Michael Bushnell
Publisher

Once again, it’s summer travel season and as we’ve done over the last two years when we explored Route 66 and various baseball stadiums, this year we’re offering up a special series of historic postcards dedicated to 14 National Parks in the United States. Our plan is to go from the oldest National Park in the system, finishing up around Labor Day with the newest National Park, Gateway Arch National Park established in February, 2018. Welcome aboard, we hope you enjoy the trip!

This week we feature a Linen Era postcard folder showcasing a number of views throughout Yellowstone National Park, established by an act of Congress on March 1, 1872, being signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant.

Yellowstone National Park is located in the northwest corner of Wyoming, occupying over 3,400 square miles of wilderness area that is home to over half of the Earth’s natural geysers and hot springs, all fed by an active volcanic super-volcano that makes up what’s called the Yellowstone Caldera. The park is a great mountain paradise of unspoiled wilderness, dotted with rivers, lakes and glaciers, all abounding with an abundance of wildlife that includes everything from marmots and pikas to moose and grizzly bears.

While the park area has been home to Native American tribes for over 10,000 years, white settlement didn’t venture into the park until the mid 1860’s when trappers and mountaineers traversed the area in search of hides and pelts to feed the eastern fur and leather markets.

Yellowstone Lake, one of the most beautiful elements of the park, is one of the largest, high elevation lakes in America and sits atop the Yellowstone Caldera, a dormant volcano that feeds the geysers and hydrothermal features on the surface of the park. Old Faithful, which was named for its regular eruptions in 1870 by members of the Washburn-Langford-Doane Expedition, is another geothermal phenomena in the park. Since the year 2000, it has erupted every 44 to 90 minutes or so to a height of between 100 and 180 ft. It and the nearby Old Faithful Inn, an architectural spectacle itself – deserving of at least a half a day to explore – comprise the Old Faithful Historic District.

Due to the rugged, natural terrain, the park itself has only three entrances. One in West Yellowstone, Mont., the south entrance accessible from the Grand Tetons on US-191, and the east entrance accessible from Cody on US-14.

The circa 1946 Linen Postcard Folder was published by the Sanborn Souvenir Company of Denver, Colo. Sanborn was a prominent publisher of Linen and Real Photo postcards of Colorado, Wyoming and Nebraska from roughly 1924 through the mid 1950’s.