hull began building a road to Seven Falls in 1883. He also put up a gate and began charging admission: 10 cents. Hull’s sons built stairs alongside the waterfalls, first made of wood, then iron. Seven Falls changed ownership through the years but always operated as a tourist destination. A burro brigade used to carry visitors up the road to the observation point. A taxidermy reindeer was a popular photo prop for years. Al Hill bought Seven Falls in 1946 and quickly added lights for night viewing. Through the decades, he added the Eagle’s Nest observation area and its elevator tunneled into the canyon rock. It had its own set of stairs, but by 1949, a funicular provided easier access than the 185 steps. The incline cable car operated until 1985. Through the mid-century, visitors loved feeding the local chipmunks and watching Native American dancers perform. In 2013, devastating floods scoured the canyon, destroying the visitor center and road to the falls. The Hill family closed Seven Falls, then sold it to the Broadmoor in 2014. The site was reimagined, renovated and reopened in 2015 with the addition of Restaurant 1858.

The post card was published by Sanborn Souvenir Company out of Denver Colorado. They were a publisher of books and postcards of the American West, but mostly of Colorado and Wyoming. They first produced real photo postcards carrying the Sanborn name. They latter went on to produce halftone lithographic postcards and eventually photochromes. They existed from 1920 to 1976. It was printed by Dexter Press. Thomas A. Dexter began Dexter Press, a one-man shop in Pearl River, New York, in 1920. With the production of the very first natural color post card in 1932, Tom Dexter established a tradition of innovation and craftsmanship that would be associated with the Dexter name for years to come. While all the photochromes printed by Dexter bore the words Genuine Natural Color they went through a variety of phases. Their early photochromes went under the name Dextone and tended to be flat and somewhat dull in appearance. As years went by their optical blending techniques improved producing richer and more varied colors.