Even Steeper than Raton Pass

Last week I posted a picture of a train going over the 3.5% grade of Raton Pass between New Mexico and Colorado with a helper engine behind it. That reminded me of another post card I have of several engines going over another pass.

This post card is a picture of Soldier Summit with a train making its way over the 3% grade of Soldier Pass in Utah.
The pass was named Soldier Summit because several soldiers are buried there. During the beginning of the Civil War (1861) General Philip St. George Cooke and several others tried to cross the pass on their way to join the Confederate Army. They were caught in a snow storm in July of 1861. Those who died during the storm were buried there.
The post card shows a Denver & Rio Grande (D&RGR) train. But the D&RGR did not build the line. It was built by the Utah & Pleasant Valley Railway, which was incorporated between 1875 and when it was bought by the D&RGR in 1881. Grading for the line began in April of 1877, but railway itself was not completed until October of 1880; it was purchased in April of 1881. The first locomotive was run on the line on September 16, 1878. It helped to build the rest of the line.
The four percent grade heading up to Soldier Summit was a bottleneck, and in 1913 just over 22 kilometers of new line was built between Detour and Soldier Summit. Today that four percent grade route is part of US Highway 6 between Detour and Soldier Summit.

The post card was published by a very prolific company, H. H. Tammen. Perhaps you can see the little "alien" type of fellow in the top-center of the post card. In 1895 Tammen formed a partnership with F.G. Bonfils (whom he had met at the Chicago World's Fair) and they became co-owners and co-editors of the Denver Post. Their publishing business flourished, and Tammen's business successes made him a wealthy man. In 1917 Buffalo Bill Cody happened to die while in Denver, and Tammen (one of the city's biggest boosters) offered Cody's widow $10,000 if she would allow Cody to be buried in Denver; she accepted, and the ensuing funeral procession drew 50,000 people. He established the H.H. Tammen Trust in 1924, providing essential health care for children of families who cannot afford to pay. Tammen died July 19, 1924. The H.H. Tammen Curio Co. was in business until 1953, and possibly as late as 1962.
The post card was mailed two years before Buffalo Bill died.

Mabel is going to the top of Pikes Peak

Pikes Peak rises to 14,115 feet above sea level in the state of Colorado.

Mountains with elevations this high have a very slow melting rate of the snow that it accumulates over the winter. Here, in this picture on this post card we see how that affects the ride up the mountain on the Pikes Peak Cog Railroad.

At the beginning of Spring it was announced that Pikes Peak would not open this year... and maybe never again. It was too old and needed too much money to rehabilitate it. https://www.pikes-peak.com/pikes-peak-cog-railway-closed/

Recently there was a second announcement that this may not be the case. A new company has either purchased the railroad or will pitch in to rehabilitate it. Keep watching the news!!!

Pikes Peak is named for Zebulon Montgomery Pike, an early explorer of the Southwestern United States. Lieutenant Pike (later General Pike), first sighted what he termed "The Great Peak" in mid-November of 1806. A few days later, he attempted to climb the mountain with a small band of men, however, heavy snows around the 10,000-foot level turned his party back. In 1820, Edwin James, a botanist who climbed many peaks in Colorado, made it to the top. The first woman, Julia Holmes, climbed the peak in 1858.

In 1873, the U.S. Signal Service (an early Weather Bureau) built a telegraph station on the summit to monitor the weather. The station was lived in by Sergeant John O'Keefe.

On the afternoon of June 30th, 1891, the first passenger train, carrying a church choir from Denver, made it to the summit of Pikes Peak by train. Mabel, the author of today's post card, decided that she would rather drive up to the top of the mountain in the middle of July, 1939.

She is letting her good friend Mrs. James Baker know this little tid-bit of information. The post card is being sent to Sipesville, Pennsylvania. It is a town just about 70 miles southeast of Pittsburgh and 30 miles south of where the Johnstown Flood of 1889 happened.

We have seen the little mascot in the top center of the post card before. This is the emblem (plus the arrow pointing up at it) used by the H.H. Tammen Company on their post cards.

The Georgetown Loop 102 Years Ago

The Georgetown Loop Railroad got its name from this:

In the upper right-hand corner of the map you can see how the train doubles back in the canyon in order to gain height or lower itself, depending on the direction of travel. The front of this post card illustrates the principle perfectly as two trains drop in elevation while they are on The Loop.

