Going to Florida...

...Key West, to be exact. This post card is number 82 in a series of Florida scenes published by the Asheville Post Card Company in Asheville, North

Carolina. It is a depiction of The Overseas Railroad. This railroad was an extension of the Florida East Coast Railway to Key West, located 128 miles beyond the end of the Florida peninsula. Work on the line started in 1905 and was completed in 1912; the line was in daily passenger and freight service until its destruction by a hurricane in 1935. It was not an easy task building the railroad from one island to the other. Hurricanes in 1909 and 1910 destroyed much of the completed railroad. This was the dream of Henry Flagler. On January 22, 1912, Henry, by then blind, arrived in Key West aboard his private rail car "Rambler". His dream had become a reality. Nine years before the system was destroyed by the hurricane, Frank Etzcorn went from Flint, Michigan to the most southern tip of Florida - sort of following in Henry Flagler's footsteps. It is because of Frank that I have this card in my collection. He sent the message below

to his wife. I know it was his wife because he begins the message with "Dear Wife". He sent the post card on January 3, 1926 - not usually hurricane season in Florida; but, not the best of weather in Michigan. As you can see at the top of the scan here to our right, the post card was published by the Asheville Post Card Company. It was a major publisher of linen postcards that went on to produce photochromes. Their cards were manufactured by many different printers. This firm seems to have been founded by Lamar Campbell LeCompte and J.L. Widman though Widman soon left the company. LeCompte may have been publishing postcards in Ashville going back to 1910, the year he moved there. After LeComte’s death in 1977 the company continued to publish postcards as well as sell novelties, but they were eventually taken over by Aerial Photography Services. They could be found at 31 Carolina Avenue in Asheville, North Carolina from 1921 to 1982.

Really Not Sure About this One

The train on the front of this post card is traveling on what is called the "Pan Bowl". There is a spot on the North Fork of the Kentucky River near Jackson, Kentucky where the river made a very large "Oxbow". (An oxbow is a u-shaped bend in the course of a river.) You can see the same river (North Fork of the Kentucky River) on each side of the locomotive in this picture. For the water to travel from one side of the locomotive to the other, it will have to travel a loop that is 7 miles long. I guess that the people living in the area call this a "Pan Bowl" rather than an oxbow. This scene does not exist like this any more.

The river's course was shortened by that 7 mile loop when the state built State Highway Number 15 (on the map it is called Park Road). They dammed the river and formed a lake that they appropriately called "Panbowl Lake". It is advertised as a beautiful lake with lots of game fishing because of its depth. All this happens near Jackson, Kentucky. Here is a map to show where it is in relation to Jackson. But, you can also see the oxbow that was dammed to form the lake.

The post card was published by the Kyle Company (1915 - 1920) out of Louisville, Kentucky. It was printed by Curt Otto Teich's company.

Once a Busy Rail Line, Now a Busy Hiking Trail

The passenger train pictured on this post card is travelling on what is now a National Recreation Area administered by the National Parks of the United States. It is in a gap between New Jersey and Pennsylvania in which the Delaware River flows. It is just south of where the borders of New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York all share a meeting point. This website of the National Park Service tells a bit of history of the Delware Water Gap, including some railroad history: https://www.nps.gov/dewa/index.htm

The Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railway (DL&W) first arrived at the Delaware River on May 13, 1856 with a train to New York City. The terrain from Scranton had been mountainous and isolated; the route traced the course of major streams, crossed the Lehigh's headwater at Gouldsboro, and bisected Pocono Summit Lake on DL&W's land bridge. In what is now the park, the single-track line used an old right-of-way to Slateford Junction on the Delaware, then crossed into New Jersey and continued to New York via existing tracks. The effect of the new rail line on the Delaware Valley was immense. The resort industry at the Water Gap had begun with Kittatinny Hotel, built in 1832. With the railroads now also promoting the Gap as a destination, 16 more hotels sprung up in the village of Delaware Water Gap by the century's end. Additional rail lines, such as the New York, Susquehanna, and Western (NYS&W) served the Jersey side of the Gap. A small section of the Delaware Valley Railway bed is now part of Railway Avenue Trail in Bushkill, and just under a mile of the NYS&W rail bed is now the Karamac Trail in New Jersey. The DL&W's single track is still in use through the Gap between the river and Route 611, and occasionally an excursion train from Steamtown National Historic Site will reach Point of Gap Overlook. Just outside the park, the rail station in Delaware Water Gap awaits renewal. From 1901 to 1938, the Delaware Valley Railroad ran a spur from East Stroudsburg station to Bushkill PA, carrying both passengers and freight. Resort-based agriculture, such as dairying, began to replace subsistence farming, and remote areas between Scranton and the Stroudsburgs filled with villages and farms. Church, scout, and trade groups lined the banks of the river with rustic summer camps. The park encompasses significant Native American archeological sites, several of which have been investigated. A number of structures also remain from early Dutch settlement and the colonial contact period. The entire region was a frontier of the French & Indian War. Historic rural villages from the 18th and 19th centuries remain intact on the New Jersey side, and landscapes of past settlements are scattered throughout the park. In the 19th century, the village of Delaware Water Gap was a focus of the early resort industry fostered by the railroads. Even today the region is known for its vacation appeal. The proposal to dam the Delaware River near today's Smithfield Beach brought the region and its inhabitants into another era of American history -- the conservation and environmental movements of the 1960s and later.

This post card is from the divided back era (1907 – 1915). Because it was printed by Curt Otto Teich, we can get very close the actual date of the printing. The number at the bottom-middle of the card is R-31555. Between 1908 and 1928 the company’s number system went up to 124180. 31555 is about 25% of the distance from 1 to the end. 25% of the 20 years between 1908 and 1928 is about 1913.

