In Volume 1 of this series, I noted that the use of postcards is on the wane. Since the advent of Instagram and Facebook and other social media venues, postcard sales have plummeted by as mush as 75% in the last ten years. Even my old ranger pal Greg Gnesios, who for years hade been the exception to the rule, had finally thrown in the towel. Greg’s were always especially memorable, because the content was always…unusual. And more than likely, they were the hand-colored kind. My favorite. To me, the hand-colored cards are true works of art.
Back in August I posted Volume 1 of “How Instagram Killed the Postcard;” it featured images from the Moab area. What I did’nt expect was the response. Postcards from across the country poured in to my little PO Box on the High Plain. I love my Zephyr readers. While I can’t name everyone who sent me postcards, I need to pay special tribute to Evan Kramer of Port Orford, Oregon who sent several, including one of those multiple hand colored packets of cards titled, “Greetings from Minneapolis, Minn.” Thanks Evan! And I might have guessed—-several spectacular and especially weird hand colored cards from Greg Gnesios. One of Plymouth Rock…the other a very memorable card of older gentlemen playing shuffleboard in St. Petersburg, Florida.
And one more mention…there IS one guy out there who actually sends me postcards from time to time. Nathan Card is a ranger at Arches but has been stationed at several NPS outposts across the country. He regularly sends me a postcard giving me his updates. Ranger Card, you really ARE one of a kind…at least until recently. And no wonder your last name is “Card.” I have to wonder if your middle name is “Post.”
This time I focus on Utah’s state capitol, Salt lake City and its many scenic wonders. And the vicinity. Some of these cards are more than 100 years old. When there were messages on the back, I’ve included the flip-side as well. Take notes of some of the rearks made on them; usually they’re just short updates in their travels, like today’s emails or texts. There’s one though that, if I’m reading it correctly, is a tad anti-semitic.. It’s one of those slurs that at time, no one even considered to be wrong. The language in all of them shows how our use of words has changed. I tried to enhance the print as well as possible…So here are the wonders of…
.
SALT LAKE CITY & ENVIRONS
This card was sent during its real heyday in the 1920s. According to the caption, “The Saltair Pavilion is Moorish in design and shelters the largest open-air dancing floor in the world. In addition it houses the lunch pavilion, a thrilling roller coaster, ship cafe, hypodrome, practically unlimited concrete automobile parking space, and scores of amusement concessions. Saltair is reached by speedy electric railway in twenty-five minutes or over two splendid motoring highways.” By the 1950s Saltair had fallen into disrepair and a fire nearly destroyed it in the late 1960s. Decades later, a new version of Saltair was built near the site
but it has never seen the popularity of the original.
“The lights gleam on the wet pavement and the water streams, and so on.”
The Monument to the Gulls that saved the Mormons’ crops from a devastating swarm of grasshoppers
during their first harvest
of white powder to your mail in 2022?
SALT IS FROM 2 TO 20 FT. DEEP AND 98% PURE
Mural Painting, Union Station. Salt Lake City, Utah
When Brigham approached death, he asked to be buried in a place that would overlook the entire Salt Lake Valley, and per his wishes, he was laid to rest on a bluff that gave him an expansive view of the entire valley, all the way to Provo and beyond. But in the 1980s, developers proposed building an apartment complex on the street just below Brigham’s grave. The complex turned out to be almost ten stories tall. Now Brigham stares into the windows of a most likely overpriced apartment. I have an LDS friend, one of the most mild-mannered gentlemen you’ll ever meet. He literally rages every time he sees this monstrosity.
This is almost exactly the same view as the first postcard on this page, albeit 40 years earlier. Note the changes. And then go back there today...
TO COMMENT ON THIS STORY, PLEASE SCROLL TO THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE….THANKS.
That’s where they keep sending our posts.
Thanks to them, our bills were almost completely covered.
Now I’d like to return the favor. Check out the link below and their online shop… JS
https://www.depuygallery.com/shop.html
leave the site alone is beyond me, but that’s what Facebook likes to do.