The Georgetown Loop is located in Clear Creek County just west of Denver in Colorado. Clear Creek County was one of the original 17 counties created by the Colorado legislature on 1 November 1861, and is one of only two counties (along with Gilpin) to have persisted with its original boundaries unchanged. It was named after Clear Creek, which runs down from the continental divide through the county. Idaho Springs was originally designated the county seat, but the county government was moved to Georgetown in 1867. Clear Creek itself is a tributary of the South Platte River, approximately 66 miles (106 km) long,[2] in north central Colorado in the United States. The creek flows through Clear Creek Canyon in the Rocky Mountains directly west of Denver, descending through a long gorge to emerge on the Colorado Eastern Plains where it joins the South Platte. Clear Creek is unusual in that it is a stream named "creek" fed by a stream named "river". Fall River empties into Clear Creek along I-70 west of Idaho Springs, Colorado.

The words on the back of the post card include this sentence: "From the High Bridge of the Loop six pieces of track can be seen apparently detached, and the tourist realizes something of the marvel of engineering skill over which he has ridden."
The post card was published by the H.H. Tammen Company, a novelty dealer and important publisher of national view-cards and Western themes in continuous tone and halftone lithography. Their logo does not appear on all their cards but other graphic elements often remain the same. H. H. Tammen (1856-1924) Harry Heye Tammen was born in Baltimore, Maryland on March 6, 1856, the son of a German immigrant pharmacist. He attended Knapps Academy in Baltimore, then worked in Philadelphia before moving to Denver in 1880. With his partner Charles A. Stuart he worked as a Denver bartender in 1880, and in 1881 they established the firm of H.H. Tammen & Co. (which in 1896 became the H.H. Tammen Curio Co., with partners Carl Litzenberger and Joseph Cox) in Denver, Colorado. Deeply interested in the study of mineralogy, he published a promotional journal called Western Echoes magazine, "Devoted to Mineralogy, Natural History, Botany, &c. &c." Volume 1 number 1 is copyrighted 1882. In 1895 Tammen formed a partnership with F.G. Bonfils (whom he had met at the Chicago World's Fair) and they became co-owners and co-editors of the Denver Post. Their publishing business flourished, and Tammen's business successes made him a wealthy man. In 1917 Buffalo Bill Cody happened to die while in Denver, and Tammen (one of the city's biggest boosters) offered Cody's widow $10,000 if she would allow Cody to be buried in Denver; she accepted, and the ensuing funeral procession drew 50,000 people. He established the H.H. Tammen Trust in 1924, providing essential health care for children of families who cannot afford to pay. Tammen died July 19, 1924. The H.H. Tammen Curio Co. was in business until 1953, and possibly as late as 1962.

81 Years Od Today

There is so much to say about this post card.... Because the title on the front of the card claims that it is "The Steepest Railway in the World" we should check on that. The rails are 1,550 feet long from top to bottom of the canyon. For 100 per cent of the ride the rails are set at a 45 degree angle. That sounds like the steepest Railway in the world to me - - - at least back on June 14, 1931 (not quite 6 years before this post card was mailed) when it was dedicated. If you search on line for the world's steepest railway today, you will find that it is, of course, in Switzerland. It is certainly steeper than this railway is today - it no longer exists. It was destroyed beyond repair by a fire in June of 2013. That was the same month as its 82nd birthday. The incline railway was owned by the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad. You can see that when we turn the card over:

