Mt. St. Helens erupted on May 18, 1980. The volcanic event was the deadliest in the history of the United States.
Here are a few postcards showing the beauty and destruction of the mountain before and after.
This first postcard was produced by the Washington State Progress Commission.
Spirit Lake and Mount St. Helens…Spirit Lake splendid for camping and fishing. Mount St. Helens great for skiing and hiking. Elevation is 9,697. Sponsored by Washington State Junior Chamber of Commerce with Cooperation of Washington State Progress Commission. Washington State Invites You to the Year ‘Round Playground.
Here’s a view of Portland, Oregon with Mt. St. Helens looming over the skyline
Here we see Portland from the west with Mt. St. Helens in the background.
Here’s a view of the mountain and Spirit Lake from the 1960s.
Canoeing on lovely Spirit Lake with 9677 foot Mt. St. Helens in background. Located in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest in SW Washington. Lake is 42 miles east of Interstate Highway No. 5 at the end of State Highway No. 504.
The eruption:
Mt. St. Helens erupts with thick smoke raising high above the mountain’s summit. This view shows the newly formed single crater, caused from earthquakes and venting of ash, steam, rock and ice. Although Mt. St. Helens has been dormant for approximately 12 years, it is considered one of the most active volcanoes in the contiguous 48 states during the past 5000 years.
Mt. St. Helens in Washington rumbled to life May 18, 1980. It continues to steam and seathe with plumes of ash and ice being blown skyward twice as high as the 9,677 mountain itself.
MT. ST. HELENS, located in southeastern Washington ERUPTS with a boom heard 150 miles in all directions. Ash reaching 63,000 feet in the air blackened the sky of Eastern Washington and points east all the way to the east coast.
Before and after:
Mt. St. Helens & Yale Lake, before and during the volcanic eruptions. These scenes offer a dramatic comparison – on the left, the mountains majestic beauty is captured and on the right the awesome power of the eruption is visible. The eruption occurred on May 18, 1980, the force blowing 1,300 feet off the top, spreading ash eastward across the continent.
The damage:
This photo taken after the May 18, 1980 Volcanic eruption shows Spirit Lake and the debris that was deposited along with steam vents in the center and on the lower right you can see new water emerging to possibly recreated this lake once again. This photo shows the north side of the mountain and steam covering the 8400 foot peak.
Mount St. Helens, located in southwest Washington, began volcanic activity in Spring, 1980 after of a dormant period of 123 years. On May 18, 1980 a major eruption blew approximately 2000 feet off the top of the 9,677 ft. mountain, causing it to fall inwards and forming a crater. Pictured here is the crate that resulted from the eruption. Mt. Rainier can be seen in the background.
And finally, a view of the second eruption that took place on July 22, 1980:
Mt. St. Helens, located approximately 50 miles north northeast of Portland, Oregon, ended 6 weeks of silence with a series of 3 eruptions on July 22, 1980.Pictured here is the third eruption – the ash and steam cloud of the earlier eruptions can be seen drifting eastward. The mountain previously erupted on June 12, 1980. On May 18, 1980, it erupted and blew 1,300 feet off its top, and sent ash 63,000 feet into the air eastward across the continent.
Back in the halcyon days of roller skating, roller rinks would produce a label with an rink or roller skate theme and the name and address of the rink so you could put in it on your roller skate box. The more labels you had, the more places you have been skating.
I have more than 100 different labels and thought it might fun to to showcase some of them
Akron Rollercade, Inc. – Akron, Ohio
2. Dimond Roller Rink – Oakland, California
3. Erwin A. Beyer’s Roller Skating Rink – Celina, Ohio
“Fearless” Farris Lind had an eye for adventure. Born in 1915 outside of Twin Falls, Idaho, he graduated from Twin Falls High School in 1934. Shortly thereafter he worked as an attendant at a local gas station and then became manage of a small theater. Not too long after, Lind received a “Spanish Prisoner Letter” from a jailed businessman in Mexico. The letter was smuggled from the prison and mailed to Lind – the businessman and Lind had a mutual acquaintance.
The letter asked Lind to come to Mexico. Once there, he was to bribe a guard at the jail with $500, the guard would give him claim checks to the businessman’s trunks which contained $250,000 in a false bottom. The businessman also stated that he would be forever grateful if Lind would escort the businessman’s daughter to the United States.
Lind quit his theater job immediately, borrowed on his insurance and readied himself for a Mexican adventure. When Lind arrived in Mexico City, a U.S. Consul officer told him that it was an old trick. There was no “businessman.” There were no riches and Lind’s $500 was gone forever. Lind was one of many who had fallen for the ruse.