The post card was published by J. F. Kirkton of Delaware Water Gap, Pennsylvania. I searched the internet for information about this person, but could only find other post cards published by him; I found nothing about him. I have a second post card of the gap. It was also printed by Curt Otto Teich. No publisher is listed. I include it here so you can enjoy the airplane flying over as well as the train passing through it.

Focus on the Train, Not the Battle!

The picture on this post card is of a Baltimore & Ohio train crossing over

Brandywine Creek in Wilmington, Delaware. I bought the post card because of the train on the front. Evidently, the publishers of the post card were more interested in the history related to the site. The description on the back of the post card focuses on a battle that was fought there in the Revolutionary War on September 11, 1777 which led to the occupation of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by the British Army. I went on line and looked up the bridge. This website gives an excellent description of the history of the bridge and the railroads that are related to it. https://historicbridges.org/delaware/brandywineviaduct/inventory.pdf Delaware’s most visually impressive stone arch bridge is the 1909-1910 Brandywine Viaduct built by the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad over Brandywine Creek in Wilmington. The seven-span bridge is slightly less than 1,000’ long and rises over 110’ above the creek. The bridge was built as the railroad’s replacement of an 1888 iron deck truss bridge, which had proven inadequate to heavier locomotives. Although the B&O could have chosen to build another steel truss bridge, or a reinforced concrete bridge, there were few bridge types that spoke to permanency and stability as well as a stone arch, even if stone construction was very costly. The iron truss bridge in the background of this picture on the post card was abandoned by the railroad in 1910. It was then transferred to the City of Wilmington, which converted the bridge for use by pedestrians and motorized vehicles. Today, the railroad bridge is owned by CSX.

The post card was published by a company from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This may account for the interest in the historical aspect rather than the railroad aspect of the scene. The company, the Post Card Distributing Company, existed from 1911 to 1919. They have a great logo – see the picture of the statue of William Penn on top of City Hall in the top middle of the post card back. The post card was printed by Curt Otto Teich. His numbering system (to the right of the statue, above the word POST) suggests that this card was printed in 1917; probably early 1917, since the post rate went from one cent to two cents on November 2, 1917 and the rate for this card is one cent.

Blue Ridge Mountain Wonder

Southern Railway history: The earliest portion of the Southern Railway was the South Carolina Canal & Rail Road Company, which was chartered in 1828 to build from Charleston, S. C., to Hamburg, S. C., on the north bank of the Savannah River. Its purpose was to bring trade to the port of Charleston from inland points and divert trade that would otherwise move down the Savannah River to the port of Savannah, Ga. When the 136-mile line opened in 1833, it was the longest railroad in the world. By 1857 it was part of a line from Charleston to Memphis, Tenn.—at the time the longest connected system of railroads in the world. (Two of the railroads involved, the Georgia Railroad and the Western & Atlantic, are now part of CSX Transportation.)

he Richmond & Danville Railroad was the nucleus of the Southern Railway. It was chartered in 1847 and completed in 1856 from Richmond, Va., west 141 miles to Danville, Va. Its charter allowed it to acquire and control only railroads with which it connected directly. In 1880 interests connected with the R&D incorporated the Richmond & West Point Terminal Railway & Warehouse Co. (“Richmond Terminal”) to acquire railroads that did not connect directly with the R&D. The majority owners of the R&D and the Richmond Terminal decided the existence of the Richmond Terminal was unnecessary (by then, the R&D’s charter had been amended) and in 1886 leased the railroads controlled by the Richmond Terminal to the Richmond & Danville; then the Richmond Terminal acquired the Richmond & Danville. In 1863 the R&D purchased a majority of the stock of the Piedmont Railroad, under construction from Danville to Greensboro, N. C. The line opened in 1864, and the R&D leased it in 1866. In 1871 the R&D leased the North Carolina Railroad, which was opened in 1856 from Goldsboro through Greens­boro to Charlotte. The R&D contracted to construct the Northwestern Railroad of North Carolina from Greensboro to Salem, and assisted the Atlanta & Richmond Air-Line Railroad with the construction of its line between Atlanta and Charlotte. Both those routes were opened in 1873. The Atlanta & Charlotte Air-Line Railway was organized in 1877 as the successor to the Atlanta & Richmond. In 1881 the R&D purchased the Virginia Midland Railway from the Baltimore & Ohio to get a direct Danville–Washington route about 20 miles shorter than the route through Richmond. The Virginia Midland had begun as the Orange & Alexandria Railroad, opened from Alexandria, Va., across the Potomac River from Washington, D. C., southwest to Gordonsville, in 1854. Through trackage rights on a C&O predecessor and further construction, it reached Lynchburg in 1860. It came under control of the state of Virginia in 1867, and in 1872 the Virginia & North Carolina Railroad was organized to consolidate the Orange, Alexandria & Manassas Gap (successor to the O&A) and the Lynchburg & Danville Railroad, under construction be­tween the cities of its name. The Baltimore & Ohio obtained control and named it the Washington City, Virginia Midland & Great Southern Railroad. The extension to Danville was completed in 1874, and in 1880, a cutoff from Orange to Charlottesville was opened. The company was reorganized as the Virginia Midland Railway in 1881. In 1886 the R&D leased the Western North Carolina Railroad, which had been constructed from Salisbury west through Old Fort (1869) and Asheville (1879) to a connection at the Tennessee state line with the East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia.

