I've always loved vintage postcards for the simple stories they tell and the brief glimpses into history they provide. This postcard featuring the Three Sisters near Banff in Alberta was mailed in 1926. What I love most about it is that it was written while riding the train.
Sent back to his mother in Hamilton, Ontario, this postcard was likely purchased at the Banff train station. You can picture him looking out the window at the mountains as he writes this message on the way to Vancouver. The postcard reads:
Oct. 12 / 1926
My Dear Mother, I am now running along the Fraser River. I have just got across the Selkirks and into the coast range. I'll be in Vancouver at 8:30 in the morning. It is now about 7:30.
Love, Jim
Affixed with a one cent stamp, the postcard was mailed from Vancouver on October 13, 1926.
With Banff National Park and visits to Alberta's Rockies still as popular as ever, it's cool to look back at vintage postcards and see just how much has (or often hasn't) changed. This postcard was mailed from Banff, Alberta to Webster, New York on June 25, 1953.
Featuring an image of Castle Mountain, this vintage postcard lists the location as Mount Eisenhower. The mountain held that name between 1946 to 1979, named after World War II General (and later 34th President of the United States) Dwight D. Eisenhower. The image of Castle Mountain is by Byron Harmon, who was a prominent photographer of the Canadian Rockies and owned a photography business in Banff until his death in 1942.
The back of the postcard reads, "We returned to Lake Louise today again as yesterday it snowed all day up here and poured rain. Today it is nice. Got lots of pictures today. Cloudy but nice. We got pictures of 2 elk, 3 moose, one at a time we saw 12 moose, 9 elk, 1 beaver, lots of bears. We stayed in Banff last night. Plan to go back and stay at same place tonight."
An additional scribble says they were staying at the Homestead Hotel, which amazingly still exists in Banff, Alberta today as the Homestead Inn.
There was a lot going on across the country in 1967, Canada's centennial year. Of course, the Calgary Stampede was a huge draw - something reflected in this vintage postcard (featuring the chuckwagon races) mailed from Calgary, Alberta that summer.
Affixed with two 4 cent stamps, this card was postmarked in Calgary, then sent via San Francisco, California to Ronald Schuck who was serving in the Vietnam War. I couldn't find very much about him, but he was in the U.S. Marine Corp, was 20 years old in 1967, and survived the war.
Aunt Jean writes, "We arrived here in time for Stampede Week. We are going to see the big parade tomorrow. We can come back for the show if we want to. Everybody wears ten gallon hats here. It is quite a town." It sure is, Aunt Jean.
Postcards like this are why I started this series. They get my mind racing because of all of the little clues left behind. It's just a small slice of someone's life and yet it links a vintage image of the Calgary Stampede with Canada's centennial year and the Vietnam War. That's a lot of 1967 captured on a single piece of cardstock.
This vintage postcard of the former General Hospital in Medicine Hat, Alberta was mailed over a century ago on August 13, 1914 to Wyoming, Ontario - a small town near Sarnia in the south of the province. The message handwritten on the back of the postcard confirms that this person was making their way across Canada on the train that summer.
The postcard reads: "Having a fine time. Wish you were along. Will leave here for Calgary this afternoon and from Calgary to Vancouver."
The postcard really was the text message of its day, and this one would've made the journey back east on the railway. I can only imagine what a different journey that would've been to take 100 years ago. The general hospital on this postcard has long since been demolished, however when it was built it was noted for being the first civilian hospital west of Winnipeg in 1889.
