If this is Thursday it must be postcards, 575

 

 

 

 

 

 

REO Runabout, ca 1904-1908, postcard dates to before 1963

 

This is an advertisement postcard published and distributed by Pennzoil.  The card has rounded edges and does not have a canceled postmark since it was a bulk rate mailer, making it difficult to be sure of the date.  One clue is the two-digit mail code instead of the 5-digit zip code first used in 1963.  The automobile featured in the photograph is identified as a 1904 REO Runabout.  I tried to find other pictures of a 1904 REO runabout and was not successful.  However, photos of both the 1906 and 1908 models show the same, hard to miss, large spotlight (?) on the hood. 

 

Ransom Eli Olds founded the Olds Motor Vehicle Company in 1897.  That company was bought out by Samuel L. Smith, a copper and lumber magnate in 1899.  In 1901 the factory burned down and only one model, the small Curved Dash runabout was saved from the flames.  Olds said that the fire was the reason he chose to produce the runabout out of all the many other models the company could have made.  When Smith’s son Frederic L. Smith joined the company, he frequently clashed with Olds and finally removed Olds from the position of Vice President and general manager in 1904.  Olds left his company and formed R.E.O. (his initials) in 1905.

 

In addition to the printed advertisement on the reverse congratulating new car owners and asking them to use Pennzoil, there is also a blurb at the upper left corner on the reverse:  “1904 REO Runabout.  Its single cylinder engine developed 8 h.p.   With planetary transmission and cast-iron radiator, the REO weighed 850 lbs. and made about 25 mph.  When this quaint automobile first appeared on the roads, Pennzoil was supplying ‘Tough-Film’ motor oil.  Supreme in quality, this fine lubricant kept engines new then, as it does today.”  Pennzoil was established in 1913. 

 

Beautifully restored old automobiles called horseless carriages are a delight to see.  Occasionally there are auto shows that only feature horseless carriages.  We happened to be in Port Gamble a couple of months ago and saw the two restored vehicles in the photos below.  They were operational and being used, headed most likely for an auto show.  We did not meet the owners and did not ask about the cars, but did take time to cross the street and look at them.  These were both Fords of about the same vintage as the REO on the postcard. 

 

Notice the hand crank on the front of the #42

 

 

For additional information, see:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/REO_Motor_Car_Company

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennzoil

https://en.wikipedia.org/Ransom_E.,_Olds

https://en.wikipedia.org/Oldsmobile

 

If this is Thursday it must be postcards, 574

 

 

 

 

 

Rainbow Row, Charleston, South Carolina, ca 1977-1981

 

This used postcard has a photograph by Ernest Ferguson of the pastel colored buildings known as Rainbow Row in Charleston, South Carolina.  The card was published by Charleston Post Card. Co., Inc. and has 29394-C at the lower left corner on the reverse.  There is also a blurb just above the number:  “Rainbow Row, Charleston, S.C.  Typical of the English type of architecture are these double houses of eighteenth century aspect.  This East Bay scene is near the site of Vanderhorst Row, a three story building believed to be the first apartment house built in America.”  The card has scalloped edges and stamps that date it to between 1977 and 1981. 

 

These 13 historic row houses were restored and painted in the 1930s and 1940s and take their name from their exterior pastel colors.  It is a tourist attraction and one of the most photographed part of Charleston.  Originally these buildings were right on the Cooper River font but that land has since been filled in.  The buildings were first used by merchants whose stores occupied the ground floor and living quarters were found above.  Most of the buildings did not have interior stair access and residents had to use exterior stairs located in the yards behind the houses.  In 1778 a fire destroyed most of the neighborhood with only numbers 95 to 101 on East Bay Street surviving.  The earliest built house was constructed in the 1740s by Othneil Beale.  That house was was referred to as the "new Brick Store." It is one of the landmarks.  A few of the other houses were built prior to the 1778 fire, but several were built after the fire.  The newest house was built in 1845 and anchors the southernmost end of Rainbow Row.

