“Hello Bill! Meet Me on the Pay Streak at the Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition. June 1st – Oct 16th. Seattle USA. 1909.”

Here’s a beauty in fairly good condition. Love all those colors and the jam-packed visual info:  The oval inserts tell us to come by ship or train to celebrate the Yukon and the Pacific Northwest. There’s a depiction of an Alaskan totem pole, musher and his sled dog team, a north woodsman felling trees, and a broad-range expo scene with the sun setting behind Mount Ranier.

The sender dated the card and it was postmarked the same day, July 10, 1909. If you look closely the signature appears to be “Paul.”  The card was addressed to:   “Mr. Joseph Norsen, Wheaton, Minn.”

Joseph Norsen would have been about thirteen years old when this card was sent to him. He appears with his family on the 1910 Federal Census for Lake Valley, Traverse County, Minnesota, which is about four miles northeast of Wheaton. The record shows:  Head of household John A. Norsen, age 53; his wife Johanna, age 55, both born in Sweden, emigration year about 1882; and eight of their ten children, Ruth, age 27; Hanna, age 26, Jemimah, age 23; Ester, age 22; Philip, age 18; Marie, age 16; Joseph, age 14; and Martha, age 12. John Norsen is employed as a farmer, and all eight children on this census were born in Minnesota.

Divided back, used postcard. Postmarked July 10, 1909 from Seattle, Washington. Publisher:  Edward H. Mitchell, San Francisco. Made in America. Number or series 1853.

Price:  $12.00

Source:  Year: 1910; Census Place: Lake Valley, Traverse, Minnesota; Roll: T624_715; Page: 4B; Enumeration District: 0175; FHL microfilm: 1374728. (Ancestry.com)