ALSO NOTE: I post old photographs and stories from our 25 year old archives every day. Pictures from Herb Ringer, Edna Fridley, Charles Kreischer.. even a few old photos from my Dad. So if you want to stay caught up on our amazing historic photo collections,
be sure to “follow” us on Facebook…Thanks…Jim
https://www.facebook.com/FansoftheCanyonCountryZephyr/
(The Unspeakable Crime & the Enduring Mystery—
Looking for Answers) by Jim Stiles
https://www.canyoncountryzephyr.com/2022/05/15/60-years-later-still-searching-for-dennise-sullivan-by-jim-stiles-zx8
(My Recent Encounter with the Mental Health Industry
Jim Stiles
https://www.canyoncountryzephyr.com/2022/08/07/grief-meets-orwell-the-cuckoos-nest-by-jim-stiles-my-recent-encounter-with-the-mental-health-industry-zx20/
(ZX#17)… by Jim Stiles
https://www.canyoncountryzephyr.com/2022/07/16/ranger-jim-conklin-copter-crash-hero-scapegoat-zx17-by-jim-stiles/
ZX#34… by Edna Fridley
https://www.canyoncountryzephyr.com/2022/11/06/into-the-maze-w-kent-frost-ken-sleight-1965-1975-zx34-by-edna-fridley/
“Woman of the River” by Anne Snowden Crosman (ZX#22) https://www.canyoncountryzephyr.com/2022/08/21/remembering-georgie-white-clark-woman-of-the-river-by-anne-snowden-crosman-zx22/
https://www.canyoncountryzephyr.com/
Note the price of stamps, no zip codes, often not even any street addresses! Times surely have changed! And the hand colored ones really are bits of art! At one time I had two postcard albums full of great postcards. and I’d loved collecting them! Glad there are others out there like us!!
There used to be a comic postcard that I would see often in the old west of my childhood, the 50s. It was two characters speaking in a mysterious language you had to decipher. In more or less English, they said: “Say Vill, dere day go, tousand buses in a row. No Joe, dem is trucks, summit cows in, summit ducks.” It made no sense but I saw it often. Wish I’d bought one.
Well dang! On our recent trip to Italy we bought and sent postcards from everywhere to everyone but we neglected to send one to you. Mi dispiace, Jim. However we bought so many we have a some leftovers so check your PO box for one of my favorites. The check, I mean postcard, is in the mail.
On our next trip to The Peerless Princess of the Plains we’ll be sure to bring Janice’s collection of vintage hand painted native American postcards for your perusal.
Ciao, Pal
I’ve practically forgotten how to read cursive!
Seriously, stiles. Your editor/proof reader needs a good roughing up before he, or she, is fired.
The postcard with the Art Deco Central Warehouse and Grain Elevator caught my attention.
In West London we have an almost identical building situated on one of the main drags out of The Smoke. I’m not sure what it is used for now but originally it was home to Hoover, as in the vacuum cleaner company. It is still referred to as the Hoover Building and is protected under a Grade II listing. I’m guessing both constructions date to the late 1920s or early 1930s.
These historic postcards provide a vital lens on the recent past although the messages are usually of the “We’ve arrived. It’s hot. John tripped over his Bible, had to retire and missed dinner.” type.
As a kid at Scout camp in the 70s, I felt obliged to buy some postcards with the same old tired, generic view of the local landscape before writing some drivel on the backs and sending them to Great Aunties Elsie and Ivy, one of whom was, actually, related to me with the other living under the same roof in an unspecified role. They were both in their seventies by then so probably a bit dry.
Then I found myself in France. The postcards there were either the boring landscape-type or, to a fifteen year-old, eye-poppingly saucy cartoons with unintelligible captions in a foreign language. So I sent one of those to my parents.
Aside from all that, Jim, I object to the term ‘Pioneers’. It offends me 🙂 There were many peoples in the SW before the God Squad arrived and I’m sure they were slightly pissed at being ‘Pioneered’ out of their homelands.
Of course in 1966, the Triumph Engineering Co. (with a little help from the Yanks) reconquered Utah by running a two-wheeler at 245mph on the salt at Bonneville.
Best wishes, Jim Stiles, and Season’s Greetings to you and the people that like you. Keep this stuff coming. Don’t be constipated. Let it out. I can’t wait to read about the Nielsens at Hite.
LOVED all your pictures… I just wanted to tell you the original Salt Palace burned down in 1910… so that picture is a few years earlier that what you have.. but still… It was a beautiful place. good work