Despondent, after a month long trip to Mexico, Lind returned to the U.S. dirty, with no money and on a third-class mail coach.
In 1938, Lind headed to Toronto on a six-week visa. There he took a job for an advertising firm. His job, in conjunction with a Richfield Hi-Octane gasoline promotion,was to respond to the the thousands of letters as Jimmie Allen, hero of popular 15-minute radio serial “The Air Adventures of Jimmie Allen.”
An advertisement for “The Air Adventures of Jimmie Allen” from The Times – January 23, 1938
Canadian officials soon learned that the American on a short-term visa had a full-time job and he was quickly deported. Broke yet again, Lind moved to Denver. There he found a job as a road salesman for a refinery. The job was miserable, but his time in Denver wasn’t all bad. He met an art student named Virginia Johns and the two were married on November 5, 1939.
The young couple moved to Butte, Montana where Lind opened a petroleum brokerage firm. It was a flop. Lind was broke yet again. The two headed to back to Lind’s home state of Idaho. In 1941, Idaho governor Chase A. Clark was embroiled in a dispute with oil retailers. Clark insisted the prices being charged were way too high and threatened to open state-owned retailers. Lind, sensing an opportunity, spoke with Clark and told him that if he wanted to keep costs down he should make it easier for independent gas and oil companies to compete with the big boys. Lind insisted that making cheap land available to the small companies on a state lease would solve the problem. The governor agreed.
Lind got a lease on an old truck weigh station near Twin Falls. After borrowing $5 from his sister, Lind was able to haul old storage tanks to the weigh station and began dispensing gas. He called the new station Fearless Farris and he kept prices low. Then came World War II.
Lind served as a Naval flight instructor and tested new planes. After three years, Lind was discharged. He and some former Navy buddies utilized their flying skills to start a spraying service with 12 planes. The company was called Fearless Farris Pest Control Service.
The Post-Register – June 20, 1948
Business was tough. In the three year the spraying service was operating, seven of the company’s 12 planes crashed and two pilots died. Lind himself suffered two accidents. He sold his shares of the company in 1949 and devoted all of his time to his plucky little service station.
The gas station’s low prices began to take hold and Lind was able to open several new stations in the area. This didn’t come without ruffling a few feathers. Local oil retailers began to despise Lind and called him “The Stinker.” Lind loved it and almost immediately began calling his stations Fearless Farris’ Stinker Stations with a skunk wearing boxing gloves as a mascot. The skunk mascot adorned eye-catching neon signs that demanded motorists’ attention.
The Pittsburgh Press – May 20, 1956
Dozens of new locations popped up every year in Idaho, Oregon, Utah and Nevada.
The Eugene Guard – January 3, 1952
Ever the salesmen, Lind offered everything from candy and toys to lure families to trips to Hawaii and diamond rings. He was always looking for a way to draw attention to Stinker. In the late 40s/early 50s Lind would come up with an idea, almost by accident, that would make him and his business known state and nation-wide.
The Salt-Lake Tribune – June 10, 1959
In 1969, Lind would tell the tell story of his great idea. He bought plywood, the only wood he could afford, to build signs for the first station. He continued,
“The plywood had to be painted on both sides to seal the sign against moisture. As long as the back of the sign was painted, I got the idea of putting humor or curiosity-catching remarks on the back side.”
The signs were a perfect idea. On old Highway 30, the precursor to Interstate 80 (now Interstate 84), there was nothing but desert sagebrush and hills for hundreds upon hundreds of miles. Lind placed roadside signs to spice up the landscape and get the word out about Stinker.
Just as the barren wasteland begins to feel as if it will stretch on into eternity, a simple yellow sign with black letter emerges on the roadside, as if reading the driver’s thoughts. The sign simply says, “Ain’t This Monotonous?”
The Philadelphia Inquirer – May 20, 1956
There is no other message on the sign. The driver begins to wonder what they just saw. A few minutes later another sign emerges. “This is Not Sagebrush, You’re In Idaho Clover.”
The Philadelphia Inquirer – May 20, 1956
Then nothing. No signs again for several miles. The driver doesn’t know what the signs are about. The desert begins to feel endless. Suddenly, a bigger sign emerges: “Warning: Idaho is Full of Beautiful Lonely Women.” This is the one that catches everyone’s attention.
There is still no indication about the meaning of the signs, but the driver begins to look for more. Suddenly, every 15 minutes a new sign emerges, then another and then another. As the driver makes their way to Boise, the message become closer together. One hundred signs line the drive in to town.