The purple circular stamp in the top, middle says, "The top of the world Tennessee Pass Colorado" at the bottom of the circle it has the letters: "D. & G. R. W. Rail..." It also tells you that you are a the 10,242 foot elevation mark (not quite 2 miles above sea level. On left side of the card we see that it was published by the Interstate Company out of Denver. Van Noy Railway Hotel and News began a series of mergers and acquisitions in 1914, starting with the Brown News Company (also headquartered in Kansas City) which was acquired on October 1, 1914 being operated as Van Noy News. In 1915, the Company began consolidating operations with the New York City based Interstate News Company. The company name was changed to Van Noy-Interstate News Company in 1917, but the company headquarters remained in Kansas City under the leadership of Ira C. Van Noy. As a result of changes in railroad passenger train service, Van Noy Interstate began to focus more on the hotel side of their operations. In 1922, the Company acquired the Gem Fountain Company, and in 1926 the company began operating as the Interstate Company.
The line down the center of the card indicates that it was printed by the H. H. Tammen Curio Company. A novelty dealer and important publisher of national view-cards and Western themes in continuous tone and halftone lithography. Their logo does not appear on all their cards but other graphic elements are often remain the same. H. H. Tammen (1856-1924) Harry Heye Tammen was born in Baltimore, Maryland on March 6, 1856, the son of a German immigrant pharmacist. He attended Knapps Academy in Baltimore, then worked in Philadelphia before moving to Denver in 1880. Tammen also manufactured a very popular line of "Colorado curiosities" and "mineral novelties" consusting of a variety of numbered and identified Colorado mineral and ore specimens cemented onto clocks, caskets, inkstands (one of which won an award at the 1881 Colorado State Fair), centerpieces, crosses, horseshoes and so on for ornamental purposes. He described these items as "perfect in taste, blending of colors, etc., and absolutely trustworthy as regards the cataloguing, classification and specifications of the different minerals employed in the construction of each article." He also dealt in stereoscopic and other photos of the West (he was supplied by the famous Western photographer W.H. Jackson), photo albums, books on the West, silver souvenir spoons, a wide variety of humorous and scenic postcards (especially of mining areas), fossil fish, polished agates, botanical specimens, Pueblo Indian pottery, Tlingit Indian carvings, relics and taxidermy items from his stores in Denver.

Ninety Seven Years Ago Today

The picture on the front of this post card is from inside the Royal Gorge. It is called this or "The Grand Canyon of the Arkansas River". This is because it is between 8 and 10 miles long (depends on where you start the measurement) and over 2,500 feet deep. It is a midget compared to the real Grand Canyon, but if haven't been to Arizona, this one is impressive.

In this picture, the train has just passed over the suspended bridge. Here the walls of the canyon are so narrow that the only way they could support the bridge deck was from above. I have other post cards that give a better and closer view of it. In this picture the red girders come to a point over the back of the train and the bridge is also red-ish.

The post card was written on December 14, 1920 (the date is written in the same handwriting as the rest of the message). But, using my super-super magnifying glass, I have come to the conclusion that it probably was not mailed until two days later. The number to the right of the 1 is too round to be a 4 in the cancellation mark.

The message is a friendly thank you. "Dear Anna & all; just got the pictures from Katherine yesterday, sure think they are beautifull (sic) and thank you many times for them and Gladys thanks the girls for her's (sic) too. I never saw any photos as pretty as they are. What are you going to do Xmas? I don't know if we will get to go to Hastings or not." Then, because she ran out of room at the bottom of the card, the author signed her name at the top, left of the card: "From Nellie".

Did you notice the cute little fellow at the top, middle of the card? This little alien-like critter is the logo (along with the arrow up the middle) of the H.H. Tammen Company. Those are their letters in the middle of the arrow. This company was a novelty dealer and important publisher of national view-cards and Western themes in continuous tone and halftone lithography. Their logo does not appear on all their cards but other graphic elements are often remain the same. H. H. Tammen (1856-1924) Harry Heye Tammen was born in Baltimore, Maryland on March 6, 1856, the son of a German immigrant pharmacist. He attended Knapps Academy in Baltimore, then worked in Philadelphia before moving to Denver in 1880.

In 1895 Tammen formed a partnership with F.G. Bonfils (whom he had met at the Chicago World's Fair) and they became co-owners and co-editors of the Denver Post. Their publishing business flourished, and Tammen's business successes made him a wealthy man. In 1917 Buffalo Bill Cody happened to die while in Denver, and Tammen (one of the city's biggest boosters) offered Cody's widow $10,000 if she would allow Cody to be buried in Denver; she accepted, and the ensuing funeral procession drew 50,000 people. He established the H.H. Tammen Trust in 1924, providing essential health care for children of families who cannot afford to pay. Tammen died July 19, 1924. The H.H. Tammen Curio Co. was in business until 1953, and possibly as late as 1962.

Moffat Tunnel

I am blogging about this post card because it just recently came to me in the mail. I have a few others about which I will blog so that I can process them into my collection - now up to 3,034 train post cards.