The Georgia Pacific Railway was chartered in 1881 to build a from Atlanta to a connection with the Texas & Pacific at Texarkana. It was opened as far as Columbus, Miss., in 1887. It was leased to the Richmond & Danville in ­January 1889, shortly before it completed its line as far as the Mississippi River at Greenville, Miss. The Mississippi portion of the GP, which had remained a separate entity, was cast off as the Columbus & Greenville in 1920. In 1892 the Richmond Terminal and the railroads it controlled (Richmond & Danville; Virginia Midland; Charlotte, Columbia & Augusta; Western North Carolina; Georgia Pacific; and East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia) entered receivership. The banking house of J. P. Morgan came to the rescue. In 1869 two railroads out of Knoxville, Tenn., the East Tennessee & Virginia and the East Tennessee & Georgia, were consolidated to form the East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia Railroad. The East Tennessee & Virginia was built from Bristol, Va., to Knoxville, 131 miles, between 1850 and 1856. The East Tennessee & Georgia opened a line from Dalton, Ga., to Knoxville, 110 miles, and a branch from Cleveland, Tenn., to Chattanooga in 1859. In 1881 the ETV&G acquired and constructed lines from Dalton to Brunswick, Ga., and ­Meridian, Miss. Three other major routes were more or less affiliated with the ETV&G: Chattanooga–Memphis, Mobile–Selma, Ala., and Louisville–Lexington, Ky. Southern Railway The Southern Railway was chartered in 1894 to acquire the properties of the Richmond ­Terminal. The system comprised lines from Alexandria, Va., to Columbus, Miss.; from Chat­tanooga through Atlanta to Brunswick, Ga.; from Memphis through Chattanooga to Bristol, Va.; from Selma, Ala., to Rome, Ga.; and from Danville, Va., to Richmond. The Southern acquired other railroads; among the larger ones were the Georgia Southern & Florida Railway in 1895 and the Louisville, Evansville & St. Louis Consolidated Railroad in 1898. The Southern acquired a number of subsidiaries over the years. Many retained independent status, and the continued existence of these subsidiaries was attested to by initials on locomotives and cars. In the 1970s the Southern was notable for staying out of Amtrak, continuing to run its remaining passenger trains and gradually trimming service to just the Washington-Atlanta-New Orleans Southern Crescent. Amtrak took over operation of that train on Feb. 1, 1979. On March 25, 1982, the Interstate Commerce Commission approved the acquisition by Norfolk Southern Corporation, a newly organized holding company, of the Southern Railway and the Norfolk & Western. Merger took place on June 1, 1982. At the end of 1990 the Norfolk & Western Railway became a subsidiary of the Southern Railway (it had been a subsidiary of Norfolk Southern Corporation),

and the Southern Railway changed its name to Norfolk Southern Railway. I have two post cards with the exact same picture on the front. The backs are somewhat different from each other. I have scanned the backs of both postcards. Although they were both printed by the same printer (Curt Otto Teich) and published by the same publisher, the backs are different. I believe that the top one is older than the bottom one; I say this because the top one contains the price of the postage. It was the same for a very long time, then, with the changes it became more accurate to not post the prices.

How Convenient!

The locomotive pictured on the front of this post card had quite the active history before it was put on static display. A much better alternative than hitting the scrap pile!! The information below about this locomotive is taken from this website: https://locomotive.fandom.com/wiki/ATSF_No._3759

The Santa Fe (ATSF) No. 3759 is a type of 4-8-4 'Northern', steam locomotive which was built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1928 for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway. This engine hauled passenger trains on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway. It was retired in the late 50’s when diesels replace steam. In February 1955, 3759 was brought out of retirement at the request of the Railway Club of Southern California for a special excursion run, dubbed "Farewell to Steam." This special ran on February 6, a round trip between Los Angeles Union Station and Barstow, California with stops in Pasadena and San Bernardino and was the last Santa Fe revenue steam train to leave Los Angeles and to traverse Cajon Pass. After this trip, 3759 went back into storage, until Santa Fe donated the locomotive to the city of Kingman in 1957. In January 1991, Grand Canyon Railway owner Max Biegert sent a letter to Kingman city officials of his proposal to lease AT&SF 3759 to operation and donate his engine No. 19 to the city. 3759 would have run in the Grand Canyon Railway and an "Orient Express"-styled train between Los Angeles and Williams, Arizona. But the city refused, and so it remains in its plinth rather than being given a second chance. Today it's on display at Locomotive Park, located between Andy Devine Avenue and Beale Street in Kingman, Arizona.

The post card was published by Petley Studios out of Phoenix, Arizona. It is rather convenient that the locomotive is on static display in Kingman, Arizona (just about 3 hours away from Phonenix). It is also convenient that the photograph of the locomotive was taken by Bob Petley. It is not so convenient that the post card was probably printed in Chicago, Illinois.

That is where the Curt Teich Company is located. The code (3DK-1903) in the stamp box tells me that this post card was printed by them in the 1960s. This date can be validated also by the fact that the lomotive was put on diplay after 1957, which would give Bob Petley time to get up there to take the picture and have it sent to Chicago - in the 1960s.

Freddy has his own Bridge

Freddy is Frederick, Maryland - and the bridge crosses over the Monocacy River. The information here comes from Wikipedia: The Monocacy River Railroad Bridge and Viaduct is a 326-foot (99 m) open deck steel girder bridge with two main spans crossing the river and two viaduct sections crossing the floodplain, south of Walkersville, Maryland. Originally constructed by the Frederick and Pennsylvania Line Railroad Company (F&PL). Construction began in late 1871, and continued until July 1872 when the railroad opened that year. It was rebuilt by the Pennsylvania Railroad first in 1900-1905 as an open deck riveted iron plate under girder bridge.

