108 postcards including 28 duplicates- majority are real photo postcards with a few color postcards- of the devastating Au Sable- Oscoda Michigan fire of 1911- included are two color postcards (one duplicate) of the 1908 Oscoda fire
Au Sable & Oscoda, 1908, 1911. Paperback. Very Good. Item #22-3307
AZO (almost all). Kodak (not many), Bradshaw, Stevens, Wasson. 3.5 x 5.5", real photo postcards and color postcards. Both unused and postally used (not all have fire related notes), light soiling and creasing, some images light, overall good to very good condition. It was another hot, dry summer in July in the Au Sable and Oscoda area; brush fires, plus a small forest fire turned raging inferno after 50 mph winds ignited sparks from a passing train. Within two hours only four houses were left in Au Sable and twenty in Oscoda. Residents sought shelter in the dunes or in Lake Huron. Railway companies took refugees to nearest towns. Additionally, businesses were destroyed by the fire: the Loud Lumber Company, various other lumber companies and mills, railroads. Some of the postcards: nearby Millersburg after the fire, burnt structures including jail, bank building, Hennigan's Foundry, Elliott Hotel, Turgott's Foundry; refugees camps, refugees lining up to get on a train; burned and destroyed engine and cars of the Au Sable and Northwestern Railroad. Message on the back of one postcard: "This was certainly a bad fire, hardly anything left in both towns". And on a postcard showing only a fireplace standing "This was my boarding house before the fire". And, from H.M. Loud (lumber company) "you heard all about the fire we had on the 6th of July- this is the picture of it taken at the time, you will see Paul and myself...". Only five people died in the fire that totally destroyed the communities. Stunning views by well-known photographers. From the estate of a man whose grandfather ran a general store for the Loud Lumber Company. Over 70 postcards including duplicates (less than 30). SWAF, sold as a lot only. SCARCE.
Price: $1,750.00