I published on previous blog about the Moffat Tunnel. It was on May 10, 2014. That post was mostly about David Moffat, after whom the Moffat Tunnel was named. This is a quick summary of what was in that post: "Almost all of the information that follows came from the Wikipedia website.
David Moffat was born in Washingtonville, New York on July 22, 1839. He moved to Denver, Colorado in 1860. Unfortunately, as the Union Pacific Railroad built the transcontinental railroad heading west it by-passed Denver for a much flatter and easier to construct route. Building the transcontinental railroad through Nebraska, totally by-passing Colorado, left the Denver stranded from the commerce connections that it had hoped for.

As a result of this snub, the governor of Colorado, together with other local business leaders, including David Moffat partnered with East Coast investors to form a railroad company (the Denver Pacific Railway) that would link Denver and the Colorado Territory with the transcontinental railroad. The second railroad company, the Denver, South Park and Pacific Railroad, with which Moffat was involved got its start intending to connect the mining area of Colorado to the city of Denver. It began in 1872 and operated as an independent railroad until it was sold in foreclosure proceedings in 1889.

Looking south, Mr. Moffat, along with other business men, began the Denver and New Orleans Railroad. Their intention was to bring business to and from the Gulf of Mexico. As if that wasn’t enough railroading, David Moffat then started the first trolley line in Denver.

His next venture was to be the Manitou and Pike's Peak Railway climbing to the top of Pikes Peak. The company was founded in 1889 and limited service to the Halfway House Hotel was started in 1890. The summit was reached the following year.

In 1885 David Moffat was elected to Denver & Rio Grande board. Then in 1887 Moffat was elected president of the Denver & Rio Grande. Moffat built the Glenwood to Grand Junction, standard gauging Pueblo to Grand Junction, and the Tennessee pass tunnel.

1892 David Moffat next developed a railroad to Creede from Wagon Wheel Gap, Colorado. It ran along the banks of the Rio Grande to Creede at his own expense. He formed the Rio Grande Gunnison Railway Company.

Finally, David H. Moffat and his business associates established the Denver, Northwestern and Pacific Railway. It was reorganized as the Denver & Salt Lake Railway and it was along this railway that the Moffat Tunnel was bored. David Moffat envisioned a tunnel through the continental divide west of Denver. Construction of the Moffat Tunnel took place from 1923 to 1927. It was officially opened on February 28, 1928 with much fanfare and several trainloads of special guests in attendance at the East Portal, the picture on this post card. Denver & Salt Lake Railroad locomotive 205, a 2-6-6-0 compound locomotive, pulled the first official passenger train through the new tunnel. The Moffat Tunnel is 6.2 miles long and is the 6th largest tunnel on earth.

Mr. Moffat died on March 18, 1911, before he could realize this dream."

This post is more about the Tunnel itself and, of course, the post card attached to it. This post card was published after 1927. I know that because one of the dates on the top of the tunnel states that it was completed in 1927. But, judging by the wording on the back of the post card, it was not published much after that date. It says,"The estimated cost was to be approximately $13,000,000 but due to unexpected and unforeseen conditions arising from time to time it is now estimated that the total cost will be about $18,000,000." This card was published so closely to the completion of the tunnel that they didn't even know the full cost of the construction.

The post card was published by the H. H. Tammen Curio Company. That little critter at which the arrow up the middle of the post card is pointing, is their trademark. A novelty dealer and important publisher of national view-cards and Western themes in continuous tone and halftone lithography. Their logo does not appear on all their cards but other graphic elements are often remain the same. H. H. Tammen (1856-1924) Harry Heye Tammen was born in Baltimore, Maryland on March 6, 1856, the son of a German immigrant pharmacist. He attended Knapps Academy in Baltimore, then worked in Philadelphia before moving to Denver in 1880. (from the Metropolitan Post Card Club of New York)

The post card itself is from the Linen Era (1930 - 1945).

You can see how this company tried their best to make it look like linen. In my books, nobody came close to the best linen post card maker Curt Teich.

Then and Now

The bridge in this post card was designed by the famous architect, Ralph Modjeski, the chief engineer for the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge which began construction in 1933. The Missouri Valley Bridge & Iron Company built the bridge by cantilevering it out from rock walls on both sides of the canyon.