The messages are all different:
“Nudist Area, Keep Your Eyes on the Road – Cowboys Please Remove Spurs”
(with a nude mannequin covered in a leaf and cowboy clothing, boots and a whiskey bottle on an old plank)
“Sheepherders Headed for Town Have Right Of Way”
“Petrified Watermelons – Take One Home to Your Mother-In-Law ”
(complete with heavy, round lava rocks)
“Warning To Tourists – Do Not Laugh at the Natives”
(Image courtesy of Roadside Nut)
“Have Tea With Me – Bring Your Own Bag”
The Pittsburgh Press – May 20, 1956
“Rain Checks Cashed – Suckers Welcome – The Bank of Snake River”
The Pittsburgh Press – May 20, 1956
A few more of the known signs:
“This Road For Men Only – Curves and Soft Shoulders – Women Take the Detour”
“Cattle Country – Watch Out For Bum Steers”
“Idaho Skunks Are Not To Be Sniffed At”
“Fishermen: Do You Have Worms?”
“Lava is Free. Make Your Own Soap”
“Methodists – Watch Out For Mormon Crickets”
“Boise is Full of Taxpayers”
“This Area is For the Birds – It’s Fowl Territory”
“State Highway Obstacle Course”
“Sagebrush is Free, Take Some Home to Your Mother-In-Law”
“Quiet Please, Entering Ghost Town”
“For a Fast Pickup, Pass a State Patrolman”
“Don’t Just Sit There, Nag Your Husband”
“No Trespassing, This Area is For the Birds”
“No Fishing Within 100 Yards of the Road””Don’t Just Sit There, Nag Your Husband”
“If Your Wife Wants to Drive, Don’t Stand In Her Way”
“Hysterical Marker – Chief Saccatabacca Starved to Death Here”
“Do You Have a Reservation or Aren’t You an Indian?”
“If You Lived Here You’d Be Home Now”
“Sitting Bull Stood Up Here”
“Why Be a Wage Slave? Find Your Wife a Job”
“Warning: The Wind Will Blow Up This Road”
The Pittsburgh Press – May 20, 1956
As the signs increase you began to see the Stinker skunk on the edge of the sign. Then quickly the messages become a billboard advertising Stinker Cut-Rate Gas Station in Boise. The tourist was intrigued and compelled to come to the station for gasoline or, at the very least, an explanation of the advertising.
The signs became a sensation. Stinker Stations became the go-to fuel place in Boise and the surrounding area in Treasure Valley. Word about the signs began to spread as tourists brought their stories and pictures back with them. National newspapers (many used here) gave more attention to the signs. Lind was a hit. He expanded his empire to over 50 stores and business was stronger than ever. However, the same could not be said for Ferris Lind. Lind was diagnosed with polio in the 1950s and was bed-ridden for the majority of his life. He finally succumbed in 1983. The Lind family sold the business in 2002.
The roadside signs are a different story. While a few remain, many were removed in 1965 when President Lyndon Johnson signed the highway beautification act. The act banned most commercial signs from rural highways and the Stinker landmarks were quietly removed. Stinker Stations are still a staple of the region and employ more than 700 people. The skunk is still their mascot. a fitting tribute to the original stinker, Fearless Farris Lind.
Today’s offering is a baker’s dozen of Curt Teich large-letter Greetings From….postcards. Curteich was the largest producer of color and quality linen postcards for more than 5 decades.
Teich postcards are easy to date, as there is a code on all codes that tells you when it was published. There is a handy dating guide available on pdf.
The Curt Teich archives are located at the Newberry in Chicago, Illinois and contains hundreds of thousands of the company postcards, letters and ephemera.
I have been bad. When I started this blog back in October (10-4 to be exact) I intended to share equal amounts ephemera and CB radio history. However, over the past few months I got distracted by the other stuff in my collection and ignored a big part of my obsession.
Starting today I will hopefully have a regularly occurring featuring showcases some of the hired artists of CB radio QSL cards.
QSL cards were used by CBers to confirm their two-way radio contacts with each other. Each amateur has their own card which is exchanged with the other amateur or ‘station’ in that two-way contact.
CB radio cards have been a part of my life ever since the summer of 2011 when I discovered them by accident on eBay and now I have over 30,000 cards, have had several art shows covering the era, been showcased in magazines and on CBC radio about my research. I have even written a booklet available here and am currently working on a major project regarding QSL.
QSL cards were a big part of 1970s CB radio culture and they have been essentially lost to time. It’s my goal to share some of the forgotten artists of the era.
The first artists is Bob Barnes, aka Alley Cat. Barnes was located in Tulatin, Oregon – about 25 minutes south of Portland. Barnes was never a major name in the field and probably produced fewer than 100 cards in the mid 1970s – the actual number is unknown.
There are no articles about Bob Barnes and information is non-existant. If you know anything about Alley Cat please drop me a line at cardboardamerica at gmail.com or leave a message.
