Antique & Vintage Postcards

Perhaps the most memorably named roadside business in the American West — "Two Stiffs Selling Gas" — grins out from this rare advertising postcard issued by the Lovelock Review-Miner print shop for a Standard Oil-affiliated service station, auto court, and lunch stop in Lovelock, Nevada, population 1,352, elevation 3,982 feet. The black-and-white photo on the front shows a clean, modern 1930s filling station with a broad glass-fronted façade, Chevron signage, and a sign advertising draught beer and fountain service — a full-service oasis on the long haul between Salt Lake City (436 miles east) and San Francisco (333 miles west). The reverse was pre-printed with a whimsical fill-in message: "Just saw the TWO STIFFS. They are real live ones. Fine super-service and Cabins." A mileage chart to cities across Nevada and California makes this card a functional road guide as much as a keepsake — a perfect artifact of Depression-era American highway culture.