The first steel for the bridge arrived on site on May 18, 1911, and was lowered by derrick to the bottom of the gorge. Men climbed down rope ladders to attach cables to the steel beams and the steel was hoisted back up both sides of the canyon as the beams were needed. The first train crossed the bridge only four months later on September 17, 1911.

The crossing of the Crooked River played a critical role in the competition to build a railroad up the Deschutes River Valley. The incentive for railroad construction was reaching the vast stands of timber south of Bend. The Oregon Trunk Railway, owned by Jim Hill of the Great Northern Railway, started up the west side of the Deschutes. In the meantime the Des Chutes Railroad, owned by Edward Harriman of the Union Pacific, started up the east side. At 126 miles both railroads had to cross a major tributary of the Deschutes, the Crooked River. There was only one place where the cliffs on both sides were close enough to build a bridge. Jim Hill had obtained the rights to the location when his Oregon Trunk Railroad acquired the Central Oregon Railroad Company on December 1, 1909. The Central Oregon had laid no track and the rights to the bridge site were its principal asset. Hill's acquisition of the location forced Harriman to negotiate a settlement whereby the Oregon Trunk would own almost the entire line from the Columbia to Bend but Harriman's company would have the right to use the track.

Through a series of mergers the rail line and the bridge has become part of the BNSF Railway. The Union Pacific still has the right to use the track.

This is what the bridge looks like today:

The post card was printed and published by the H. H. Tammen Curio Company. They were located at 1516 Arapahoe Street in Denver, Colorado from 1896 to 1953. The picture on the front does not have a white border around it, and the back is divided. From this we can conclude that the post card was printed some time between 1912 and 1915.

Development of the Linen Post Card

Continuing on the theme of Pikes Peak, I have scanned three post cards from the Linen Post Card era.

Two of these cards are from 1939 and 1941. Because the third one is postally unused, I cannot tell you the exact age of the card. Two of them are from the H.H. Tammen Company which existed from 1896 to 1953; the other is from the E. C. Kropp Company, which existed from 1907 to 1956.

I chose the top two, not because they share the same picture, but because they share the same picture on two different types of card stock.

The post card on the left is from the White Border Era (1915-1930). The card stock is smooth and shiny, although certainly not as shiny as a Chrome Post Card. The white border was developed on post cards for the printers and publishers to save money on the cost of ink. While printing on post card may not seem like a large savings, if one multiplies that amount of unprinted space by the millions of post cards printed during this era, it adds up to a huge savings.

The post card on the right looks like it is from the Linen Post Card Era (1930-1945). While saving money in the same manner as the previous era, the publishers added a quality to the post card. In a system of paper making adding rag content into the paper used for card stock, the paper took on a textured feeling. Rumor has it that Curt Otto Teich might have invented this style of card. If he didn’t invent it, he certainly perfected it!

This card is not from the Curt Teich Company. It is from the H.H. Tammen Company. I am not convinced that it is an actual Linen Post Card. As I hold it up to the light and feel the texture, I am thinking that the printer simply ran the card through a machine that texturized the card. I have tried to scan a close-up of the linen-style card so that you can see the texture difference. You can see a regular pattern of squares that have what look like indentations into the post card. These indents show best on the white border.

I think the H. H. Tammen Company either made linen cards of much lesser quality than the Curt Teich Company or did their best to imitate the look and feel of a linen card without going through the real process. So, when I hold the two H.H. Tammen cards from above next to each other, the quality difference is sort of obvious. But, when I hold this H.H. Tammen card next to a Curt Teich Linen Era Post Card the difference jumps out at me.

The H.H. Tammen Company was based in Denver, Colorado. It was founded by Harry Heye Tammen, who was born in Baltimore, Maryland. In 1881 he and his business partner started H.H. Tammen and Company. That name changed in 1896 when they added two more partners: Carl Litzenberger and Joseph Cox. The new company was called the H.H. Tammen Curio Company.

The bottom post card is included in this set simply because it, too, shows the Manitou and Pikes Peak Railway in the Spring with snow on either side of the tracks. It seems to have been taken from very close to where the other picture was taken. This post card was printed by the E. C. Kropp Company. The company was founded in 1907 and based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin until they were sold to L.L. Cook in 1956. E.C. Kropp began publishing and printing in 1898 but, became the E.C. Kropp Company in 1907. I understand that they produced some high quality linen cards, but I don’t have any in my train post card collection.