This is the bridge seen in the picture on the front of this post card. In 1915, the bridge was surveyed as part of the Interstate Commerce Commission's ("ICC") effort to establish freight rates for the parent railroad. In 1927, the Pennsylvania Railroad rebuilt the bridge again using deeper and thicker steel girders, but leaving the masonry piers intact. In 1972, the two 85 foot river spans were washed out by Hurricane Agnes. In 1982, the State of Maryland purchased the bridge as part of the railroad line. In 1995, the State rebuilt the river spans and Pier 3 which is located in the middle of the river crossing was completely reconstructed using concrete to replace the original masonry foundations. In 2015, the State performed minor maintenance on the structure and painted some spans. As of 2016, the bridge is in active rail service, operated by the Walkersville Southern RR.

The post card was printed by Curt Otto Teich in about 1913. I pick that up from the code at the middle, bottom of the back of the card. Between 1908 and 1928 the company printed cards with the code A- something. There were 124,180 cards printed using this numbering system. When I interpolate A-35803 between A-1 and A-124180: A-1 is in 1908 and A-124180 is in 1928. That puts A-35806 in the year 1913.

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And the Chase is On...

Last week I posted about the locomotive known as "The General". It was involved in the "Great Locomotive Chase" during the American Civil War. It was captured by the Yankees. But, in order for there to be a chase there has to be a chaser.

The locomotive on the front of this post card was the chaser engine that finally caught up to The General. The information below was take from this website: https://www.csx.com/index.cfm/about-us/legacy-locomotives/texas-returns/ The Civil War era Texas locomotive has been restored, and is on the move. Thanks to the support of CSX Transportation during the 16-month restoration, the 1856 steam-powered locomotive was in great condition for its April 28 display at the N.C. Transportation Museum’s 100 Years of Steam event. The Texas was part of the Civil War’s iconic Great Locomotive Chase in 1862 and was critical to rebuilding Atlanta during reconstruction. The asset is a piece of CSX history, having been part of the Western & Atlantic Railroad [built in 1856] that connected Atlanta and Chattanooga. The Texas will now move back to the Atlanta History Center where it will be featured in the Lloyd and Mary Ann Whitaker Cyclorama Building and on display to the public this fall. The Texas was just one of the CSX historical assets on display at the 100 Years of Steam event. And the information below was taken from this webiste: https://www.mdjonline.com/neighbor_newspapers/northside_sandy_springs/opinion/the-texas-locomotive-carries-history-of-atlanta-into-present-day/article_aa06710c-5703-11e9-928f-8b3e7561cf69.html Andrews’ Raiders, as they are known, slipped into Georgia and on April 12, 1862, boarded the General as passengers. It was en route to Chattanooga. When it stopped in Kennesaw for breakfast, the passengers disembarked and the raiders sprang into action. Upon seeing his engine and three railroad cars pulling away, Capt. William Fuller gave chase on foot. He was accompanied by two crew members. By foot and occasionally handcar, they pursued the General. Over the course of the day, Fuller commandeered several engines as he came upon them, only to be thwarted by Andrews’ men destroying the tracks. They also cut the telegraph wires. Their efforts to burn the bridges failed, though. Because of a wet spring, the bridges wouldn’t burn, only smolder. Finally, Andrews commandeered the Texas near Adairsville, but it was headed in the opposite direction. Driving in reverse, he caught up to the General, which ran out of fuel in Ringgold near the Tennessee line. Short on time and fuel, and with Fuller constantly gaining on them, the raiders had stopped cutting the telegraph lines and tearing up tracks. Word had been sent ahead. Armed men were waiting as Andrews’ Raiders fled the engine in every direction. They were caught and jailed.

The post card was printed by the Curt Otto Teich Company for the R & R News Company in Atlanta Georgia. When I search for this on line I find no information. The Code on the front of the card tells me that it was printed in 1940.

Pretty Enough to Make Movies

Dancing with Wolves is one of the movies that used this canyon for the scenery in it. But it was well known before the moves came by.

The train on the front of this post card is traveling through what some people (Frank Lloyd Wright, for one) consider the most beautiful canyon in the United States. It is Spearfish Canyon in the Black Hills of South Dakota. It is about 70 miles north (and a bit west) of Mount Rushmore. I found this information on the internet about Spearfish Canyon and the railroad. It comes from this website: http://www.spearfishcanyon.com/culture/agrarian.html In 1893, Spearfish Canyon was opened by the railroad. This engineering marvel consisted of three hundred and seventy five curves of sheer up and down hill climbing. In all, the thirty two mile "Spearfish Spur" left Deadwood, rose 1,886 feet in six miles to Trojan (then known as Portland), then down 2,778 in twenty-five miles spanning thirty-three bridges to Spearfish. The ties were bedded in rock the whole way and the freight cars had to be chained to the siding to keep them from rolling to the bottom at Spearfish. The Grand Island & Wyoming Line built the spur but then sold it to the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy a short time later for more than $2-million. In an early brochure citing the breathtaking engineering accomplishments, the Burlington called the Canyon trip, "for sheer artistry of description, it need bow to no other." The railroad was very accommodating in those days. The schedule was one train a day, and the crew was most happy to let the fisherman, sightseers, picnickers, berry pickers, and the like off at any place they chose and pick them up again on the return trip. One of the most scenic and thrilling spots on the Spearfish Canyon train ride was Spearfish Falls. The crew would stop the train on the vibrating trestle spanning the falls offering a thrilling sight of the waters thundering impact below. The line as abandoned in 1933 after some severe massive flooding made it too expensive to rebuild. Today, a highway follows along where the rail bed used to be in places. This website has the following to say about the car drive: https://visitspearfish.com/things-to-do/spearfish-canyon The breathtaking limestone palisades of this creek-carved gorge are more ancient than the Grand Canyon – albeit much closer together. Once accessible only by horseback, Spearfish Canyon’s narrow, 1000-foot walls are among the most spectacular scenery in the Black Hills. Passersby can see the canyon en route to other Black Hills attractions on US Highway 14A, which winds through the canyon for nearly 20 miles from the city of Spearfish to Cheyenne Crossing. Built on top of an old rail bed, the highway affords visitors views of pristine natural wonders and historical treasures.