 

Following the Civil War much of this area fell into near slum conditions.  Beginning in 1920 efforts were made to preserve the houses by Susan Pringle Frost, founder of the Society for Preservation of Old Dwellings, who bought six of the houses but she was unable to restore them immediately.  In 1931 Dorothy Haskell Porcher Legge, purchased a section of the houses from number 99 through 101 and began to renovate them.  She is responsible for painting them in a Caribbean color scheme.  Future owners continued the tradition.  By 1945 almost all of the 13 houses had been restored. 

 

Most of the houses on Rainbow Row share walls with their neighbors.  For a summary of historical information about each house, including the original dates the houses were built, see:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_Row

 

If this is Thursday it must be postcards, 573

 

 

 

 

 

The “Empire” at California State Railroad Museum, Old Sacramento, California

 

Wolfgang Kohz took the color photograph identified: B11030 on this unused postcard distributed by Fritz Vibe Enterprises of Sacramento, California.  It is a Mike Roberts Color Production card.  There is a blurb at the lower left corner on the reverse:  “The ‘Empire’ at California State Railroad Museum, Old Sacramento, California.  Although numbered 13 when built in 1873, its number was changed to 15 by enginemen to ward off bad luck.  It was renumbered 501 in 1924.  The engine was acquired by the Pacific Coast Chapter of Railway and Locomotive Historical Society in 1938.”

 

Headquartered in Virginia City, Nevada, the Virginia and Truckee R.R .is a privately owned heritage railroad with a 14 mile or 23 km route between Reno, south to Carson City, and Virginia City.  Printed on the Virginia & Truckee R.R. logo was “Queen of the Short Lines.”  Tickets were issued by the larger Central Pacific Railroad Company.  The first section of the rail line went from Virginia City to Carson City and was built in 1869.  It was used for hauling ore, lumber and other supplies for the Comstock Lode silver mines.  After years of declining revenue, by 1950 the railroad was abandoned, much of the track was pulled up and sold, along with locomotives and cars.  Public interest in historic railroads in the 1970s initiated the effort to rebuild and restore a portion of the line from Gold Hill to Mound House.  The rebuilding was accomplished with public funding and private donations.  The track is still being extended and restored and is used as a tourist line. 

 

The locomotives from the Virginia and Truckee RR and other equipment have appeared in numerous Westerns.  Many of the pieces have been restored and are displayed in museums across the country.  The Empire engine is a 2-6-0 Mogul type built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1873.  It had a long life as a freight engine.  I was curious as to when the number was changed from #13 to #15 and discovered that happened in 1910 when the wood burner was converted to oil.  As the blurb on the card stated, later in 1924 the number was changed again, this time to 501.  In 1938 the locomotive was retired and presented to the Pacific Coast Chapter of the Railway and Locomotive Historical Society for preservation.  The Empire, beautifully restored and shown on the card, can be found today in the California State Railroad Museum, Old Sacramento, California. 

 

 The California State Railroad Museum is part of the state park system.  Twenty-one restored locomotives and railroad cars, some dating to 1862, are featured in the museum.  Next to the main museum building is the reconstructed 1870s Central Pacific Railroad passenger station and freight depot.  The museum operates a short 40 minute, 6 mile, round trip route along the Sacramento River between April and October. 

 

For additional information, see:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_and_Truckee_Railroad

https://locomotive.fandom.com/wiki/Virginia_%26_Truckee_No._13_Empire

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_State_Railroad_Museum

 

If this is Thursday it must be postcards, 572

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Brownlee Reservoir, Hells Canyon, Baker Co., Oregon/Washington/Idaho

Brownlee Reservoir is the featured photograph on this Smith-Western, Inc. postcard.  The photo is by Robert J. Franzese.  There is a blurb at the upper left corner on the reverse: “The backwaters from Brownlee Dam reach nearly 60 miles upstream to Farewell Bend near Weiser, offering the fisherman and pleasure boater an unlimited playground. “  The code:  ID-6295 is found under the blurb.