This post card was printed for the publisher “Garden of the Gods”, which is a tourist destination down the hill from Pikes Peak in Colorado. The story of the “Famous Balanced Rock” is interesting but not related to my train post cards other than the passing reference on this post card. You can read its story here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_of_the_Gods. These are the backs of the three cards.
There are only two pictures because the H.H. Tammen Company didn't change the back from one style of post card to the other. So, I chose this one because there is an official stamp at the top telling us that someone was up on the top of Pikes Peak on August 17, 1941. The other H.H. Tammen post card is postmarked from July 19, 1939 - just a few short months before World War II began with the invasion of Poland.

Linen Post Cards

Continuing on the theme of Pikes Peak, I have scanned three post cards from the Linen Post Card era. The ages of these cards range from the 1930s to the mid-1940s. Because they are postally unused, I cannot tell you the exact age of any of the cards. Two of them are from the H.H. Tammen Company which existed from 1896 to 1953; one is from the Sanborn Souvenir Company, which existed from 1920 to 1976. This is quite the range of dates but, we can narrow it down a bit.These three post cards are what they call Linen Post Cards. In about 1930 publishers began to print post cards on a linen paper stock. These post cards were called linen because the rag content within the paper gave these post cards a textured “feel.” You can also see the weave in the cards if you hold them just right in the lighting. They were popular among the printers and publishers because they were cheaper to produce and they accepted the use of bright dyes for coloring the pictures on the faces of the cards. Curt Otto Teich was among the early linen post card publishers; some say his company invented the process. The advent of chrome post cards (1939) brought this era to an end. You can see some example of chrome post cards in my previous blog post.

Although you couldn’t tell it by the smoke coming out of the engine, the top post card is a view of Windy Point on the way up to Pikes Peak. It is a product of the H.H. Tammen Company. There is no indicator on the card about who might have printed the card.

The middle card is showing a train as it passed the timberline on Pikes Peak. This was published by the Sanborn Souvenir Company from Denver, Colorado. There is no indicator of the printer on the back of the card, but the number on the front hints that it may have been the Curt Teich Company. The visual “feel” of the card places it back in the early 1900s; but, the linen in the card says otherwise. If I am correct in interpreting the number in the bottom right hand corner of the card (14400-N), this was a reprint of a post card that the Curt Teich Company first printed in 1908. The N in Curt Teich parlance indicates that this card is a reprint.

The bottom card is also from the H.H. Tammen Company and again there is no indicator of who the printer was. One way of dating this card might be to know more about cars than trains.

There are a couple of automobiles at the top of Pikes Peak. If I knew as much about cars as I do about trains, I could probably tell you the year and make of the cars. We could then date the post card to a time after that.

The Crevice in the Royal Gorge

Of these three cards that look similar, the top one is probably the oldest. It is printed and published by the Detroit Publishing Company using their exclusive "PHOSTINT" process. A bit of history: Two partners, William A. Livingstone, Jr., a publisher and Edwin H. Husher a photographer, started the Detroit Photographic Company in, of all places, Detroit, Michigan. They purchased the exclusive rights in the United States to a Swiss method of turning black and white photographs into colour prints. The company expanded and changed its name from Detroit Photographic to Detroit Publishing. Unfortunately, the company went into receivership in 1924. This means that this post card is from between March 1, 1907 (beginning of the divided back era) and 1924. If you look at their catalogue of prints and interpolate the number on this card: 12338 you can assume that this card was printed around 1908 or 1909. The bottom two cards are from the same printer: HH Tammen (I've talked about them in some recent posts). This will explain why the pictures look so similar and have the same numbering and titles.

And, even though the publishers on the side of back of the cards have different names, they are the same company. The Van Noy-Interstate Company canged its name to just the Interstate Company in 1926 (two years after Detroit Publishing went under). The company began operations in 1914 and after some mergers and purchasing of other businesses became the Van Noy-Interstate in 1917. It became the Interstate Company in 1926. These cards are good examples of the White Border era. It lasted from about 1915 to 1930.

Las Animas "Canon" or Canyon?