The post card was printed by the Curt Otto Teich Company. It was printed between 1915 and 1930 - the White Border Era. Curt's white border post cards are considered some of the best quality. He printed it for L. B. Holister, an importer and jobber in the city of Lead, South Dakota. I can find nothing on Mr. Hollister. But, there are many post cards on the internet that carry his moniker. That is his logo in the bottom left-hand corner of the back of the post card.

Rome, New York - Athens, Georgia - Paris, Tennessee

While the song may cover several cities, this blog will only talk about one:

Rome New York and the train station that is there. Today, the train station on the front of this post card is serviced by Amtrak. Hoever, the station was built between 1912 and 1914 by the New York Central Railroad south of the city proper to replace the former structure downtown. Such a move was necessitated by a track realignment. The one-and-a-half-story brick building was constructed in a Neoclassical style and includes columns flanking the vestibules, decorative grillwork and large arched windows. The waiting room includes a bowed ticket window and a series of delicate triple-globed bronze chandeliers. At the rear of the waiting room are paired symmetrical staircases with ornate openwork iron railings up to the near platform. In 1988, Amtrak conveyed the station to the city of Rome. Amtrak proposed to close the station in 1996, but the city resisted and instead found federal funds to renovate the station. The $4 million reconstruction was finished in 2004. Rome, New York was founded along an ancient Native American portage path known as the Oneida Carrying Place, Deo-Wain-Sta, or The Great Carrying Place to the Six Nations (Iroquois), or the Haudenosaunee in their language. These names refer to a portage road or path between the Mohawk River to the east, which flows east to the Hudson River; and Wood Creek to the west, which flows into Lake Ontario. Rome is the second-largest city by area in New York State, and the 140th largest city in the United States. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 75.7 square miles (196 km2), of which 74.9 square miles (194 km2) is land and 0.8 square miles (2.1 km2) (0.99%) is water. Rome is one of two principal cities in the Utica–Rome Metropolitan Statistical Area, which lies in the "Leatherstocking Country" made famous by James Fenimore Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales, set in frontier days before the American Revolutionary War.

The post card was published by WM. Jubb Co., Inc. out of Syracuse, New York. My internet search found many other cards also published by this compny, but I could find very little history. I did find out that the company was a publisher of view-cards depicting scenes from western New York State. Their white border cards manufactured in the United States were printed on a textured paper similar to that of linen cards. They were were produced in a variety of styles and techniques ranging from early black & white images to colorful linens and modern chromes. His later chromes were printed by Dexter Press. This post card was printed by Curt Otto Teich during his C.T. American Art phase.

Going through Another Florida Orange Grove

If you have been following this blog for a several years, you have seen the picture on the front of this post card before. This is one of at least six post cards in my collection that have this picture,

or some variation of it, on the front. Four of the post cards tell us that the picture was taken in Florida; two say that it happened in California. This post card is part of the Florida camp. The way in which I chose to blog about this post card was as follows: Me – “Honey, choose a number between 1 and 10.” My wife – “Four.” Me – “Now choose a number between 1 and 345.” Her – “two hundred and twelve.” The first number was to choose the album of post cards; the second number was the post card within that album. Thus, we get this post card! The post card right below this one in the album (number 213) tells us that this picture is from near St. Petersburg, Florida. You can type “Florida” in the upper left-hand corner of the blog post and it will find all the posts that include this word in them. You can scroll down through the blog posts and see the other four post cards about which I have already written. They are from January 15, 2015 and February 2, 2018. I really know nothing about the picture on the front of this post card, except that is was very popular. The back of the post card does tell me many things.

The first thing that I see is that it was published by the H. & W.B. Drew Company out of Jacksonville, Florida. This is the only post card in my collection from this publisher. That is the symbol in the upper left-hand of the post card. It also seems to be post card number 1019, but I don’t see if it is part of a series of if this set of post cards was their 1,019th run of post cards. It could be number 1019 of their Florida Artistic Series of post cards. In the bottom left-hand of the post card there is another symbol. This is the state seal of Florida. Or at least it was when the post card was printed. The last thing that I found on the back of the post card was that it was published after 1930 by the Curt Otto Teich company. One series of their card numbers began with a number corresponding to the last digit of the year it was published in followed by a letter series denoting the decade: 1930’s A and AH prefix All cards with an H onwards designate Art Colortone. This post card is numbered A-19515; that means that it was published in the 1930s. This is sort of confirmed by the fact that between June 30, 1928 and January 1, 1952 the rate to mail a post card domestically was one cent. The last thing that I would like to point out is that the message on the back of the post card matches the picture on the front. The writer, Andy, is telling Terra that the oranges on the front look delicious.

World Famous - at one time....

This is the third in a series of three related posts. They are all post cards of trains related to the current Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad (BNSF). These three post cards have pictures of trains from the companies that merged to form the BNSF. The train in this post card is a Santa Fe passenger consist passing through the Cajon Pass.