 

Brownlee Dam and Reservoir are named after John Brownlee who started a ferry service that crossed the Snake River between Idaho and Oregon, known as Brownlee’s Ferry.  After the railroad was built a station was established at the ferry site and also named Brownlee.  A post office operated here off and on between 1910 and 1965.  The rail line was removed by the Oregon Short Line railway in 1934.  The unincorporated community of Robinette was the terminus for the Union Pacific aka Oregon Short Line.  The site of that former community was flooded when the reservoir filled in May 1958 and is today underwater.

 

Brownlee is a hydroelectric earth fill embankment dam on the Snake River at the Oregon and Idaho border.  It is part of the Hells Canyon Project that also includes Hells Canyon Dam and Oxbow Dam, and is operated by the Idaho Power Company.  The reservoir is 58 miles or 93 km long.  The powerhouse has five generating units with a capacity of 585.4 megawatts. 

 

There is no passageway for migrating salmon on this stretch of the Snake River from Hells Canyon Dam up to Shoshone Falls.  Shoshone Falls is a natural barrier to fish passage to the upper Snake basin.  

 

 

 

Shoshone Falls, Twin Falls, Idaho, 2022

 

 

For additional information, see:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoshone_Falls

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brownlee_Dam

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robinette,_Oregon

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brownlee,_Oregon

 

If this is Thursday it must be postcards, 571

 

Lizard Butte, Marsing, Idaho, ca 2008

 

This postcard has a photograph of Lizard Butte by Rhonda McCarvel.  The card is a product of Mountain West Prints, Great Mountain West Supply, S.L.C., Utah [postcardsamerica.com].  There is a blurb on the reverse at the upper left corner:  “Lizard Butte is located on a small piece of land between the Snake River Basin and the Owyhee Mountain Range East of the city of Marsing.  This is considered one of Idaho’s “natural wonders.”  Geologically Lizard Butte is a half crater, but the early pioneers named the formation Lizard Butte because of its resemblance of a large lizard.”

 

Looking at the photograph it was not immediately apparent to me that this was "a lizard basking in the summer sun" on the top of the butte.  On closer examination, it is possible to discern the head facing to the left and just below that an arm or leg-like appendage with the remainder of the body, rear leg and tail, continuing down the right side of the hill.  This is one of the historic sites on the Oregon Trail and is located just outside Marsing, Idaho.  The butte is about 350 feet or 106.68 meters high.  The surrounding farm land contains mostly orchards.  Today, Marsing, a small community, is part of the Boise metropolitan area. 

 

Sunrise Easter Services have been held here since 1938.  The idea to hold Easter sunrise services here was suggested in the spring of 1937 by Marsing residents, Ray and Marion Stafford, who could see the butte from their home window and thought it would be an ideal place to hold such an event.  Representatives from several communities formed the Lizard Butte Easter Sunrise Association and made plans to hold sunrise services.  The hillside was terraced for seating, a platform was built and a wooden cross was erected on the lizard’s head for the first service held 17 April 1938.  About 1,000 people attended that first service.  Unfortunately, two years later the cross was burned by vandals.  A cross of reinforced concrete replaced the original wooden cross and it is still standing above the valley floor today.   

 

The Association purchased the 40 acres of Lizard Butte to ensure that the services could continue each year.  Each Easter service follows a pattern, first with a bugle call and the appearance of two angels at the foot of the cross.  Many local churches, groups and organizations have donated time and money to help perpetuate the sunrise services.  Continued vandalism resulted in fencing and gating the property.   Thousands of visitors have attended Easter services here during the more than eighty years they have been offered.

 

For additional information, see:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marsing_Idaho

https://lizardbuttesunrise.com/HISTORY

https://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/45400