We were just watching a DVD last night about the Durango - Silverton train passing along its route in winter. Today, I opened up Volume One of my postcard collection and found two postcards out of place. Included in the Royal Gorge section were these two cards.

They are from the Durango - Silverton line. The top card is from a very humble printer and publisher. I don't know who either one is. There are no trademarks or copyright marks on the back. There are some clues that I can follow to help me find out who the publisher or the printer was. As you can see, it is part of a series of cards (this is number 73). The picture itself is also embossed. As I run my fingers over the card I can feel the indentations that help me to feel the rocky-ness of the canyon walls. It was printed before March 1, 1907. That white space to the right is all the room anyone had to write a message. In the case of this card, no message was written. But, someone wanted Esther A. MacKintosh to know that they were thinking of her.

I love the address: Hopkinton, Iowa - nothing else. It is great to think that the community was either so small or so intimate that the postal employee who exactly who Esther was and which house she lived in. All he (I'm sure they were all "he" back then) needed was her name. All the post office needed was her city and state. I find the spelling of the word canyon to be interesting. On both cards it is spelled canon, like in the Spanish but using an "n" instead of the Spanish "enyea" (an n with a diacritical tilde over it). It seems that at the turn of the 19th to the 20th century the American printers were still trying to figure out how to spell in English words that were pronounced in Spanish.

This is the back of the bottom card. It is by the HH Tammen Curio Company. I wrote about them in two blog entries ago. BY THE WAY: If you ever want to know more about the publishers and printers of post cards... copy this link into your web browser: http://www.metropostcard.com/metropcpublishers.html They have information about post card printers and publishers from around the world.

Surviving Through History

Not all of the post card printers and publishers lasted a long time. For example, the Acmegraph Company lasted eight years (1909 – 1918); the Benham Company existed from 1910 to 1915 – a short 5 years; the Gray News Company was able to meek out an existence of 16 years from 1906 – 1922. On the other hand, some companies have had a very long and prosperous life. The Albertype Company was around from 1887 to 1952; the American Art Post Card Company was in New York for about 38 years (1915 – 1953); Raphael Tuck & Sons had a very good run, starting in 1866 until it was purchased (and so, sort of still exists) in the 1960s. The H H Tammen Curio Company is in the group that lasted a very long time. It began in 1896 and closed shop in 1953. With his partner Charles A. Stuart he worked as a Denver bartender in 1880, and in 1881 they established the firm of H.H. Tammen & Co. (which in 1896 became the H.H. Tammen Curio Co., with partners Carl Litzenberger and Joseph Cox ) in Denver, Colorado. They were smart, because they didn’t deal only in post cards. The business sold minerals and branched out into other curiosities from the West. A quick internet search shows that they printed books, sold silver souvenir spoons (who doesn’t know someone who collects these?), printed and sold burnt leather calendars. He and a partner also owned the Denver Post newspaper. He was a very successful businessman. It is not surprising that many of the post cards that depict the trains in the western USA in my collection have his logo on them. These three cards are a drop in the bucket.

They all show the same scene: the last car of a passenger train heading through the Royal Gorge in Colorado. As you scan down the three images, you can see that it looks like they just continued to print and print and print without changing the ink. I know that is not the case because these cards come from two different post card eras and represent two different publishers. The first card is from the time immediately after the Post Office allowed people to write messages on the backs of cards. It is known as the Divided Back era (1907 – 1915). The photo is actually quite crisp and clear as I look at it. The water has movement in it and the rocks show the fissures very well. This card is unused, so I don’t know exactly how old it is. Within the next few years, though, I can almost guarantee that it will be a centenarian. The second card is the same picture printed by the same printer and published by the same publisher – HH Tammen Curio Company. But, now the businesses have found out that you can save lots of money by adding a white border around the same pictures they have been printing. The post card number and title have not changed: 5955. Going Through the Royal Gorge, Colorado. Parts of the rocks, the rails and the river have disappeared as the printing process cropped the picture. There are no changed made to the back. This card comes from the White Border era (1915 – 1930).