This pass is notable because it was with the completion of this pass that gave the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway the status of transcontinental railroad.

Fortune magazine named the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (Santa Fe) the Nation's Number One Railroad in 1948. The Santa Fe was the only transcontinental train route from Chicago to Los Angeles until December 22, 1982 - when the takeover by the Union Pacific Railroad of the Missouri Pacific Railroad became effective. The Santa Fe railway The Santa Fe was the brainchild of Cyrus K. Holliday. He helped to found the city of Topeka in Kansas and quickly realized that the city needed to be connected to the rest of the country in order to thrive economically. Being a lawyer by trade, he wrote the charter for the Atchison and Topeka Railroad Company in 1859. It's purpose was to connect the two cities (Topeka and Atchison) by railroad as it followed the route of the Santa Fe Trail. The charter was approved by the Kansas Territory governor Samuel Medary on February 11, 1859. Holliday was named a director and president of the new railroad on September 17, 1860. The company was given the right to raise one and half million dollars in stock, which the board realized could only be raised through the selling of land rights. Through the normal political machinations, the Santa Fe was included in the Pacific Railroad Act of 1863. When the Act was signed by President Abraham Lincoln on March 3, 1863 the Santa Fe received the odd numbered sections of land for ten sections in width on each side of the track. The name of the company was also changed in 1863 to include “Santa Fe” because it seemed like Cyrus Holliday’s dream could come true. In 1867 Holliday was successful in raising funds within some of the local counties when they $350,000 worth of bonds. In 1868 the company purchased 338,766 acres of land from the Potawatomi Indians, which lands provided financial support when the lands were then resold to the new settlers. With these finances and the charter in hand, a ceremony was held on October 30, 1868 to celebrate the beginning of the building of the railroad. By 1870 gross revenue reached $127,000. The railroad reached the town of Atchison on May 13, 1872; you can imagine the celebration that day!! When the company was included in the Pacific Railroad Act, the grant of all that land was contingent on the rails reaching the border of Colorado before March 3, 1873. Granada, Colorado was reached on December 28, 1872 – 3 months to spare! The company continued to expand and grow attempting to reach the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean. There were many challenges to overcome, some were geological, some were financial (though not significant), and some came from the competition. Most notable of these was the Colorado Railroad War between the Denver & Rio Grande and the Santa Fe railroads – which was won in court by the Santa Fe. By 1879, the railroad’s net income was $3.5 million. On November 15, 1885, the day that the final track work over the Cajon Pass in southern California was completed, the Santa Fe officially achieved transcontinental status. While the railroad was the brainchild of Mr. Holliday, that child was brought to life, nurtured and grew strong thanks to the efforts of William Barstow Strong; he was elected vice president and general manager in 1877 and spearheaded the developments that led to the completion of the transcontinental railroad.

The post card was printed in 1957.

I know that it was 1957 because the "Place Stamp Here" box has a Curt Otto Teich code in it: The post card was printed by a Curt Teich company. That is what the dividing line between the message and address tells us.
It was published by Western Publishing & Novelty Company out of Los Angeles, California. The company began in 1932 with a focus only on Southern California related tourist materials and post cards; it ended sometime in the 1970s.

The Devil's Slide

The geological formation on the front of this post card is called “Devil’s Slide”.

It is a chute of two pretty parallel slabs of limestone 6 meters (20 feet) apart, each 12 meters (40 feet) high and 30.5 meters (200 feet) long. This slide is near Croydon, Utah in Weber Canyon. I blogged about Croyden on January 5, 2018 and about Weber (It’s pronounced Weeber) Canyon on both October 18, 2014 and December 16, 2014.

The first maps of the area referred to phenomenon Weber Canyon as “Gutter Defile”.
According to Lynn Arave on this website: https://www.standard.net/what-s-the-story-behind-devil-s-slide-in-morgan/article_08d618c3-93e2-5ead-b6b5-f0d1153434b0.html

“James John Walker (1830-1896), an early resident of Croydon and a railroad worker, is very likely the first person to have called it Devil’s Slide. A Walker family history states that James Walker was a contractor on the railroad, installing the first tracks through upper Weber Canyon. Probably around 1868, he was asked (being a local resident) by a railroad crew what to call this unusual rocky chute and his reply was Devil’s Slide and the title stuck. The first official mention of that name for the rock formation in a newspaper was in 1875. By 1904, someone discovered that the limestone was not just in the geological formation, but was abundant in the area. The Portland Cement Company set up a town and tried to name it Portland, after itself. But, in 1907 the post office was reflecting the name Devils Slide. The town reached its heyday in the late 1920s, before the Great Depression, when it boasted 529 residents. By the 1940s, its school closed and by the 1980s, only a few families still resided there. Soon after, the cement company closed the town and today a gravel pit and rubble mostly cover what remains of this ghost town. Ogden began promoting Devil’s Slide as a tourist attraction in the mid 1920s, with signs. Devil’s Gate, at the lower end of Weber Canyon, was also boasted of in numerous Standard-Examiner reports of the 1920s. ” - End of article by Lynn Arave.

This is the back of the post card:

There isn't a lot to know about the publisher of this post card. The name down the left-hand side says that it was published by The Gray News Company out of Salt Lake City, Utah. The company was a publisher and distributor of regional lithographic view-cards. Many images were produced of sparsely populated rugged areas. They only existed for 16 years; between 1906 and 1922. That makes this post card almost 100 years old! However, looking at the number at the bottom, middle of the post card raised my curiosity.

