GREETINGS from Cedar Ridge Trading Post

If you've never been to the Navajo Nation you've missed some of the most interesting and beautiful places in this country. Much of the land is desert, which for many would seem boring and ugly. I guess I'm different, because I find a beauty in the mile after mile of nothingness.

But it's in places like Monument Valley and Canyon de Chelly where you will find your breath taken away. If you haven't seen Monument Valley at dawn you've missed an incredible experience. No man made church can compete with the spiritual beauty of this place. Canyon de Chelly will make your heart beat a little faster. To see the wing shadow of a raven flying across a canyon wall is stunning. To hear the sound of a native flute echoing across the walls of Anasazi ruins as the leaves of a poplar tree quietly rustle...incredible.

I believe this post card photo was taken in Monument Valley. This particular Navajo/Diné woman appeared on many post cards and in many books. Her name was Happy Cly. It is believed that she was the most photographed Native American. If you have seen the movie The Return of Navajo Boy you will know about the Cly family and what happened to them at the hands of unregulated uranium mining in Monument Valley. It's a powerful movie. Click here and here to see more photos of Happy Cly. The photo below the card is from the book Kayenta and Monument Valley authored by Carolyn O'Bagy Davis, Harvey Leakes, and Richard Paul Mike.




Click on images to see them larger.

Click on image to see it larger.

You might not be able to read it, but on the front of the card it says "Greetings from Cedar Ridge Trading Post." You can see an old photo of the trading post here. It was located on the Navajo Nation in Northern Arizona. I don't believe it still exists. But there is a wonderful historical trading post that you can visit called the Hubbell Trading Post. Well worth the stop and make sure you take the tour. So many beautiful hand woven rugs available to buy. It had my head spinning and wishing I had a ton of money.

This card was published by Bob Petley. You can see more about him by clicking on his name in the labels below.

WISH YOU WERE Here

Raise your hand if you send post cards while on vacation. Okay, raise your hand if friends send you post cards. Nah, me either. I think these days it's just as likely that somone will get out a cell phone and take a picture of themself in front of Mt. Rushmore. There are still post cards to buy, but the variety is pretty slim. What I do find are photographs of locations and animals that are far more high end than the old days. Very commercial shots like you'd find at a stock agency. I hope post cards don't die out, but they'll never be popular the way they once were.

So, do you send a humorous card or one showing people having fun at whatever location you're visting?

Click on any of the images below to see them larger.

This final card is from the Petley Studios. I did a post earlier this year called "Got MILK?" that featured a card from Petley and a brief bio. Bob Petley is supposedly the man credited for inventing the jackalope.

Got MILK?

Click on image to see it larger...then explain to me why you would.

Card was originally mailed from Yuma to San Diego April 15, 1977.

I'm sorry, but "Got Milk?" was the first thing that crossed my mind. Actually, that's not true. The first thing was "Oh geez. Why?" It's one of those old postcards that used to be popular at tourist stops. You'd buy it to send home as a joke instead of a nice colorful shot of nature. The joke postcard that would get passed around. A few guffaws would be heard.

This card was published by the Petley Studios which was located in Phoenix, Arizona. The company was owned by Bob Petley, often credited as the creator of the infamous jackalope, a card that can still be found in various forms being sold around the country.

The following is Bob Petley's obituary in 2006:

Obituary: Bob Petley created Arizona jackalope

Postcard photographer's works still sold

Bob Petley's life was postcards.

Millions of people around the world saw Arizona for the first time across Petley's cards: Monument Valley, the red rocks of Sedona and fiery desert sunsets.

That is why so many people moved to Arizona, joked one of his admirers at Petley's funeral last week. After falling and breaking his hip, Petley's health declined and he died at 93 in Scottsdale.

Armchair travelers during the mid-20th century and beyond witnessed Southwestern beauty through Petley's eyes.

Petley began snapping his picture-perfect cards by trolling the state with his camera and a station wagon in 1945, eventually favoring a Lincoln Continental.

For decades, his office was the road. He was a one-man tourism office, snapping the state and hawking his Petley Postcards to souvenir shops along the way.

He chronicled Arizona's landscape for decades. Even after he sold his postcard business, he couldn't let go of the camera and his sense of humor.

Arizona wasn't all sunsets for Petley.

He seemed to have a knack for an innocent kitschy sort of creativity.

Petley invented the Arizona jackalope.

Even though the jackalope was fairly common to humorous postcards, Petley engineered his version with an Arizona twist.

After spotting a stuffed rabbit that had been topped with antlers in a souvenir shop, the postcard man put together his own jackalope. He bought a jackrabbit from a taxidermist, topped the rabbit with a pair of antlers and plopped it on top of one of the Papago Buttes.

Voila! With Petley's darkroom magic, the hare with horns looked as if the beast was ready to swallow the desert whole.

Petley sold his postcard business in 1984 to Bruce Finchum.

Finchum, owner of Smith-Southwestern Inc., sells souvenirs and postcards. At least a half dozen of his cards are Petley's.

With e-mail, postcards are a harder sell, Finchum says.

"There's still reason to buy jackalopes," he said. "It's the uniqueness, the novelty of it."

Finchum sells more of Petley's jackalope postcards than any other card; last year he sold 38,000 jackalope cards.

"It just looks real. There's people that swear it's real," he said. "But it's not."

TRIVIA

Even though Bob Petley did not invent the rabbit with antlers, he created one that was decidedly Arizona.

There's a reason the card is still a bestseller.

The card's staying power is its kitsch.

So it doesn't hurt to know a little jackalope trivia.

Douglas, Wyo., claims to be the "jackalope capital of America" because two brothers, both taxidermists, went hunting in the 1930s and pitched a rabbit into their taxidermy shop. The rabbit landed next to a pair of antlers.

The brothers mounted the rabbit-antler combination. Over the years, the two sold tens of thousands of mounted jackalopes.

Other names for the jackalope are an Aunt Benny, horny bunny and anteabbit.

Jackalopes showed up on postcards beginning in the 1930s.

Still, European naturalists illustrated horned hares in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. These works were most likely inspired by papillomavirus-infected rabbits: rabbits with antlerlike tumors on their heads.

Former President Reagan hung a rabbit head with antlers on a wall at his California ranch.

In the animated TV series "Jackie Chan Adventures," a football team's mascot was a rabbit with fake horns. (Source: Tucson Citizen)

If you're a postcard collector there's a good chance you've got one or two jackalopes packed away. You ultimately can't get away from them. It's to the point where I imagine there are a lot of people who are convinced the fabled animal exists. Well, it does, doesn't it? I've seen pictures!