The third card is printed by the same printer, comes from the White Border era and uses the same picture. However, it is now being published by the Van Noy-Interstate Co., of Denver, (1914 – 1926) Colorado. The details are much less crisp and the fringe on the back of the observation deck is now red and white instead of the green and white in the other two cards. The title has not changed but it has a new number: 4367. You can see that the Van Noy-Interstate Company wanted to do more than just tell you about the picture. They have added the now familiar box in the upper left hand corner of the card that gives a fuller description of the feature on the other side of the post card. I am not sure if you can read the message, but it looks like it was used by a student to let someone know that she is not very sure about an assignment she had just handed in. The most fascinating thing that I find about the HH Tammen Curio Company is the use of the little “space critter” as their logo.

If anyone who reads this blog knows where the little fellow originated, I would be very happy to hear from you.

This one was used!

This card, on the back, is very similar to the last one I wrote about. It, too, belongs to the “Divided Back” group. That means that it was printed around 1907 to 1915. The picture goes right to the edges and on the back is a dividing line between the address and the message. You can see that people are getting used to the idea that they can write both the address and a message. On the left of the card, the reminder: “This space Can Be Used for a Written Message” has been shortened to “THIS SPACE FOR MESSAGE”.
However, we know more about the age of this card because it was actually used. It as mailed on October 22, 1913 from Fort Morgan, Colorado. It is on Interstate 76 northeast of Denver. A little piece of trivia regarding Fort Morgan: Glenn Miller, who was born in Iowa, went to school here. He is the big band leader who went missing toward the end of World War II. His plane disappeared over the English Channel in bad weather.
It is being mailed to Scotts Bluff, Nebraska, which is almost straight north of Fort Morgan. Scotts Bluff is on the routes of both the Oregon Trail and the Mormon Trail.
This picture is of the Gorge looking away from Denver.

There is another hint in this picture of an amazing engineering feat. You can see to lines at the bottom of the card that seem to go from one side of the canyon to the other. The train has just passed under the support beams for the Hanging Bridge.
This was printed, and it looks like it was also published, by the HH Tammen Company.
One thing I like about cards that have been used is the insight they give us to the lives of the people that wrote them. I like to think that this is Anna Ford writing to her husband, Walter.

Anna has gone out west to visit a friend or relative who just had a baby. While there, they received the news that her 4 year old nephew had an operation for an abscess and isn’t expected to live longer than a day. Then she reminds her husband to pick her up at the train station. On the top of the card she lets him know that it rained – “but not enough to keep the folks from working”.

Back into the Royal Gorge

The previous card belongs to a group called “The Divided Back”. The pictures went right to the edge of the cards and the backs were the first backs to be divided into two parts: the right for the address and the left for a message. Sometimes there is a message on the back to remind folks that they can write on the left side of the card. This group was printed from about 1907 to 1915.

The card featured in today’s post belongs to the “White Border” group. These cards were printed from about 1915 to 1930. They were still divided on the back, but there was a noticeable change on the front. A white border appeared.
We are going back to the Royal Gorge today. This card is younger than the card in the last post. I can tell right away because it has a white border around the picture. The picture on the front of the card is of the Railroad’s East entrance – surrounded by a white border. By looking on the back of the card, I can narrow the date of printing even more.

The printer is the H. H. Tammen Curio Company. It began business in 1896 and finally wrapped up in 1953. It operated out of 1516 Arapahoe Street, in Denver, Colorado. (So it is fitting that they would promote the Royal Gorge!) You can see the little mascot in the top middle of the card and the arrow pointing up to it with H H T CO imprinted on it. These are definitive signs that point to the H.H. Tammen Curio Co.
The publisher, on the left side of the card printed sideways, is The Interstate Co., also of Denver, Colorado. The Van Noy Railway Hotel & News, which came into being in 1914, became the Van Noy News Co., after some mergers with other companies, On October 1, 1914.
In 1915, they began consolidating operations with the Interstate News Company out of New York City. The company name was changed to the Van Noy Interstate News Company in 1917, under the direction of Ira C. Van Noy. The Van Noy Interstate Company began to focus on the hotel aspect of their business, including selling souvenir postcards to their guests. In 1922, the Company acquired the Gem Fountain Company, and in 1926 the company re-named one more time; now they were to be known as the Interstate Company.
All this tells me that because the name “The Interstate Co.” appears on the card, it was printed after 1926. The next phase of postcard printing began around the year 1930. So I am deducing that this card was printed sometime very close to the years 1926 and 1930.
As I hold the card in the light and close to my magnifying glass, I can see that there is a road that runs on the other side of the canyon.