It looked an awful lot like a file number that Curt Otto Teich's company would use when they printed the post card for The Grey News Company. I looked at my files and saw this: "1908-1928 Cards numbered A or R 1 to 124180. The cards they printed for Woolworth have a W prefix. The letter N prefix was used to designate a reprinted image from this series." I thought that I was on the right track; then I saw this:

That little logo under the letter "T" is the company logo for Curt Otto Teich's company!! So, doing some math, if this is lot 7967 out of 124,180 printed between 1908 and 1928, this post card was probably printed in April of 1909. This does make sense because this is a divided back era post card. That era covers from 1907 to 1915. That means that this post card would be over 100 years old!

Two Crozier Canyon in Arizona Post Cards

This is a picture of a Santa Fe Railroad train as it passes through Crozier Canyon in northwest Arizona (about 55 kilometers [35 miles] northeast of Kingman, Arizona). This post card was printed by the Detroit Publishing Company. More about this below.... However, about the picture: In 1857, President James Buchanan authorized Secretary of War Jefferson Davis (soon to be the president of the Confederate States), to find a road that would connect Fort Defiance in today's New Mexico with Fort Mohave in the extreme west of what is today Arizona. Davis delegated this task to Lieutenant Edward Beale. This expedition was to have a second purpose, to see if camels - natural desert animals in other parts of the world - would be useful for the US military applications. Davis authorized the purchase of about 30 camels at $1,000 per head. The entire party surveyed northern Arizona along the 37th parallel. Today, Interstate 40 and old Route 66 follow part of what became known as "Beale's Wagon Road". The camels proved their worth, but the military developed other priorities and sold off the camels. The legend of "Hi Jolly" is worth pursuing if you are interested in "American Camels".

As you can clearly see, this post card comes to us from the White Border Era of post card printing. Prior to this era the printed pictures went right to the outside borders of the post card. When one prints hundreds of thousands of post cards, cutting the picture off with an eight of an inch border of white can save over 10 percent of the ink. That means that one can get one extra post card per print run for every nine that one prints. That kind of savings adds up!!

This post card below is a duplicate of the one above. The difference is that this one comes to us from the Linen Card Era. This post card was printed by one of the pioneers who developed the textured card, Curt Otto Teich. He made the card for the Fred Harvey Company. Fred Harvey was the originator of the "Harvey House" chain of restaurants and hotels that he built along the railroads in the western United States. He started the company in the late 1800s and he died in 1901. So, this post card was published by the company that he left behind.

In 1897 Harvey took over the news stands for the A.T.&S.F. Railroad and began distributing postcards. Between 1901 and 1932 the Company contracted all their cards with the Detroit Publishing Company (thus, the first post card that we see above). 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 (thus, the second post card that we see here) among others.

These are the backs of the post cards. The first one is from the White Border Era, printed by the Detroit Publishing Company. You can see in the upper left-hand corner the word "PHOSTINT"; this is the trademark that they used for their own, unique printing process. The same area also shows us that Fred Harvey's company was involved in the publishing of this post card. The description is much longer on this post card than the one below.

The bottom one is the one that was printed by the Curt Otto Teich company. At the very bottom of the middle of this side of the card is the code: 7A-H2919 This tells me that the post card was printed by the Curt Otto Teich company in 1937 - indicated by the "7A" - for Fred Harvey's company. Notice that both companies indicate with an "H" that this job is for Fred Harvey - they just have different numbers for the post card lots.

The Only One in My Collection

Don't let the title fool you. We are still staying with the theme of exaggerated pictures on post cards with this post. We are straying away from exaggerated edibles to exaggerated lumber

(or rather titles for the lumber). The title on the front of the card is there to get your attention (as if the picture, itself, isn't enough). This particular post card is calling these very large timbers "toothpicks". The back of the post card, however, gives away the truth of the situation.

This shipment of wood is from Washington or Oregon and the people in that area of the United States are proud of their handiwork and production.
Now, to explain the title of this post. I keep track of all the printers and publishers of the post cards in my collection. I have 3,036 post cards from 529 identifiable printers and publishers. This is the only post card with Wesley Andrews in "the credits".

This line has been turned 90 degrees so you can read it. It is actually used as the line between the address and the message sections of the post card - very creative use of words. The texture of the paper used for the post card, the code on the front in the bottom right-hand corner and these words "C. T. ART COLORTONE" tell me that this is a Curt Otto Teich card from early 1932. I have lots of post cards from him. But, this is the only post card that I have with a credit going to Wesley Andrews. I looked him up on the internet and this is what I have found. He was born in Ontario, Canada (YAY! A fellow Canadian!!) and set up his first publishing shop in 1904 in Baker, Oregon. He was also a photographer famous for his views of the Oregon coast. He moved his shop to Portland around 1920 and eventually sold it to Herb Goldsmith before his death in 1950. Andrews donated hundreds of his negatives to the Oregon Historical Society, leaving a legacy of his pioneering photography.
This what the back of the post card looks like:

Too Cold for Steam

Last week we discovered that the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul Railroad electrified part of its route in the Cascade mountains of Washington. Today we see that the idea was borrowed from farther east on the same line. Operating conditions in the mountain regions of Montana proved difficult. Winter temperatures of −40°C made it challenging for steam locomotives to generate sufficient steam. The line snaked through mountainous areas, resulting in "long steep grades and sharp curves." Electrification provided an answer, especially with abundant hydroelectric power in the mountains. Between 1914 and 1916, the Milwaukee implemented a 3,000 volt direct current overhead system between Harlowton, Montana, and Avery, Idaho, a distance of 705 kilometers.

