This Goat Gets Around

The picture on the front of this post card shows Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) locomotive number 3206 at work in the rail yard of Vancouver, British Columbia. Because it is working in the rail yard, it has earned the title of

"Goat". That is the term used to describe an engine that works in the rail yards. This particular photo is from around 1930, according the publisher of the post card. The good news for this engine is that it did not spend its entire life in the rail yard. When I went on line to see what I could find out about the locomotive, I stumbled on a picture of it on Vancouver Island. The front page of the Canadian Historical Railroad Association published a picture of this same engine working as a logging train. This is the text under the picture: "Once upon a time, main line logging trains were as picturesque as their backwoods counterparts, as witness this picture of two Esquimalt & Nanaimo timber trains meeting somewhere on Vancouver Island about twenty-five years ago, the loaded train headed by Canadian Pacific M-l-a class 2-8-0 No.3206." This quote is taken from the July / August issue (Number 113) of 1960. So, in 1930 the engine was working in the Vancouver rail yards, and by 1935 it had earned its way onto the island to haul logs to market.

The post card was published by the Head-end Rail Prints Company out of White Rock, British Columbia. They existed after 1971 because the address includes a Canada Postal Code (first introduced in 1971). However, a search on the internet does not lead to any other information about the company. The business currently at 1450 Johnston Road in White Rock, British Columbia is the Hygrove Design Company and it has a different Postal Code.

Byron Harmon Fest (Part Three of three)

I have so many post cards printed by Byron Harmon that I have decided to simply scan them and publish them so that you can enjoy them, too. The photographs are all taken west of the Spiral Tunnels in British Columbia.

A quick check into Wikipedia will help you to understand where these pictures were taken:
Mount Chancellor, Mount Field, Mount Stephen, Stoney Creek Bridge, Kicking Horse Canyon, Spiral Tunnels, etc.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. May I also suggest that if you are ever in Banff, Alberta that you visit the gallery of his granddaughter...

One Hundred and Eleven Years Ago Today AND the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition of 1909

Happy Birthday to my sister, Mary!!
I am dedicating this blog entry to her - even though she was not born in the year when this post card was mailed; she was born on the same day and month as it was mailed.

This post card shows a train as it winds it way with passengers through the beautiful scenery of Cow Creek Canyon in Oregon.

The Southern Pacific Railroad built the original line by following the natural terrain of Cow Creek. It is, as you can see from the map below, a short north and south route between Glendale, Oregon and Riddle.

This map is taken from: http://www.alpharail.net/corp/cowcreek/cowcreek1.htm I recommend that you visit their website for a more recent tour of the canyon than this post card.

Between Glendale and Riddle, Oregon the Central Oregon and Pacific Railroad takes a scenic detour from Interstate 5 and civilization through Cow Creek Canyon (green line on the map above). When the Siskiyou Line was originally surveyed in the 1800's it followed natural drainages rather than tackle the mountains of southwest Oregon. For years the Southern Pacific was the sole means of transport through the Canyon.

The post card was mailed on December 2, 1908.

That is one hundred and eleven years ago, today at 3:00 PM. The message on the back is a friendly response to another message.
"Dear Friend. Rec'd your card Was glad to here (sic) from you. We are all well, hopeing (sic) this will find you the same. We are having fine weather here now. I am going to the skating Rink at Newberg, Ore tonight. From your loving friend, John W Sheppy" He is writing to a MISS Myrtle Walter in Bonanza, Oregon. Bonanza is down toward the California border. He is writing from Dayton, Oregon. It is half-way between Portland and Salem. I have to point out that some savage pulled the stamp off of the post card!! How shameful! The post card was printed in Germany and published by The Portland Post Card Co. They had offices in both Portland, Oregon (I bet you are surprised by that) and Seattle, Washington. Speaking of Seattle, did you notice the little round seal in the bottom left. It is advertising the upcoming "Alaska - Yukon - Pacific Exposition" soon to happen in 1909.

The following information was taken from: http://www.seattle.gov/cityarchives/exhibits-and-education/digital-document-libraries/the-1909-alaska-yukon-pacific-exposition

The Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition (AYPE), held in Seattle from June 1 to October 16, 1909, followed on the heels of the 1905 Lewis and Clark Exposition in Portland, Oregon. Initial inspiration for the fair came from a group of Alaska's gold rush pioneers in 1905. In 1906, Seattle businessmen altered the original plan, postponed the 1907 date (so as not to conflict with the Jamestown, Virginia tricentennial celebration) until 1909, and sought financial support for an enlarged scope. The AYPE followed a tradition established in 1876 when Philadelphia held a Centennial Exposition. It was an opportunity for Seattleites to display pride in their heritage and their patriotism. Although the anticipated influx of people and the anticipated stimulus to economic growth did not materialize as a result of the Exposition, the City and promoters counted AYPE as a success. Traffic was handled well, the boulevard system was completed in time for visitors to enjoy the scenery, and the police ably protected "the lives and property of the citizens and visitors during the Exposition." The University benefited by the expansion of its campus. Permanent benefits for the city included many additional miles of streetcar tracks, additional fire alarm boxes, a boulevard system, and a statue of William Seward.

Byron Harmon Fest (Part Two of three)

I have so many post cards printed by Byron Harmon that I have decided to simply scan them and publish them so that you can enjoy them, too. The photographs are all taken west of the Spiral Tunnels in British Columbia.

A quick check into Wikipedia will help you to understand where these pictures were taken:
Mount Chancellor, Mount Field, Mount Stephen, Stoney Creek Bridge, Kicking Horse Canyon, Spiral Tunnels, etc.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. May I also suggest that if you are ever in Banff, Alberta that you visit the gallery of his granddaughter...

Byron Harmon Fest (Part One of three)

I have so many post cards printed by Byron Harmon that I have decided to simply scan them and publish them so that you can enjoy them, too. The photographs are all taken west of the Spiral Tunnels in British Columbia.

A quick check into Wikipedia will help you to understand where these pictures were taken:
Mount Chancellor, Mount Field, Mount Stephen, Stoney Creek Bridge, Kicking Horse Canyon, Spiral Tunnels, etc.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. May I also suggest that if you are ever in Banff, Alberta that you visit the gallery of his granddaughter...

Here are the first eight pictures:

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.

I Did Not Know This...

I have a lot of pictures of the Spiral Tunnels in my train post card collection. Until today, I did not realize that the trains exiting Spiral Tunnel Number 2

immediately crossed over the Kicking Horse River. The picture on the front of this post card makes that fact perfectly clear! It is a picture of the Imperial Limited, which was the Canadian Pacific Railway's luxury express train. It ran non-stop between Montreal and Vancouver. The train is exiting the second spiral tunnel and crossing over a bridge. The post card was printed and published by The Gowan, Sutton

Company, Limited in Vancouver, British Columbia. A publisher of real photo and printed postcards of the Canadian West. Not only did they produce cards depicting large cities, they captured many hard to reach views within the Canadian Territories. Many of their cards were hand tinted in a simple manner striving for style rather than realism, which created cards in vastly differing quality. While the real photo cards were made in Canada their printed cards were made in England.