I want to start by saying that there is no way I could ever possibly do a good enough job covering the racial significance of this chain of restaurant to warrant a full post. That is definitely best left to sites such as the Jim Crow Museum, the Seattle Civil Rights & Labor Project, and everyone else far more qualified than me.
However, I will touch on a bit of the history of these locations and share some advertising and other pieces of history that might not be shared elsewhere.
According to blackpast.org:
Maxon Lester Graham and his wife Adelaide founded the Coon Chicken Inn in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1925. The early success of this location prompted the opening of two additional chains in Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington in the early 1930s. The patrons and employees of the Coon Chicken Inn chains were predominantly white, though African-Americans were hired to work in the kitchen of the Salt Lake City branch.
The first Coon Chicken Inn:
Cardcow.com
The second location in Seattle location opened in 1929 at 8500 Bothell Way.
Courtesy of the fabulous Restaurant-ing Through History
The Portland restaurant was the third and final location and it opened in 1931 and closed in 1949.
From my collection
The 1942 postcard order form for the Portland location from Curt Teich & Co. and the Illinois Digital Archives.
Patrons would enter the restaurant through the mouth of the caricatures
The huge, 12-foot black face was added to attract more children and families to the restaurant, the history states.
Election Night, November 8, 1932 advertising from The Salt Lake Tribune
All three sites were booming and a cabaret and orchestra were added in Seattle and Salt Lake with a larger dining room and the addition of delivery trucks for outside catering.
Maxon decided that if a gimmick were added for the children, it would help bring in the parents. He added the famous head logo to the entrances of the Inns it was a huge winking, grinning face of a black man wearing a porters cap. The words “Coon Chicken Inn” were spelled out on teeth framed by monstrous red lips. The doorway was through the middle of the mouth. At the time it proved quite popular. The logo of the Inn was on every dish, silverware item, menu and paper product.
The Salt Lake Tribune – May 3, 1934
There was a variety of food served but the specialty of the house was, of course, fried chicken. Flickr user Krystal South has uploaded the menu. The cover, the left inside, the right inside and the back cover.
The caricature was controversial from the beginning. At the 1930 Seattle location, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in conjunction with The Northwest Enterprise, an African-American newspaper protested the opening of the restaurant. A lawsuit was filed claiming defamation of race. The restaurant agreed to remove the “Coon” name from all delivery cars and to pain the entrance face blue instead of black.
But according to the site, he eventually violated his agreement with the NAACP. The restaurants in Oregon and Washington closed in 1949, but Salt Lake City’s remained open until 1957.
In the late1950sthe Grahams got out of the restaurant business, keeping the properties and leasing them out to other restaurant operators.
The final Coon Chicken in Salt Lake City closed in 1957.
The Salt Lake City and Seattle sites have been razed. Only the Portland site remains
The Portland site became the Prime Rib years ago and it is still going.
You can see the shell of its former occupants.
Only that building and the lasting memories of the past are left of a business that thrived for more than two decades.
Luxuriously furnished apartments offer fireplaces and kitchens where a touch of the bell brings service from the cocktail bar or dining room. From large windows you will view the magnificence and splendor of the Pacific and its rugged Oregon coastline. Beautiful PAGAN HUT open daily year around. Heated, glass-enclosed swimming pool.
Pantley’s opened sometime in the 1950s. It was originally known as King Surf Resort and the Tiki Room was known as the Pupule Lanai.
Robert Pantley purchased the property sometime before or around 1956. I am not totally sure it wasn’t called King Surf Resort for a while and the tiki restaurant was Pantley’s Pagan Hut before it was all changed.
Pantley’s Pagan Hut was known for its tiki decor and its nightly entertainment. Opcelita & Garcia, the “Latin American Hot Peppers” and Roberto & his native drums were but two of the acts that performed at Pantley’s.
There was another Pantley’s Pagan Hut in downtown Portland, Oregon at SW 10th and Stark.
Corvallis Gazette-Times – April 12, 1962
Robert Pantley was no longer president in 1962 when he plead guilty to a charge of failing to file excise taxes in 1956. Pantley, then 54 years old, was sentenced to one year in prison and fined $5,000.
The Pagan Hut lasted in to the early-mid 1960s. It then became known as known as the Surfpoint Inn. The Surfpoint seemed to run in to some trouble. In December, 1968, the tide came so far inland that it smashed the property windows and flooded the dining room. In October, 1977, the property was seriously damaged by a series of storms that hit the Oregon Coast.
The article I found in the November 6, 1977 Salem, Oregon says that the damage was well over $30,000 and that it was the second time in a week that water had come in to the lounge. I can’t find any information after that.