The post card for today shows one of the second generation locomotives that traversed these mountains. The locomotive is of a different class than the two engines of the previous two weeks' posts. This one looks to be the second generation of electrical locomotives used by the railroad. The Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (Milwaukee Road) classes EP-1 and EF-1 comprised 42 box-cab electric locomotives built by the American Locomotive Company (Alco) in 1915. Electrical components were from General Electric. The locomotives were composed of two half-units semi-permanently coupled back-to-back, and numbered as one unit with 'A' and 'B' suffixes. As built, 30 locomotives were assigned to freight service, classified as EF-1 and numbered 10200–10229. The remaining twelve locomotives were assigned to passenger service as class EP-1, numbered 10100–10111, with higher-speed passenger gearing. The design was highly successful, replacing a much larger number of steam locomotives, cutting costs and improving schedules. General Electric self-proclaimed this electric locomotive to be the “King of the Rails” in a silent promotional film from 1915. From Wikipedia

In 1919, with the arrival of a newer generation of passenger power, the EP-1 locomotives were converted to EF-1 freight locomotives, and renumbered 10230–10241. The picture of the train in the post two weeks ago had the engine number 10294 - so close!! These numbers In this role, they served until the 1950s, when the arrival of the Little Joe locomotives began to replace them in freight service. More about these replacements next week.

The post card was published by a company owned by Curt Otto Teich. He and his company were both innovators and prolific in post card publishing. In business from 1893 to 1978. It's hard to date early Curt Teich postcards as they were not well documented. After 1913, dates began to appear occasionally in the order books kept by the company and from 1922 on, production dates were well documented. Their U.S. factories turned out more cards in quantity than any other printer. They published a wide range of national view-cards of America and Canada. Many consider them one of the finest producers of White Border Cards. The Linen Type postcard came about through their innovations as they pioneered the use of offset lithography. In 1974 the Teich Company was sold to Regensteiner Publishers also in Chicago. The Teich Company continued to operate in the same building and continued printing Teich postcards until 1978 when the plant closed.

Hmmm... Made in the USA

From Wikipedia: "Chancellor Peak is a 3,266-metre (10,715-foot) mountain

summit located in Yoho National Park, in the Canadian Rockies of British Columbia, Canada. Its nearest higher peak is Mount Vaux, 4.0 km (2.5 mi) to the north-northwest. Both are part of the Ottertail Range. Chancellor Peak is a landmark in the Kicking Horse River valley. The mountain was named 1898 to honor Sir John Alexander Boyd (1837–1916), who was Chancellor of the High Court of Justice of the Province of Ontario. The first ascent of Chancellor Peak was made on July 30, 1901 by James Outram, J. Henry Scattergood, and George M. Weed, with Christian Hasler Sr. as guide. Outram wrote of it: "The Chancellor, that mighty pyramid from whose frowning precipices, black and forbidding, loom aloft nigh upon 7,000 feet above the Kicking Horse River cannot fail to impress the traveler with a sense of awe and grandeur, as he approaches eastward from the grim gateway of the lower canyon." The mountain's name became official in 1924 when approved by the Geographical Names Board of Canada."

But that is not why I chose to reflect on this post card. I believe that this post card was printed by the Curt Otto Teich Company. My attention was drawn to the texture of the card. It is a texture invented by and perfected by Curt Otto Teich. The number of the post card (in the bottom right-hand corner)

is also a pattern used by the same company. It tells me that this post card is printed in 1934 (the first "4A") using the "Art Colortone" method (the "H" in the number). The back of the card, however, only hints that this might be the case (MADE IN THE U. S. A.). The carefully chosen words "Distributed by" also lead me to the same conclusion. Byron Harmon was a famous photographer who produced many of his own post cards. I have included many of them in my previous postings.

Written 110 Years Ago Today

Today's post card does not have a picture of any part of a train in it. Instead, there is an empty Santa Fe train track. I chose to collect this card because it is indicative of the type of terrain some of the trains in the Southwest United States had to traverse. A "bonus" feature is that it was near this canyon that the Battle of Glorietta Pass was fought during the Civil War. "Glorietta Pass and Apache Canyon are the site of the 1862 battle called "The Gettysburg of the West," when Union troops from nearby Fort Union, joined by volunteers from Colorado led by John Chivington, turned back a Confederate attempt to march north up the Rio Grande and capture the gold regions around Pikes Peak and Denver, Colorado." --- from http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/places/states/newmexico/nm_glorietta.htm The result of this battle was that New Mexico did not become a confederate territory.

This post card is an example of the 1915 - 1930 era post card called the "White Border" era.
In the bottom left of the post card is the numbering: H-1363. This indicates to me that this was a post card printed by Curt Otto Teich for Fred Harvey. This is quickly confirmed by looking in the upper right hand corner where it says, "Copyright by Fred Harvey". The Harvey House was an oasis of comfort and civilization along the railway routes of the Southwest. Entrepeneur Fred Harvey, dismayed by the often crude facilities he had seen at railway stops, endeavored to provide clean and welcoming lunchrooms, restaurants, and hotels as alternatives. His name became synonymous with quality accommodations -- an image fostered by clever and attractive advertising which drew in tourists from around the world. The Harvey House chain also offered tours to cultural, geological, and archeological attractions, further opening the Southwest to visitors. Harvey had close connections with the Santa Fe Railway, contracting to provide dining services along the line; this mutually beneficial association allowed Harvey to use the railroad for free shipment of supplies, while providing railway passengers with quality rest stops. --- from https://abqlibrary.org/c.php?g=19363&p=108880

The back of the post card also confirms that this is a Fred Harvey post card. The message was typed onto the post card; don't see that very often, although I do have a couple of them. The date on the back that was typed in says it was written 110 years ago today.