Divided back, unused postcard. Publisher:  The Elite Post Card Co., Kansas City, Missouri. Made in the U.S.A.  Number/series:  157.  A-16684. Circa 1908 – 1914.

Price:  $8.00

“Views On Indian Creek, Dallas, near Kansas City, MO.”

Beautiful postcard with Art Nouveau lines and what appears to be tinted photos of three views near Kansas City, Missouri of:  Indian Creek, the bridge over Indian Creek, and Watkin’s Mill, built 1833.

Watkin’s Woolen Mill is a National Historic Landmark and a National Mechanical Engineering Landmark. The Missouri State Parks website explains that this woolen mill was the only one of 2,400 textile mills in 1870, that still contained it’s original machinery and equipment.

The publisher for this one (and the following post) is the Elite Post Card Company of Kansas City, Missouri. According to the Metropolitan Postcard Club of New York City, this publisher did views of the Midwest, and operated from about 1908 – 1914. They may have been having some struggles or started winding down by 1912 though, as a September 1, 1912 publication gives a short newsworthy note that the company was “petitioned into bankruptcy.”

Sources:  http://mostateparks.com/page/55172/parkhistoric-site-plans

http://www.metropostcard.com/publisherse.html

The Bookseller, Newsdealer and Stationer, Vol. 37. New York, September 1, 1912. p. 160. Web. (Google eBooks)